I remember a forum somewhere about college recently. It seems strange that you have to pay huge amounts for something that doesn't seem to qualify you for anything. Here your four years gets you qualified as a lawyer or an engineer or most of your unpaid medical training whereas over there you have to turn round and attend another school for law etc. I think that is what I understood. Is there any way if enough people complained an alternate system could be set up? Or a review of the current system instigated at government level?
In the U.S., engineering is an undergrad degree. Many people get an additional master's (or master's-ish degree) that takes a year or two, generally two.
Law is three year degree after undergrad. You can practice immediately after that if you pass the bar exam even if you don't know anything. There is a severe oversupply of lawyers.
Medicine is a four year degree after undergrad, plus additional training that you are compensated for on a limited basis. Once you finish that, you can practice. There is not much of an oversupply of doctors, but it's a strange system.
None of these systems are going to change any time soon because nobody really feels like changing them.
There are a few exceptions, like for the joint law/medicine degree that takes you 6 years after undergrad.
There are also some joint undergrad/medicine degrees that take you six/seven years and you get the undergrad degree and the medical degree.
I personally have a degree in chemical engineering (five years) and a degree in law (three years).
And to this day, the only thing I really got out of either of those two programs was the ability to say that I was "college-educated" and the power to take the bar exam and practice law.
