Don't focus on just the one thing. Sure, there's a steadily declining demand for incoming engine component engineers, as the old ones die, or (more commonly) reach the age of 50 and find that their services are no longer required, by anyone, or don't even get that old, and find that their factory has been exported, and their job with it. But there's a lot more to mechanical engineering than just designing engine parts. When you reach the job market, there may be a demand for designers of ... well, stuff we haven't dreamed of yet.
The point is not that you will not end up _no_where, but that you could end up _any_where, so prepare for _that_. Get a good grasp of the basics, even the stuff you think you won't like, and the stuff your entire class agrees is silly, because you may need it.
<old joke>
A famous alumnus gave the commencement address at a famous medical school. It was short. He said:
"I have two admissions to make.
1. Roughly half of what you have worked so hard to learn will turn out to be either utterly useless, or just plain wrong.
2. NO ONE knows which half that will be."
</old joke>
The joke rings true for engineering school, too. Not necessarily because anything you'll study is wrong or useless now, but because the world changes. At least our understanding of it does.
If you haven't already, try to see James Burke's TV series "Connections" and "The Day The Universe Changed". You're almost ready to appreciate his revelations about how _everything_ is connected, and nothing stays the same.
It wouldn't hurt to learn a little Chinese, either.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
