The generic Bachelor’s degree is not cost-effective.
The USA has to move to the Scottish system, used in the commonwealth, where professional degrees are baccalaureate (lasting, if needed, up to six years). The BA should be for the scholarly elite, the BSc for the scientific elite. By that I mean the top 10% of the population.
For there will be alternatives.
I recently earned myself BSc. (I didn’t intentionally set out to earn it; I’m just good at science so I kept taking science classes to keep my GPA afloat)
Honestly, I don’t feel any smarter. But at least when people ask me if I have a degree, I can say yes…? You’d be surprised how critical people would get back when I didn’t have a degree. (I always thought said attitude was rather illogical, taking my ill-health into account. It’s not like I’d be able to hold down a 9-5 job)
Ninety percent of people don’t belong in college.
@BF
Congratulations on graduating. And welcome to the postgraduate world. The credentials matter less than the papers that came from them.
@Bob.
When I was a kid, half of HS failed School Certificate. That got you into a trade. Half of those failed university entrance, which got you a cadetship or into teacher’s training college. and only half of those (or 12.5% of each year) got a bursary, which was needed to enter a competative intermediate year. That system worked. But it did need alternatives, such as apprenticeships. Of course, now, the job that used to require a trade certificate requires a BA, that which required a BA now needs a MA, and that which you used to do with a MA requres a PhD.