<p>Ok, I've basically decided that my desired job is to be a Nuclear Engineer/Physicist at some kind of nuclear fusion lab. This would likely require me to get my PhD in Nuclear Physics or Nuclear Engineering.
I spoke with a professor at Berkeley, and he made an interesting point. There are several majors which would qualify me to pursue this field in grad school. Basically, I could major in any of these areas and still have the same end result.
-Nuclear Engineering (Few schools have this, but Berkeley is one.)
-Engineering Physics
-Physics
-Mechanical Engineering (at schools in which you can focus on nuclear engineering within the Mechanical major.)
Obviously, there are some pros and cons to each, but in the end, it's pretty confusing.</p>
<p>What is the question? Which major should you be? People do physics/engineering undergrad combos all the time. For grad school, go where they have the right program and/or research lab. Maybe I’m wrong, but to do interesting work in nuclear engineering, I imagine that a graduate degree is the norm. Check the bureau of labor occupational outlook handbook for more information.</p>
<p>I was looking into this very thing a few years ago, and found almost exactly what your professor noted - you can go from any of those fields into NucE grad school (although it is not always easy), or you can continue to study some other field but work in fusion. For example, one prominent lab had grad students in each of NucE, EE, ME, physics, and math - they were all studying fusion, but different aspects of it.</p>