What is the salary paid to civil engineer?

Electrical or Nuclear engineer?

• Hey, so like I said above I'm thinking of a career in one of these two fields but I cannot decide on which. My plan from the start was a 4 year college and that would give me 2 more years (senior about to finish HS) to decide. However I just recently learned of the Nuclear program the navy offers. ( For those of you not associated with the navy it is a program where they pay for all my college classes to earn my Nuclear degree WHILE being paid an annual salary for being enlisted). After two years I am deployed on an air craft carrier where I will continue two more years of study and hands on training on the ship. After which I will have obtained my BS in Nuclear engineering and have had almost 3 years of hands on training. I will then be put on navy reserve for the next 4 years and can start my career. Keep in my mind this whole time all classes, housing, etc was paid for PLUS my E-4 salary.My question is would you do this or take the traditional route and be an electrical engineer?

• Answer:

  Having been in the NAVY I can tell you this is not completely accurate. Nuclear classroom training is around 2 years. After that you will go to either a carrier or submarine to work. Formal training once you get stationed on the ship is very limited, and you will NOT have a BS after two more years. Generally enlistments are set up over 8 years with 2 -6 years active duty, and the remainder on inactive duty. When I was on inactive duty I was not obligated for weekends or anything. In the hierarchy of things they will call you back from inactive reserves before the establish a draft so you are basically out at this point. You do start out as an E-4, and have food and board provided. Don't be fooled into think the food is good, especially on the ship. Don't be fooled into thinking you are going to live in a nice apartment, especially on the ship. Also, the pay is crap especially considering the number of hours you will work. With that being said, there are a lot of benefits once you get out of the NAVY. I personally have always been glad I went into the NAVY, and that I got out as soon as I could. If this is something you are seriously considering start asking some people around you. You will be surprised how many people were in the military and want to reminisce. **************************************… I don't know for sure how many credits will directly transfer from the NAVY nuclear engineering program to a University. I would assume that you would have most of the basic nuclear engineering classes complete, and would need to take a few upper level courses. However, you probably won't have any of the other basic studies classes that all universities require (like English). I think it would be hard to get a BS degree in less than two years after you finish the NAVY training program. If you take university courses once you get to your ship this will help reduce the time it takes to get your BS. Though you should remember though that most universities will want you to complete at least 60 (this is 4 full time semesters) credit hours locally in order to get a degree. If you want to talk off line a little more my email address is [email protected]