<p>Greetings! I intend to study nuclear engineering as a post-graduate study. Since all of my college choices don't have nuclear engineering as an undergraduate major, I'm wondering, what (common) college major would be most appropriate to prepare for it as a graduate study? Right now, I picked simple chemistry, should I swap to something else?</p>
<p>Most undergrad engineering majors will more than likely put you in a better spot than just Chemistry. </p>
<p>Why not apply to schools with NucE?</p>
<p>I googled it and it looks like most people who ended up in the field of nuclear engineering studied either mechanical or chemical engineering as an undergrad.</p>
<p>If you cannot major in nuclear engineering (there are about 20 universities in the US that offer that as an undergraduate major, and a few more that have a nuclear subspecialty under some other engineering major), then it is likely that some other field of engineering or physics is the best preparation, though chemistry may work as well (but note that chemistry has the worst job and career prospects by itself if you do not continue on to a graduate or professional degree with better prospects).</p>
<p>The Berkeley nuclear engineering department says this about undergraduate preparation:
[Admissions</a> | Department of Nuclear Engineering](<a href=“http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/grads/admissions]Admissions”>Admissions)
</p>
<p>Berkeley’s undergraduate nuclear engineering curriculum is described here:
[Curriculum</a> | Department of Nuclear Engineering](<a href=“http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/undergrad/curriculum]Curriculum”>Curriculum)
You may want to see if courses similar to those listed are offered at your school, if it does not offer a nuclear engineering major, so that you can take them.</p>
<p>Here are the schools with nuclear engineering bachelor’s degree programs in the US:</p>
<p>Georgia Institute of Technology
Idaho State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Formerly University of Missouri-Rolla)
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
Purdue University at West Lafayette
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
South Carolina State University
Texas A&M University
United States Military Academy
University of California, Berkeley
University of Florida
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Massachusetts Lowell (Formerly University of Lowell)
University of Michigan
University of New Mexico
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>Alright thanks you guys this is all excellent stuff. My fourth choice school is the only one on my list that offers NucE (Penn State). All others don’t. I really like my first choice, Northeastern, and am willing to study something else, like ChemE as an undergrad there. I looked at Berkeley’s NucE curriculum and it plenty of it is non-NucE-specific.
Therefore, is it plausible, or common to actually just study ChemE as an undergrad then swap to NucE? I imagine it would cause one to be severely behind right?</p>
<p>You may want to look at the course work requirements for graduate programs in NE and see what undergraduate NE prerequisites are listed, and then see if any similar courses are offered (in various engineering departments, physics, and chemistry) at the schools you are considering that do not have NE majors.</p>
<p>If you choose a major other than NucE, be sure to cover all the math and physics that is typically required for a BS in NucE. This degree sometimes requires a few more credits in those areas beyond what some of the other engineering disciplines require.</p>