BS in HP vs in NuEn

[tritenick]

I am going back to college to finish my degree and have two options: BS in either HP or Nuke Eng...but am not sure which avenue to take.  I was a navy nuke- mm and also worked 4 years as a Jr HP in a research & development co.  Anyone care to comment on those two closely related degree options...why you love what you chose or why you would choose differently. 

[BoilerHP]

It totally depends on what you want to do. If you want to go into operations... you all ready have the requirements as an Ex-navy MM, if you want to do HP... You can honestly do it with either a NE or HP degree. But if you really want to help get all the proper connections as an HP I would do the HP degree... I recently graduated from Purdue and got a lot of networking in the HP world (far more than any of the NE I know).
If you want to do engineering... than do NE.

It all comes down to what you want to do though, but if you really really want to go back to school... a good NE program and with some previous HP experience you could go either HP or NE after. But if you want to be an HP specialist (which is in very high demand and I had some pretty upset HPs that I went the OPS route)

Best of luck and you are in a great position to be in, ENJOY!

[Khak-Hater]

My experience is that someone with a NE degree can always get a job as an HP, but someone with an HP degree can't always get into all of the NE-type jobs (e.g., reactor engineer, NCS Engineer, etc.).  If you love HP, and want to focus on that for the rest of your life [and plenty of fine men do], then the HP degree would be fine [and personally rewarding, if you really love the stuff], but the NE degree will get you more milage, money, and opportunities in the long run.

Good luck,

mgm

[Shawnee Man]

Environmental Engineering is a good field that can look good for many companies whether nuclear on non-nuke.