Many families do force their kids to do certain tracts for college admissions sadly.
I think mixing engineering and whatever just makes the applicant more interesting. Interesting to me is one key factor in acceptance. I mean how many kids are engineering and do math tutoring… A lot. But how many do those plus are a good painter, actor, vocalist, (there are a lot of musician though) Opera singer, etc. To me it just adds more flavor or color to their application.