Good catch. When I referred to USC in my previous post, I was thinking of U. of Southern California, not U. of South Carolina.
I think that engineering could be tough for him. But if he chooses the right kind of school, making it through an engineering program successfully is not an impossibility. This thread might be a useful read: Engineering Schools/Program for my B student.
@vadmom, what environment do you think your son would do best in? What do you think has been the cause for his high school grades? Does it relate to executive function issues in terms of forgetting about assignments, or losing them, having perfectionism about them, etc? Is it test anxiety at all levels and that he seems to understand the information and can talk about it appropriately, but then is struggling on the tests? Do his teachers see a mismatch between his knowledge of the subjects and his test scores? Depending on what’s going on, you might also seek out an evaluation to see if something is going on with his brain that might be impacting him (ADHD, a reading disorder, etc).
Of course, it’s entirely possible that there’s nothing that an evaluation might find as being an issue, and OP’s son could still be successful in engineering. But perhaps going to a school where the engineering classes are small and they will try and maximize support so a student can be successful might be a better choice than large schools that have tons of students who are wanting to major in the field. Alternatively, if OP’s son might want the pace slowed down a little, he could think about perhaps doing a general engineering/engineering physics (or just regular physics) degree and then specializing in a particular type of engineering with a Master’s degree. As another option, OP’s son might want to choose schools with both an engineering and an engineering technology pathway (the latter of which is much less math-heavy) and if he finds he doesn’t want engineering, perhaps engineering technology might be of interest.
There are lots of possibilities for OP’s son, but we need more info to be able to provide better suggestions.