You have to be admitted to the college of engineering at a lot of schools. You can't just be admitted and then decide you want to be an engineering major. And there is the risk of failing out and being forced into a less rigorous major and graduating with a lower GPA as a result.
I think the "special snowflake" complex has become so endemic that a lot of people just cannot tolerate being in a major where it's a given that they will mostly get Cs and Bs and will probably fail a few classes and have to retake them. Those are the people who'd rather major in psychology and graduate magna cum laude.
Yeah.... but it really could depend on other things than just GPA. For example, my Computer Science GPA is only like .2 of a point lower than my Political Science GPA. I would tell people not worry about getting C's or God forbid getting a couple of D's and having to remediate over the summer or having a "victory lap".
Engineering is a different ballgame in that regard though. I don't know of any other majors where you can graduate with a sub-3.0 GPA and still probably be graduating with a job offer already lined up.
