This isn’t true at all schools. My daughter’s college offers zero foreign languages. Engineering department super strict about accepting transfer credits from other schools.
The original suggestion would never work at her school. It would easily add another year onto the program.
Plus … many universities aren’t going to provide aid / scholarships for transfers.
I can only speak of Purdue, and more specifically A&AE, but most programs at Purdue are probably close to A&AE:
The Aeronautics and Astronautics curriculum emphasizes the disciplines of aerodynamics, aerospace systems, astrodynamics and space applications, propulsion, structures and materials, dynamics and control, and further provides courses that integrate these disciplines into the design of flight...
engineering.purdue.edu
General Education Electives (24 credits)
You must complete a general education program of at least 24 credit hours. Please see your academic advisor for the complete list of approved courses. The general education program consists of two components: foundational learning outcomes and programmatic requirements.
Foundational Learning Outcomes
...
Transfer Credit
If you are interested in registering for a course offered by a different institution, you should first look it up in the
Purdue Transfer Credit Database to see how the credit will transfer back to Purdue. In order for the course to be used to meet AAE degree requirements, it must transfer as a Purdue equivalent course approved to meet the requirement. If the institution or course is not listed, it may mean your course has not been evaluated yet. Please see your advisor for additional information.
You must earn a “C−“ or better in order for a course to be transferred. Please note however, that the grade will not transfer and there will be no impact on your Purdue GPA.
NOTE: courses listed as “#XXXX” are considered undistributed credit, or courses which do not have a Purdue equivalent. These courses cannot be used to meet AAE degree requirements.
(N.B. These are usually Junior level courses, although I did get credit for a junior advanced physics class for an engineering thermodynamics class)
Also, if the student has not done calculus in H.S., the entry Calculus/Physics courses were notorious flunk-out traps. I didn't take calculus in H.S., but I took Introduction to Analysis which was pre-calculus, which allowed me to pre-test and put me into the advanced Calculus/Physics track. For the physics, the difference was that instead of memorizing formulas, we were taught to derive them from F=ma using differentials and integration.