On the other hand, one could read “Engineering or Finance” as “a major that involves math and leads to a job”. It’s not passion for Engineering as afield per se, which is grueling even for those who love math&physics. As a result, I would advise this student
- to explore STEM majors in general and in particular what various Engineering fields entail in terms of curriculum and future jobs
- to see whether there’s overlap for these jobs with other majors
- for each university under consideration, to look into how easy it is to pivot from Engineering to something else - at some universities only freshmen can get into the business school so OP would have to choose as a HS applicant and would then be barred from the finance track (typically the most difficult to access); at other universities, the same is true of Engineering or both.
- for each university under consideration, how easy or difficult it is to complete the Engineering major with a minor. Some universities give a lot of AP credits, others don’t; some have a very rigid curriculum (often, only one class per semester can be chosen, sometimes zero) whereas others leave space for a bit more exploration.
Of course you can apply to different majors at different universities, ie., Business/ Finance at Emory, Engineering at GTech.
Assuming you’re in GA, don’t forget UGA and either Georgia State or Kennesaw for safeties+possibly one from Agnes Scott/Spelman/Morehouse/Oglethorpe.
Is there any non weighted class you could take during one of the free periods (Culinary Sets or Personal Finance to prepare living as an adult, or perhaps something like Robotics, Graphic Design, art history, music appreciation, sociology…)?