<p>I know enough examples of engineers who did not begin as Engineers in undergrad. If you have philosophy major and then want to go to engineering, you have to start at the beginning. I know a music major who had decided to go back to school for a degree in environmental science and is now taking 200 and 300 level engineering classes along with some graduate classes, so he will get a graduate degree without an undergraduate degree in the subject (it is going to take longer).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are say in Physics and then get into Engineering Physics, the hop is fairly short and some engineers I know in some engineering fields are actually majors in Applied Physics. Similarly, if you have a very strong background in Math and physics, you could do a graduate degree in an engineering discipline with a few remedial courses. For example some computer scientists have a math background and got into say operating system design. I know of biologists who have migrated in bio-engineering. </p>
<p>So, yes you can get into engineering or near engineering disciplines later on but it per-supposes a background in math and physics. If you do not have that, you always have the opportunity to make it up but you have to be very motivated to do so.</p>