I have sent her the ace mentoring in another thread… Took me awhile to figure this out https://www.acementor.org/
My son did it also and it was great experience no question plus it’s fun.
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@CardinalCrimson I totally agree, when I say Plan B, it’s just to note that it wasn’t the original plan, not necessarily a lesser plan. No values attached, it just came second 
Trust me, I love my second child just as much as my first!
Wow, it sounds like you’re grappling with similar choices! As I just wrote to @Data10, the question of the hour is how important it is to keep options open. Purdue certainly has more Plan Bs/alternate paths/options than Rose Hulman. Thank you for sharing your thought process… it sounds like we share some of the same concerns.
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The ones that I know of have gone into a business field, particularly Finance, Operations Management, and Supply Chain. Some made the switch during college and some once they started their careers.
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One thing to check at various colleges is whether switching between engineering majors, or between an engineering major and CS, is difficult.
For example, Purdue has an engineering division where students enter in a first-year-engineering program, then apply to their majors (3.2 college GPA = automatic admission, otherwise competitive, but supposedly not that competitive). However, CS is not in the engineering division, so it would be more competitive to change into CS if not directly admitted to CS as frosh (and if directly admitted to CS, changing into the engineering division is competitive).
Another example is that UIUC admits directly to major for CS and engineering majors, but that means that there is very little extra capacity to allow for changing majors later, especially into the highest demand majors (CS, ME, BME) which require a minimum 3.75 college GPA just to apply for competitive admission (3.75 does not guarantee admission).
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@ucbalumnus I see your point! It sounds like single door entry schools like Case make switching majors easier. At this point, it’s hard to know if he’s more interested in Engineering or Computer Science programs. He probably could not get into UIUC compsci but might have a better chance at UIUC Engineering, so it’s a real concern and worth noting the difficulty in switching.
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Engineering majors are probably more work than majors like math and physics, but many students may find that the more theoretical courses in math and physics are more intellectually difficult.
For example, real analysis in math is probably much less work than many engineering design courses, but it is generally considered one of the more difficult undergraduate courses in any department.
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I worried about my daughter picking a tech school, but then realized that even if she left engineering she’d still be in math, science, something techie. I was concerned her school didn’t have a lot of choices of foreign languages, music, art, etc. Well, 80% of the students are in some kind of STEM majors, and even those who aren’t still have some connection. Her boyfriend was a construction management major, in the business school, but most of his classes were the same as hers (civil engineering). The school has a big psych program, but a lot of it deals with the hard sciences of psychology (bio and chemistry), and the autism program requires a lot of science classes.
My worry was unfounded because my daughter started in gen engineering, picked civil after a semester, and plowed through that. She never needed a lot of other options. If she’d decided after a year or two of engineering that she wanted to major in art or history (was never going to happen), the small tech school wouldn’t have been an option and she would have had to transfer.
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@twoinanddone Good point… some of the techy schools in consideration do have math, science, and computer science majors, so there are other options, just not the full gamut.
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Regarding LACs for engineering, there aren’t that many options. Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Smith, Dartmouth. What other colleges are people thinking about?
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Add Rose Hulman
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By “easier” I meant what they are conceptually. Whether there’s more work in an engineering course depends on the student. One student may finish a conceptually difficult problem in 5 minutes while the same problem may take another student 5 hours.
OP has another thread on CS at LACs, but this one on engineering isn’t limited to LACs, I think. You’re correct that there’re few engineering options among LACs. Even the ones you mentioned only have general engineering with no specialization.
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Being “weeded out” happens. It concerns me since my D21 is planning to major in engineering and my H (NMS from the 80s) originally started as an engineering major and struggled for the first time in his academic career. Luckily his advisor was helpful to direct him toward actuarial since he liked math and it has been an amazing fit for him! He enjoys his work.
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I just have to laugh. In my son’s first year he took C++/python instead of Matlab. Between him and his partner working on 1 problem it took them 13 hours over 2 days. They were the first ones done that actually had it correct… Lol 
… All the other problems were like normal length… Lol somehow this was a teaching problem to prove a point…
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I’m sure it varies widely. My D’s roommate’s boyfriend transferred to Botany/Plant Science after FYE.
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The more important thing is to set up your son for success. Have him meet with his professors at their hours, go to study classes. Take advantage of math /science learning help labs. Do peer to peer help etc. There are learning centers also that help with time management structures. Do everything to become successful. Then if he’s not making it you can shift gears. Many kids know after the first semester or two. A lot of kids drop a full grade their first semester /year from their high school grades. This takes some adjusting to. Also his academic counsler is there to guide him.
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A good friend’s of mine kid did CS at UIUC in engineering. He was barely making it. Mostly Cs and his dad wanted him to change to non engineering CS or something else. But… He knew something to do with sattelites and one of the only ones that did… (forgot what it was).
He struggled and struggled but everyone did.
His first job was with a small start up.
He’s 30 year old and now has 12 CS engineers working under him…
Somehow… It works out.
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I wouldn’t call Dartmouth or Rose Hulman LACs. External sources like Wikipedia and USNWR also do not classify them as LACs. The OP’s son is male, so Smith is out. Smith also has an “engineering science” major, rather than traditional engineering. That leaves Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd. They both do have a general engineering major and options for specialization tracks. There are also several other less selective LACs with a similar type of general engineering major. For example, I grew up near Union and personally know several Union engineers. There are even more LACs that offer options 5-year partnership engineering programs, although I expect the majority of the few students who pursue such programs originally plan on a non-engineering major and change their mind when attending… sort of like students who go to a tech school and choose a humanities major. Some people have strong feelings about engineering at LAC vs larger public. It’s usually a very different experience and right for some students, but wrong for others.
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My kid went to Santa Clara University. It’s considered a university but there are only 5000 students so feels like an LAC. Full engineering college within the school.
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Bucknell, Lafayette, and Union (NY) are examples of LACs/small universities with good engineering departments/schools.
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