Question: To be a scientist, how much long does it take?

Ciarán O'Brien answered on 10 Nov 2014:

Most research groups would expect you to have at least one college degree before they’d take you on as a scientist, which would usually take 2-4 years in college. If you want to get paid to be able to do your own research as a scientist, you’d need a postgraduate degree, like a higher diploma or a masters, which are usually another 1-2 years, or a PhD, which is another 3-4 years if all goes well (I know one or two people who took up to 9 nears to complete their PhD, but that was their college’s fault for messing them around)

That’s if you want to work for a living as a scientist. But all you really need to be a scientist is curiosity and critical thinking, to approach puzzles and mysteries in a rational manner, and try to prove yourself wrong. It certainly helps if you’ve had the training that a college degree gives you, and it’s easier to get access to a laboratory and equipment, but if your results hold up to questions and criticism in a scientific journal, they won’t care if you’ve got a degree or not, they’ll publish your work.