Also keep in mind that "engineering" is an extremely encompassing term. Your academy for instance, is really teaching science, technology, and math, which combined with some problem-solving really creates the field of engineering. An engineering degree opens doors to all sorts of careers. For example, I decided to get an Mechanical Engineering degree largely due to FIRST, and after college decided to enter the world of finance, and high-frequency trading in particular. Among my other options at the time were jobs in consulting, federal law enforcement (the FBI LOVES engineers), technical law, etc. There are plenty of engineers at my firm and in the industry, successfully competing against the best and brightest finance/math/physics phd's from Ivy League schools. My point is that engineering doesn't teach you how to build robots, it gives you the skills to solve problems, which is desirable in pretty much any career. I know I, as a new parent, would love to hear that from anyone trying to pitch an education to my daughter.
By the way, we only hire for 2 positions in our entire firm of 150+, from top to bottom. Tell me this doesn't sound like an exceptional engineer.
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