DS is senior year of EE. He excels at math and physics and was never a tinkerer.
Most of his friends went into engineering or CS. Two who started out in ME switched to different majors; one went into Industrial Engineering and the other switched to Engineering Management. So there are always options.
And, yes, @Knowsstuff, you would definitely know who they were at any party! 
I don’t know about american programs, but perhaps your son would be interested in a program like Waterloo’s engineering management.
https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/management-engineering
Take a look at the PDF link at the bottom of this page https://www.kent.edu/cae_internal%20/there-engineer-inside-you-celeste-baine
My son was given that book from our local engineering foundation when he was a senior in high school. It talks about the different majors and is geared toward high school students.
^ Adding: my local library has the book, so yours may as well.
@chercheur – thank you!
Useful for mine as well - showed her she did NOT want to be an engineer. Made the college search a lot easier.
Thanks to everyone for your input! I’m doing research on two to three week summer residential engineering programs that accept rising Junior males who are not under-represented.
Location: South, Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Midwest
Cost will be a factor too but right now just trying to find options.
If you have suggestions, please share!
Tks!
PS – Will def. apply to NC State but I know it’s pretty competitive. Looked at Rose-Hulman but it’s rising Seniors only. Also, Georgia Tech requires students to be 16 by July 6 which my son will miss by 2 weeks. 
@almostthere2018. Ace is a program during the school year one day/week.
The summer programs were Michigan State for Robotics, Milwaukee school of engineering for programming but they have alot of other programs at the same time. Then https://berkeley.nslcleaders.org/
This one was pricing but all have financial aid and scholarships. Good luck.
RPI has some good summer programs. My D did a chemistry one there one year and really enjoyed it. They have a bunch of 1 week programs that can be combined into two weeks, such as the intro to engineering and aerospace programs. Stevens Institute also has a 2 week engineering program. My son did a 1 week biomedical engineering program there and liked it, but I thought it was a bit expensive. NYIT also has a good program. It’s mostly commuter kids, but I think they offer a residential option if you don’t live on Long Island.
Check your local universities and colleges as well.
One thing we felt was very beneficial was job shadowing at local engineering firms. We did this the summer before his senior year.
The firms were very gracious with their time. They explained what they did on a daily basis and the different steps involved in a project. He tagged along during site visits, and they treated him to a nice lunch where a group of engineers talked about their college experiences. He shadowed with a friend who was also interested in engineering so it wasn’t so intimidating. Today, they are both engineering grad students!
If he’s interested at all after exploring the career, I say go for it. Worse comes to worst, he can transfer to a different major. Out of my freshman friends, I think I’m the only one who DIDN’T switch majors! Engineers or otherwise. My dad was an engineer so I’d had a lot of exposure to the field and was pretty sure I’d like it (ha, but I didn’t realize my lack of 3D spatial abilities would be such a hindrance…).
@chercheur – Yes, I’ve thought about that! I think closer to the end of the school year I’ll ping my local network and ask his PLTW teacher for connections to firms that might do that. Even just a day in the summer in a few different engineering environments would be really helpful to him. Esp. since I sometimes worry the camps/programs are almost too fun for students and it’s reality check that engineering is, you know, a JOB, lol!
My D did job shadowing at some local science labs as a rising senior as she’s on a biology PhD track (first year in college now) and she found it really helpful. Learned to pipette and examined lung cells in mice! Also learned that science can be sloooow and tedious but she’s still fascinated!
I am related to a lot of engineers, so I can tell you pretty confidently that there is no single “engineering type” (except that they are all extremely numerate.) And I don’t think you should worry about your son’s math track- based on what I’ve observed (and my son’s experience at MIT) having a very solid grounding in the fundamentals of math (i.e. a great base in HS algebra and geometry, and really loving numbers and problem-solving) is much more critical to success in an engineering program than having taken calc early…
Agree with Maine Longhorn- worst case, your son switches out of engineering into something else.
I don’t think the programs are “too fun”- I think most of them do a good job of introducing HS kids to disciplines which they don’t get an opportunity to explore unless they’ve got a tinkerer in the family. And of course- every single career is going to have its own set of “drudgery” tasks… so shadowing a civil engineer who is sitting in meetings for three weeks discussing permitting for a project close to a wetlands may not be the best intro to what is exciting about civil engineering.
Your son sounds great- good luck!!!
Does he need to firm up his direction this year? Or can he wait until next summer? He’ll be further along in math & science in general.
@blossom – tks for weighing in – much appreciated. And I think he’s great too!
@intparent – No, he doesn’t need to firm up his plans really until summer b4 senior year, though ideally he’d know before then b/c it will influence which colleges he visits and even which parts of the college he tours. Fort., he’s already been on a number of tours with his older sis so he has a general sense of what he likes. But I will encourage him to look at engineering and business programs in making his list.
I think doing a summer program next year, doing some job shadowing, and seeing how he continues to like and do well in math (including standardized tests) will give him what he needs to know if it’s the right path!
If your HS has a manufacturing technology class, have him look into that. It will give him an idea of the application of engineering to manufacturing.
My son did a precollege engineering program at UConn this past summer (between sophomore & junior year). He enjoyed it very much. We are looking for a different location for next summer, so I’ll be watching this thread. I’ve heard WPI and Stevens have summer programs.
For WPI summer programs see https://www.wpi.edu/academics/pre-collegiate/summer
For Stevens see https://www.stevens.edu/admissions/pre-college-programs
Many years ago when I studied engineering, spacial abilities were a very big deal. We had to be able to measure machinery by knowing length of finger joints etc. Drafting was also a very important part of the education and they still are in the “technology” programs. Much of today’s BS engineering are yet more dependent on the math and science skills. A summer program, if possible, is a very good idea.
I am an engineer who never really like the hands on stuff. That is fine as there are many jobs where you don’t have to .
To me the main thing is does he like math and is he good at math?
I would try to get through Calc in HS otherwise you are exposed to it for the first time in college where many others are taking it for the second time. However, 99% of engineering schools assume you are starting with Calc 1 in their curriculum.