<p>This point was brought up in another thread, and I thought it would be an interesting point of discussion. </p>
<p>Many people go to grad school for two reasons (please let me know if I missed any other major reasons)</p>
<p>1.) Realize that they cannot find professional work with their undergraduate major and thus decide to go to more school to actually learn a marketable trade.</p>
<p>2.) Go into undergraduate knowing that they want to pursue an occupation that requires a "post-graduate" degree.</p>
<p>In either instance, what was the point of spending 40k-200k to end up with a product that offers no return investment by itself? In the first instance, why did the individual receive inadequate guidance to the point where they graduated with deserved but nevertheless unusable degree? In the second instance, why is our educational system set up so that doctors spend four years covering fundamental science disciplines and a majority dose of seemingly impertinent "core" courses?</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I am in no way a opponent of liberal arts education. I am actually quite an advocate. Having the ability to take classes simply for the "pursuit of knowledge" is fantastic. But, my thought is that by the end of four years, one should have attained the skill set to be able to make a professional living. Most majors, at least at my school, require about 30-40 credits, and students are required to do at least 114.</p>
<p>Anyways, what do you guys think? Is the current UG->Post grade system adequate, or do you think my concerns are warranted?</p>
<p>Exactly! I was just thinking about this the other day. I am planning on going to med school after I graduate, and I was wondering why we had to get an undergraduat degree for that. Like, how is majoring in theater or history going to actually be useful in my career?</p>
<p>Graduate schools offer high-level education that assumes the presence of knowledge and skills developed over one’s undergraduate career.</p>
<p>For example, performing academic research and writing a lengthy thesis/dissertation builds on the foundation of shorter research papers written as an undergraduate student. If a student didn’t have those skills, they would be completely unprepared for the vastly more demanding research required for a master’s/doctorate.</p>
<p>You can make a professional living in any of zillions of ways without a graduate degree.</p>
<p>That’s like saying why go to middle school if all you plan to do is go to high school and get a diploma there. You need a base to further your education off of, and that’s what undergrad education is for.</p>
<p>Honestly? So you can have a fun time before you go off and become part of the workforce.</p>
<p>Some countries do allow students to get their professional degrees right away (i.e., I know a few foreign doctors who went on to get medical degrees right after high school), so I do think it could be possible to make certain current graduate programs accessible to undergrads. </p>
<p>I can understand why academic, research-based degrees would require an undergraduate degree first, but I think many professional degrees could be obtained at an undergraduate level (I’m not necessarily saying that this would be better, but it would be possible).</p>
<p>Honestly, no idea either. I don’t think I’ve learned one thing in college yet. But the system is meant for us to explore many different fields.</p>