Architectural engineering is such a specialty that it may be a luxury this student might have to forgo get into the field other ways. There are ways to get into specialty fields without majoring in them.
SUNY Farmingdale the only school that lists anything like this and I have no idea if it’s program meets the OPs goals. The problem is going to be meeting this student’s financial need at an away school. Though SUNYs can be funded in many ways, a lot of the grants are “last Dollar” and can only be applied towards tuition. How various schools work with those constraints vary.
Yes, there are only a handful of schools in the country that have ArchE. TBH, the only way I knew about the major was that it was my dad’s, and he went on to become an ArchE professor. As others have said, you can major in civil engineering and concentrate on structures. The only disadvantage is that you have to take some classes in topics you’re not really interested in.
^ to be fair, one shouldn’t choose Engineering ifone hopes to have a wide choice of classes - the degrees tend to be very prescriptive and sequential. Rather than the typical 30% electives for BA students, engineering majors may have 10% electives… There’ll be lots of classes the students would have wanted to avoid and will curse being forced to take (ie., statics…)
I’m saying that if you want to design structures, you don’t want to have to take classes in highway design, wastewater plant design, etc.
Oh, yes, I see. 
@nikiliusa : are you still there? People here are trying to help.
One of OP’s challenges is that he has taken for granted what is available in his/her own back yard. Op would have all of his tuition covered between TAP/Pell. If OP is graduating in the top 10% of his/her class Tuition would have been covered for SUNY/CUNY under the SYEM scholarship
If Op is in NYC, s/he should have definitely applied to City College the Bernard and Anne Spitzer school of Architecture
https://ssa.ccny.cuny.edu/
School is very selective. the CUNY 4 year schools do not do on the spot admissions.
Op missed the boat by not doing his/her due diligence and researching schools. I would have recommended tossing a HEOP application at
https://www.nyit.edu/architecture
Pratt (HEOP)
UBuffalo (EOP)
Renesselar (HEOP)
I would have even encouraged a Hail Mary Pass at Columbia and Cornell (HEOP) Cooper Union,
Unfortunately HEOP is most likely no longer on the table since Op is not coming straight out of high school.
@kidzncatz , you are totally right. Forgot about that one part.
Whoaaaaa! I don’t like the tone of this at all. This is a teenager who has gotten admission to PSU engineering. To pan him like this is beyond, rude, condescending and inappropriate.
To bring up the rigors of an engineering curriculum especially in the context of a large state university is one thing. To directly attack the kid and his competence, a whole other. This is not what this forum is here to do
I have seen kids with stats far lower than his succeed in engineering
^ Completely agree. The issue of this thread is money. From previous posts/threads the OP was concerned about funding college. I don’t see how OP can afford PSU. I hope you take the advice given here and immediately look into your instate options.
Many were admitted to branch campus engineering with good stats.
The silver lining is that branch campuses are a bit less expensive.
The problem is that they’re still very expensive and unaffordable for this student.
Moderators Note
this thread is veering off topic. Removing all comments that are not related to affordability, which is Op’s question. student did not ask that you address his/her viability as a candidate at Penn State because Penn state has already done that by accepting the student.
@chai1vhh
This student needs $30,000 a year more to attend Penn State. A work study job is not going to net him that much. Frankly, he would need to be working about full time to net $30,000 a year to pay college costs. This really is hard to do while attending college full time.
This student needs a more affordable college than an OOS public university that didn’t give him sufficient aid to attend.
SUNYs are tuition free for NYS residents. It’s really the right move for this student, but s/he hasn’t returned.
@chai1vhh, College has changed since we were in school. Students can’t work their way through college the way we could. Most are too expensive for that
Students with high stats should NOT start at a community college because they lose the ability to get freshman grants. Transfers don’t get much aid, but freshmen can get a lot.
SUNYs are tuition free for SOME but not all students.
The Excelsior offers free tuition but there is an income threshold…I think it’s $125,000 a year now. Sounds like this student would qualify. It’s a last payer…so if the student qualifies for other aid paying tuition, the student wouldn’t get this.
TAP is available…again with an income threshold.
The STEM scholarship is also available in NY, but the student must major in a STEM field AND agree to work in NY following graduation for five years.
@sybbie719 will correct me if I’m wrong…but for tuition…a student would get only one of these awards…not more than one.
SUNY-Oswego is a well regarded program, and one of the best of the small-school meteorology undergrad programs. Millersville University in PA is another nationally recognized program.