CS and nursing are often more competitive for admission than engineering majors. However, engineering (and CS) majors may not be more competitive than other majors at less selective colleges, because they may be seen as “too hard” by many prospective students and therefore are not filled to capacity.
However, a student with a 3.0 HS GPA probably needs to up his game in terms of academic commitment (including self motivation and time management) in order to do well in an engineering major.