<p>agg999 - I encourage you to research the different topics provided on this Engineering Education First Year Students link. I think it will answer many of your questions.</p>
<p><a href=“Undergraduate Program | Engineering Education | Virginia Tech”>http://www.enge.vt.edu/undergraduate.html</a></p>
<p>If you have AP credit for many freshman classes you will probably be able to take a lot of your ‘core’ courses (liberal art electives) and have them out of the way.</p>