Anyone that has worked the engineering side of the nuclear field knows Michigan has been a top ranked Nuclear Engineering schools for the past 20 years. Anyone that shows surprise at this is just indicating their lack of nuclear engineering experience...as they have none and should let experienced people reply to a serious question.
Mechanical vs Nuclear.
This is an old question that is relevant to all speciality degrees vs the base degrees. The speciality degrees being Paper, petroleum, nuclear, environmental, automotive, mining, biomechanical, Aerospace, naval architecture etc. vs ME, EE, CE, ChemE.
The advantages of the "base" degrees have already been mentioned as they give you great flexibility to go into many different fields. ME/EE could go into paper, aerospace, petroleum quite easily for a given market with opportunities. These "speciality" degrees will give you opportunities in highly cyclical jobs tied to factors that are rather unpredictable. The opportunities you think you will have might change completely in the 4 years. Laws, politics, public preception, commodity prices, foreign competition and other factors will directly impact job prospects when you graduate, good or bad.
So, go with the "base" degrees right?
Not necessarily. The ME dept at Michigan will graduate 200-250M ME's. The NE department will graduate 30 NE's. Areva/GE/Westinghouse/Others that come to campus looking for engineers for their nuclear programs will give priority to the NE's. If they can't fill with NE's, the will give the ME/EE of the world a shot. I would bet Michigan gets 100% placement for their NE's while the ME's in a tough economy could be as low as 50-70%.
Plus you will get the small school type of atmosphere with such a small class.
Now, what do you want to do?
Look at the senior classes, the course descriptions, sit in on an upperlevel class to see if you even like it. What gets you excited? Michigan Engineering is very competitive and you better be really want to be an engineer. Are you ready to work 3x as hard as the LS&A/Business people? Michigan has a significant number of foreigner and out of state students to compete against for grades. It is not easy.
So, it sounds like you haven't started school yet and maybe you are accepted. You can apply directly to college of engineering ( a separate application process, You may have to give your top three choices) or take your basic engineering courses in LS&A and apply at your freshman/sophomore year. Your first goal is to do well or you will not have to worry about ME/NE. Then, if you really want to be pursue engineering and are ready for the hell you will be enduring, look at the NE courses you will take vs ME (or any other majors, keep an open mind). Popular fields will be more competitive. Naval Architecture will be less competitive then say biomechanics.
In nuclear, there are a lot of procedures, quality checks, detailed processes...IE paper work. Even working at a Construction Company, you will have to endure significant more compliance checks then working at a fossil plant. No way around it.
This should be template to help you get started. Any more questions, email me directly so we don't have to deal with the riff raff.
UM BSME 90