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<p>Talking to, shadowing, and interning with engineers during summers/school year in engineering/tech firms. I’ve seen dozens of classmates do this even during HS. </p>
<p>If one has family or close family friends who also happen to be engineers or working closely with them, they are also good resources into the realities of being an engineer. </p>
<p>Moreover, like CS courses…engineering courses don’t necessarily provide an adequate real world" picture of what working as an engineer or computer programmer/techie is like. </p>
<p>A reason why many engineering/CS majors who enjoyed studying it in college ended up not pursuing it as a career right after college. </p>
<p>On the flipside, some engineering/CS graduates I knew who hated studying it in college and considered dropping their majors during undergrad ended up loving working in their related fields because it’s much more engaging than the classroom version. </p>
<p>Granted, my uncle’s experience may have been atypical as he came from the ROC(Taiwan) education system when he started his 3/2 LAC/engineering program in the early '50s. </p>
<p>One advantage of that system for students who can pass muster is that one must have completed calculus by the end of 8th grade back then to be eligible to enter an academic HS necessary to be eligible to take the national college entrance exams or the exam for students hoping to go overseas for college. </p>
<p>In short, while he was an “immature laggard student” under that system by his own admission, his mathematical/science foundation was solid enough that not taking engineering courses until the last 2 years of his program wasn’t an issue. While he felt he could have worked harder during his undergrad, he did fine, graduated, stayed an extra year for his MSE…also at Columbia SEAS, and proceeded to have a 5 decade long career as a licensed PE. </p>
<p>Even in retirement, he still gets many calls to consult on engineering projects.</p>