I did not consider engineering until my sophomore year! This added a year to my undergrad education and I walked away with two degrees (one in Liberal Arts). Fortunately, I attended a state school so it wasn’t as costly as it could have been.
One of my daughter’s best friends just finished up her freshmen year at NC State in engineering. Her ECs were Girl Scouts and theatre and her APs were in English, History and Psych. I don’t think she took an AP math or science class. She was accepted at VA Tech, RIT, UVM, and a few other schools too.
Our list isn’t solidified, but will be driven by costs, schools that meet full need for incomes up to 200K, schools that give big scholarships, and our state flagship.
@lostaccount Thanks for sharing your perspective. My D probably will apply to a couple of big reaches, but not sure which ones yet. After having mostly lurked here for a year or so before starting to help her with her college search, one thing that struck me as very important was making sure that she had match and safety options that she could be genuinely excited about, so that she would never be one of those kids who felt “stuck” going to a school they didn’t really want to attend. So, if anything, I’ve put more emphasis in the earlier search on schools where she is very likely to be accepted and would be happy.
Now that she’s identified a couple of schools like that, and now that I feel reassured that her coming to this area of interest later in her HS career shouldn’t be a significant obstacle, I think it makes sense to zero in on a few more selective programs to try for as well. My D cares a lot more about peer environment than institutional prestige per se. If she’s had a frustration in HS (which she has mostly very much enjoyed) it is that some of the so-called “top” students are get-ahead-by-any-means types. Her personal friend group are intense, curious, and collaborative, and she’d prefer to attend college with more kids like her friends and fewer of the former. If you have any suggestions of places you think might fit the bill, I’d love to know!
I had planned on studying engineering until I shadowed an engineer. Haha. The offices were in a metal building with no windows and my assigned host was kind of a nerd. Nerds are my people, actually, but at the time I was apparently looking for something more glamorous.
The only issue for not having robotics club and similar ECS is if there are scholarships tied to those activities. At DD’s school, being in robotics club or coming from a STEM school gets you the automatic lowest level of merit aid (so does being an eagle scout), but grades and gpa will get you that or more.
My daughter also didn’t decide on engineer until she was looking at colleges. She’d taken some math and science, but took chem and calc 1 as a freshman. No problems.
I didn’t mention it earlier because if she changes her mind about engineering no other options really exist, but check out Olin for a reach. It’s very much like you describe her preferences in #23. D made it to the Candidate’s Weekend, but was not offered admission. She was wildly impressed with the place, people, and attitude. Plus, everyone admitted gets a 50% tuition scholarship right off the bat. 
Funny! One of the attractions to engineering for me was the chance to work independently. My husband and I run our engineering firm, just the two of us, out of our home office. It looks out over the woods and a beautiful field. We can walk down to the river whenever we want. We can go on a two-week trip to South Africa without asking permission. We can turn down jobs or clients we don’t care for. It’s a great lifestyle! Of course, we had to pay our dues by working for other companies for a few years, but we’ve been on our own for 17 years as of this next Saturday. 