So, following up on the post two up:
If perhaps UT and/or Illinois are outliers in having a tightly constricted engineering pathway, how much flexibility is the norm? i.e. My possibly mistaken perception was that typically you applied to an engineering program, but the specific domain (i.e. nuclear, mechanical, etc.) was either not chosen or not really important for the first year or two and it was easy to switch among them. Yes, I understand that you generally start in the engineering school, and perhaps transfer out, rather than the reverse, but I thought at many/most colleges even that was not hard and fast.