How to get into a good engineering college?

I want to get into a good engineering college but my grades are not that good, so if I apply to a college like university of Illinois Urbana Champaign, what should I put my major as, if I put it as engineering I might not have a good chance of getting in, so should I put it as something else and try to switch later. They might know my intentions of doing that though since I am taking engineering courses at school and I intern for mechanical engineering.