I have 3 that have gone through Pitt engineering and it is not cutthroat - but very supportive. There are no competition or restrictions on declaring majors (PSU has enrollment restrictions by major) but yes, if you are below a 2.0, it’s probably likely that you should want to switch out. The engineering school also has alot of financial support for attending conferences, doing summer research, even study abroad that my kids have taken advantage of.