I am a high school student who is going to start applying for colleges soon, I want to study some form of engineering, which has developed from a newfound passion for math and real world application, however my best grades are in history and my college essay perfectly matches social sciences (how living in multiple countries has affected how I see and understand the world). On the other hand my math grades are not very good, so applying to colleges for anything math related seems suicidal to me. should I apply to colleges that have both good history and engineering programs as a history major then switch as soon as I enter (like after a semester) to an engineering path? If not then please share what would be the best decision.
Not all colleges would allow you to easily switch. Might just be easier to apply straightforwardly. Let the chips fall where they may.
For many colleges you can’t do this because you’d have to reapply to get into the engineering school. Also, if you don’t have the grades to succeed in engineering school, (you can guess where this sentence is going).
At some universities, like mine, it is quite easy to switch between schools, like the liberal arts and engineering colleges, as I did. It really depends on the universities you’re applying to.
I usually recommend honesty in applying to the program you want to take part in. Could you maybe change your essay topic to cover the parts of math and their applications that you’ve become passionate about?
Guess what? Colleges are wise to that game.
At most schools you do need to apply directly to an engineering program. If you get in for another major you might find it very difficult to make an internal transfer into the engineering program. IMO if you want engineering, apply as an engineer.
Still a rookie at all this but trust me…every single school we have visited made it clear that entry into engineering by transfer after a year is almost impossible. I wouldn’t lay the cards out that way. Perhaps it would be better to choose some less selective engineering programs (there are some) and try that approach.
What is your home state and your budget?
Lees selective engineering programs have a very high weed out/flunk out rates.
@TomSrOfBoston …ahh, good to know. Haven’t looked at those 
Even selective programs have high wash out rates. Purdue, one of the top engineering schools in the country has about a 60% retention rate, i.e. 40% transfer out of the engineering school. Is this terrible? It’s really a function of the work difficulty.
OP: when you say “my math grades are not very good” what do you mean? Have you taken ACT or SAT? What was your score in Math?
There are some courses where they have Single Door admissions policy…you get into the Uni and can major in whatever you want Case Western Reserve University is once such school.
However, you could say you want to major in history but then start with the engineering classes.
BUT…are you prepared? Have you taken Calculus? Most of the other students in Engineering have taken Calc before.
How did you do in pre-calc?
Why didn’t you do well in math?
Varies greatly by school, you need to do more than look at the website, but speak to people at the school.
Official policy at one of my kids school, as posted online, seems a bit different than what he was told in person.
But overall, at his school he was told he can transfer in, but I know of other schools where it is very difficult to transfer into eng. Always easier to transfer OUT of engineering. Without posting info about your math/science grades/test scores nobody really can help you directly here.