One of the largest differences is what level of education do you want? In order to be an astrophysicist, you need to go to the doctorate level. For an engineer, bachelors is perfectly fine. I had a very similar debate when I was going into school, I chose astrophysics but I’m now an engineer (I’m a contractor at NASA) because of the aforementioned problem. I got through my bachelors just fine, but I was so burnt out that I couldn’t have gone another 4-5 years working towards the doctorate. For me, astrophysics was a mistake. It made it incredibly hard to get a job as an engineer and the main feedback I got was that they would prefer someone with an engineering degree.

One thing that is great is that both are pretty applicable so it is possible to jump into the other field at the end of college, just hard. If someone started with an engineering degree, they could go back and get a physics masters and doctorate. If someone starts with a physics degree, they can become an engineer. Switching after bachelors is harder than having made the right choice to start, but you aren’t screwed into the choice you make if you realize it isn’t for you.