Being an engineer is great and all. I always played with mechanical things and "wanted to be an engineer" when I got to college. I have done the math requirements, and I've added a few CS classes in the study of algorithms. The course of major I took in Neuroscience and Statistics is really not a whole lot easier than Engineering, but it is different, and more interesting to me at the moment. I am not saying you can't take classes outside of engineering, but at least I wanted a broader course of study.
The truth is, I may go back someday. Depending on my job prospects next year, I might go back, and finish the rest of the engineering curriculum to get a BS. Would be probably something like 2 years because I have the math, engineering graphics, CS and Thermodynamics requirements done.
But, to say someone should just do the career when he/she is 18 is not the norm. Most don't seem to know what they want to do, including myself. Whether you are in college or living at home, it is probably going to take a year or two of exploring after high school to narrow it down at least to a point of decision. It took me two years of classes--in 14 different departments on campus--to decide.
Also, you don't invent Ipods without art, and you don't walk into a great company unless you can write and speak like a normal person
. My friends that are engineers hate writing papers; I love it. To everyone his own. I just think, if you narrow someone down too early, without really listening to what THEY want, is asking for a lifetime of issues. How many people go into law or med school because their parents wanted them to, or because they think they "should"?