<prompt> Human: I really get excited just by seeing dead things. I love paleontology and I love reading about dinosaurs and other extinct fauna. For college, I was thinking of applying to MIT as a reach school and Penn State as a target school. I will be taking several APIBs in my high school career. Im also doing some paleo research for my school and I am in a paleontology society. I was thinking about going out west over the summer to help with a fossil-collection project. I highly doubt Id get accepted into MIT if I did, thatd be lovely, lol, but realistically if I get into Penn State, Im hoping I can get some good scholarships. I was wondering how I could best apply myself as a paleontologist to not launch my entire family into crippling debt? Are there any profitable fields a person with a duel bio-geo undergrad with a paleo doctorate can enter more easily? Or should I go the biochemistry route to analyze extinct biomaterials? I definitely want to minor in a language and perhaps in programming to supplement my education. Would I have job security if I entered paleontology as a field? Would my degree get me anywhere? Essentially, I dont want to wall myself up into this one field, spend all this money on a doctorate, and wind up finding out that, surprise, no money, no jobs, 200k in debt! Any help on this topic would be appreciated. Thanks so much!  <response>: Nothing to add to the viability of paleontology, but mad props to you for asking this question at 15.I do know that my sister in-law with a Masters in Zoology and an MBA although not utilized earns about a third of what I do as a C grade business student 7 years out. She has traveled to some really cool places for free though. Galapagos islands etc. 