I know lots of kids who start college life as engineers and graduate as something else. Sometimes it’s performance related. Sometimes it’s prep related (your kid can be the top math kid in your HS and then realize within two weeks at college that he’s floating in the 20th percentile in an engineering program-- just a more competitive, better prepared cohort). And sometimes- and the reason for my post- is that a kid discovers something that he/she loves more than engineering.
Most kids in HS are not exposed to biostatistics or any of the big data/analytics fields. Most kids in HS don’t even know that econometrics exist or that people earn a good living do that all day. Most kids in HS only have a vague understanding of what actuaries do, or that you can get a cool job with a degree in urban planning figuring out what infrastructure will look like in 2030 when self-driving cars become a reality (or when most cars on the road are hybrids, not gasoline only). Or don’t know that companies hire people to develop risk models for everything from the price of jet fuel to the probability that the next big tsunami will hit an industrial area in the Phillipines.
There are dozens of cool jobs that a kid good in math (which I presume is what OP’s kid brings to the table) can do and love. So I’m not seeing the handwringing if kid needs Plan B. All kids who intend to major in engineering need Plan B- most of them just don’t know it yet.
I’d vote for the U that the kid thinks will bring out the best in him. And go from there.