Your points only hold in a pretty narrow view of what degrees do. There is a lot of value in:
1. Showing you can complete a 4 year project
2. Networking not only with professors, but also other students. You never know when you’ll need a dude who has a weird amount of skill in X, but if it’s in any way related to your field, you may have had classes together.
3. A place to spend a bit more time maturing
4. A place to pick up some skills that particularly interest you
5. A mixing of different economic classes, backgrounds, and outlooks, amid a relatively calm intellectual setting
6. Highly specialized and targeted education
And more. All of these make you more valuable to society, though that doesn’t have to be our only goal. We could also enjoy the generic enrichment of our citizens.
1. Showing you can complete a 4 year project
2. Networking not only with professors, but also other students. You never know when you’ll need a dude who has a weird amount of skill in X, but if it’s in any way related to your field, you may have had classes together.
3. A place to spend a bit more time maturing
4. A place to pick up some skills that particularly interest you
5. A mixing of different economic classes, backgrounds, and outlooks, amid a relatively calm intellectual setting
6. Highly specialized and targeted education
And more. All of these make you more valuable to society, though that doesn’t have to be our only goal. We could also enjoy the generic enrichment of our citizens.