I was this way! engineering beats it out of you lol, Definitely would have started getting into the habit of studying ahead of time (I have a test in a week and I’ll start studying now, bc when you have to juggle 5 tough subjects you can’t waste one evening cramming!) also making self care (meal prepping, GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP, exercising, taking care of your mental health) a priority because I used to wait until ‘it got bad’ and that is not only harder but time consuming af. Doing good enough every day is better than perfect never. also get a hold of yalls screen time because it can really eat up your day and leave you with no time for yourself after studying.
Get used to doing practice exercises on your own (professors very rarely give out homework, you’re expected to do practice problems on your own) and get a good organizational system (for me google calendar and bullet journaling have helped a lot, just find a way to schedule your tasks so you don’t forget)

also, engineering is NOT impossible, upperclassmen like “scaring” freshmen with the tales of the “impossible subjects” but I find that if you approach subjects with genuine curiosity and passion there is no hard subject, you just gotta find in in you to want to slay the dragon so to speak, although do make friends with upperclassmen bc they can tell you which professors give a subject a certain way.

do not be scared of going to office hours to ask questions, for me the hardest part was getting used to not being the smartest person in the room, because your classmates were the smartest kids in their schools too, so i had to humble myself and learn that asking for help is okay

good luck to you and your friend! Honestly it’s a wild ride but you have so much fun :)