Engineering Radiological Health Engineering Student

[Jamal]

Hey everyone, I am a 2nd year student at Texas A&M University studying Radiological Health Engineering which is a good mix between Health Physics and Engineering. This fall I will be entering my second year and have some decisions to make. I gained a good amount of hours in high school that transferred to college, so I have some room in my schedule to do a couple different things. I have roughly 20 "free" hours that I can do something with. The only caveat is that I currently do not know what I want to do as a career (in the nuclear field). I was looking into Health Physics or Medical Physics, but I recently shadowed a Radiation Safety Officer and a Medical Physicist that was checking the calibration of various xray machines and found both to be boring. I would rather have a job more on the engineering side of things. I'm here for some advice to see what would be the best route for me to follow. They are in no particular order.

1. Take just 12 hours a semester and graduate in 4 years with a Bachelors.
2. Double degree in Radiological Health and Nuclear Engineering (16 hours avg).
3. Double degree in Rad Health and Math (15 hours avg).
4. Minor in 2 of the 3 following Statistics, Biology, or Physics (17 hours avg).
5. Fast track master's in Health Physics adding 1 semester to my degree plan.
6. Engineering Safety Certificate and/or Therapeutic Certificate.
7. None of the above, and graduate a semester early (15 hours avg).

 

[gmax137]

I would advise #2 or #5. And work hard to get an internship with one of the electric utilities at an operating nuclear plant.

 

[Choppy]

I think it's good that you took the initiative to do a job shadow and are making decisions based on your own experiences. I don't think you have any real bad options there. The only advice I would offer is that if you try to go through with a minimum of course work then you might be disappointed you didn't do more later on.

 

[Jamal]

Thank you, yes I do have a preference on some of these choices did not want to say which ones to create a bias in the responses I receive. I assure you that doing the minimum is last of my choices. I plan on meeting with several of my professors at the beginning of the year and seeing what they think of my choices.

 

[caldweab]

If you found health physics and medical physics to be boring career wise then my advice is to go for option 2. Doesn't make sense to get a masters in something you may not even enjoy career wise. It shouldn't be too hard to switch to nuclear engineering if you like the engineering side more, there's a good bit of overlap between the two fields