<p>You might want to keep in mind that it may be extremely difficult to go back to graduate school, being a broke college student again (maybe not that bad), once you’ve found a cushy, well paying job.</p>
<p>If you are interested in many different fields and want to keep all of your options open (and don’t mind math or possibly even LIKE it), then I would suggest physics. After a degree in physics you can go to grad school in engineering, applied math, chemistry, biophysics, geophysics, CS, astrophysics and many other things. It will also give you many more electives to explore than would engineering.</p>
<p>Making a career out of doing research is hard enough for a PhD, depending strongly on the field. I’ve heard of people landing “research” jobs with only masters but they are typically have much less freedom and usually aren’t really calling the shots.</p>
<p>Salary is certainly a valid consderation, and most science PhDs make a respectable salary from what I’ve read. This also depends heavily on the field and how transferable it is to industry. Also industry vs. academia…</p>
<p>It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea to go engineering BS —> science PhD but it is very difficult from what I hear. The more common route is science BS (especially physics) —> engineering masters</p>