A day in this work
You ask questions nobody has answered and design experiments to find out, in a university, a national lab or a company. Slow, deep and rewarding.
Ways in
- BS-MS at an IISER, or BSc then MSc (5 years in total)
- PhD (4 to 6 years) with a fellowship
- Integrated PhD programmes at IISc, TIFR and the IITs
After Class 10
Science with Maths (PCM) or Science with Biology (PCB)
Entrance exams to know
- IISER Aptitude Test
- CUET-UG
- IIT JAM
- CSIR-UGC NET
- GATE
Years, cost and pay
- Years of study
- 5 to 11
- Whole-course cost, government or aided
- under ₹2 lakh
- Whole-course cost, private
- ₹2 to 8 lakh
- Typical starting pay
- ₹3 to 6 lakh a year
Indicative bands from the pilot dataset (0.1 (pilot), 19 September 2026). Real fees and pay vary a lot by college, city and year. Check the official sites below.
No college, coaching institute, lender or study-abroad agent pays to appear on these pages. Pathways takes no money from them.
Outlook, and how AI is changing this work
Outlook: Steady. AI changes some of the daily work.
AI speeds up analysis and literature search. Choosing the right question is still the scarce skill.
Try this week
Pick one question about your kitchen or garden, run a fair test for a week and write down what you found.
Check the facts yourself
These are official sites. Exam names, dates, fees and rules change every year, so confirm them there. Each link opens in a new tab.
Careers close to this one
See how well this fits you
Discovery in the app takes about eight minutes and gives each of these 52 careers a fit score from your own answers. It is free during the pilot, and nobody is asked for an email address or a phone number. Students under 18 need a parent or guardian to agree first, and children under 13 cannot join yet.