<p>providence, An engineering program has some very specific classes, like the stength of materials class mentioned previously. You won’t get these in a physics program. If he wants to do engineering, get into that program ASAP. The longer you wait, teh further behind you are.</p>
<p>Freshman year is typically spent in most STEM type majors getting the basics down and won’t vary a lot. So, he probably isn’t too far behind. HOWEVER, THE MOST IMPORTANT basic class is the MATH. After all, what is engineering really!! It is being able to model physical systems mathmatically. Then using that math model to validate past behavior and predict future behavior. Therefore, you need to understand the physical systems AND have the math background (thru differential equations at least) to model them.</p>