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Which qualification leads where, and what a licence actually requires. Licensed professions from law and psychology to insurance and counselling: the accredited degree, the supervised hours nobody mentions, the examination, and the state board that has the final say.
School careers advice is almost entirely about degrees, and that framing costs people years. A skilled trade is in demand, cannot be done from another continent, starts cheaper, and is entirely compatible with studying later.
A candidate with excellent results in the wrong three subjects is not a weak applicant for a course requiring the fourth. They are ineligible. The patterns that hold nearly everywhere, and why mathematics decides most of it.
No degree is useless, but some have a much worse return than others, and it is rarely the subject that decides it. Here is what actually drives the outcome, and what to do if you already chose one.
Seven years: four for a bachelor's degree in any subject, three for a JD, then the bar exam. Here is each stage, the shorter routes that exist, and why the easiest law school to get into is rarely the right one.
For licensed work the degree is rarely the last step. Supervised hours and exams come after it, and they are what people underestimate. Here is the full route for eleven professions.