My son applied to University of Michigan’s summer programs twice and got rejected. Guess where he went to college? 
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My daughter decided on engineering late as well. In fact, she really took the wrong math path in 11th/12th because we really didn’t expect her to want to pursue engineering. She had no internships and no ECs that were related to engineering. She sews, crochets, etc. She worked on the costumes for the school musicals and was in the marching band.
She did not apply to selective schools, but did get in everywhere she applied - Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Western Michigan, UAH, etc. She got good scholarships as well. She was accepted to mechanical engineering or the pre-engineering, depending on the college too.
Maybe the results would have changed if she had applied to higher ranked schools. But, I think your daughter will have solid choices for aerospace engineering.
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Good choices. Michigan State is a great engineering program. Plus great honors opportunities which means merit as you know. It’s a major Big Ten with the research and facilities behind it. People look past it due to its ranking but trust me. They are getting great placement for jobs etc.
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I really wish one of my kids would pick Michigan State, lol. I was so impressed at the engineering they had on our tours. Plus, they have a professoral assistantship, which sounds like such a great opportunity. My daugher is a freshman at UAH and is loving it 
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USC Viterbi really stood out to us as being the most vocal about pursuing gender parity in engineering. (We listened to some podcasts about engineering programs and it was very enlightening on this front.) Also they shared at the admitted students meeting last month that once you are in, their whole goal is to make sure you have the support you need to graduate and succeed. Very anti “weed-out” culture.
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I think the first question that needs to be answered is… Do you want to be an engineer? If so, than do that. So many schools for engineering. I do think the major name brands can have an advantage of opportunities and accessibility to certain things but not the be all either. My sons US cohort was Michigan, GT, UIUC, OSU, Penn State, and University of Cincinnati. But he works overseas for an international company. He works with engineers from international engineering schools that no one has heard of. They are all bright and capable. Since he is the only American at his site, his school stands out (when he wears his college engineering t-shirt ) since it’s an international brand but no one is having deep discussion about it. Either you can do the work required and are teachable or your not.
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And the second, what can I afford ? And third, what do I want to afford ?
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I am just going to join the chorus here and say that an internship during highschool is absolutely not necessary even for “top” engineering schools. You may want to elaborate about which schools your daughter is considering and whether she is aiming “higher” than Georgia Tech in state. As others have stated, prestige means very little in engineering. My S17 is an Auburn grad and works with engineers from a wide array of schools.
Since we are in Atlanta as well, and I consider GA Tech to be a top engineering school, I will share that my S22 went to a high school with lots of opportunities for STEM extracurriculars - robotics team, science olympiad, math team etc as well as an engineering pathway. My son did none of that. Like @Knowsstuff’s kid, he took the most advanced math offered (BC calc junior year, multivariable and linear algebra senior year) as well the physics C classes. He played a sport year round, was a peer math tutor, had a summer job and was in the school orchestra . He got into Ga Tech while many of his classmates who did all the STEM related extracurriculars did not. I would highly recommend checking out Rick Clark’s admission blog if you haven’t already. It gives a lot of insight not only into Georgia Tech’s admission process, but also into the admissions process at highly selective colleges in general.
Other posters have given you some great suggestions for engineering related summer programs that would be great to give your daughter some exposure to engineering and maybe help her decide if she wants to pursue it. If she is more interested in doing scientific research or a summer internship with a company, there are some options in the Atlanta area.
I am assuming the internship program your daughter was turned down from was with GTRI? Their work is mostly with the military. Has she applied for the Georgia Tech Aerospace Engineering STEP program? I think the application deadline for that has passed. https://gasgc.org/wp/gtae-step/
You may want to have her look at the web pages for labs in the academic departments at Georgia Tech and email some professors and see if she can volunteer for the summer. I know a few kids who have been able to do that.
Depending on where you are in the ATL, Kennesaw State’s engineering department has some research opportunities for high school students.
You might also look into Tag Ed which places high school students in STEM internships in the private sector.
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My student did a week long summer engineering camp at University of Kansas. It was relatively inexpensive and helpful in determining interests.
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My daughter had no experience in engineering at all. Most of her ECs from hs were sports or service clubs, and not a lot of depth in the clubs (just for fun). She had a very solid math classes, but because she’d changed schools 3 times, she never took calc or AP physics.
She got an A in calc and was one of the only ones in her class who hadn’t had it in high school. Not a big deal.
She entered Florida Tech (a good aero school, but of course she picked another engineering major) without one credit from AP or DE. She needed 131 credits to graduate and she took them all in 8 semesters, played on the varsity team for 4 years, and graduated on time. It can be done.
Last weekend she got married. Her guests were mostly engineers, and all have great jobs, several in aero because they work hard and are smart. Along with Florida Tech, they attended Clemson, SUNY-Buffalo, one of the Boston schools (NEU? BU?) and Colorado school of Mines.
Your daughter shouldn’t worry about summer internships or camps, unless she wants to do them (because they are fun). It will work out.
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Not sure what is consider “selective” for Aerospace Engineering schools. Like @tsbna44 said, there are less than 100 of them ABET accredited. Most of them are public schools, not Ivy.
S24 had no ECs related to ENG, only AP Calculus AB in senior year and no AP science classes. He is now majoring in Aerospace Eng in UC Davis. He also got accepted to other “great” Aerospace schools such as uDub, TAMU, Ohio State. Good Luck.
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I now have her checking out USC. I had no idea! and the anti weed out culture is important to her.
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THANK YOU! No idea KSU had an engineering department. she really just needs to do something to learn more and figure it out. And yes, it was GTRI and her STEP program application is pending. Maybe April decisions? GaTech is high on the list, but not her top choice. I do think it all works out in the end and really just want her to be able to do something engineering-related this summer. Academic course load is not an issue for her.
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Has she checked out Operation Catapult? It’s very well thought of.
My son was turned down to STEP with a 32 ACT but when we submitted a 34 after the rejection, they let him in. Not sure hers.
KSU is a solid school actually - with ABET accreditation in Civil, Computer Game Design, CS, Electrical, Environmental, Industrial, MechE, and Software Engineering.
As far as weed out culture, I’m not sure who has or doesn’t have. Engineering has a 50% drop rate nationwide - it will be higher at less selective schools - but if you can’t handle Calc and beyond, I’m not sure that it’s weed out vs. it’s you’re not able to handle the level of math required to be an engineer - and that’s going to be the same at all schools.
USC will be $400K - do you have a budget and does that fit the budget?
If Gender parody matters and they only list a few schools vs. the overall, but perhaps this article will help.
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Our OOS son was accepted to GT and the honors program with no engineering ECs, internships, or summer jobs. (He spent the entire summer before his senior year completing the requirements for earning his BSA Eagle rank.) He was also admitted to ASU/Barrett, Michigan, UIUC, USNA, and USMA. As others have pointed out, no need to stress over internships as they are not a pre-requisite anywhere. Any type of summer experience or work she is interested in will be fine, but something that gives her exposure to an(y) engineering field may be to her personal benefit if she is trying to figure out if something other than aerospace might be of interest. Bottom line:
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Here is a virtual free engineering program by Univ Maryland for women.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until all spots are filled or until the final application deadline of May 15, 2025.
Admission notifications will be sent weekly starting the week of April 14, 2025.
Please note that the virtual sessions will not be recorded, so participation is synchronous. This program is entirely virtual and there are no in-person sessions for this program.
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OP- I am not aware of any engineering programs where I’d describe the culture as “weed out”. Unlike med school- where the current ratio of applicants to spots means there’s a HUGE bottleneck, which pushes downward the stress of getting accepted-- hence the “weed out” reputation- there is no similar rationing of spots for engineering.
It is a collaborative discipline anyway- no single engineer developed the propulsion systems pioneered by NASA; no brilliant engineer thought “hey, what if we use titanium instead of steel in a wing component”. It’s a team sport! And engineering programs-- as a result- rely heavily on collaboration. Group projects, teams, creator labs where no single student is going to have all the skills necessary to get the assignment done.
There will be competitive/I need to be top dog types of students everywhere. That’s just a fact of life. But I would not use “weed out” as a decision making criterion.
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I agree that engineering isn’t a weed out kind of major in the traditional sense, but our experience was that some schools we toured had more stressed out students than others.
And some schools have more competition for engineering clubs than others, more competition for research positions, etc…
I think it also matters if the courses in calc, chem, and physics are with all majors or segregated into the college of engineering.
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I have never heard of an engineering program where a kid cannot find an appropriate/interesting club- can you name? If the Robotics club is full (is that even a thing?) there are sure to be 5 other EC’s that go begging… The teams that build boats out of garbage and then has a competition on a local river; who can build a solar powered oven out of readily available materials in the developing world; etc. And finding a faculty sponsor for a new club is VERY easy in engineering- the faculty is “wired” for this sort of thing.
Which colleges have this level of competition for engineering EC’s? I’ll add that to my “things to think about” list when advising prospective engineers.