Bachelors, are you qualified?

Me and Wifey were sitting in a garden talking about our careers...how we thought they should be, where they are and what will we do next? The topic switched over to the qualifications that we had (Bachelor's and Master's degree)
Wifey is a Masters in German language and I am a Bachelor's in Instrumentation Engineering. I asked her....Did you find that while pursuing a masters in German....that all your subjects were related only to the German language? Or were there any other subjects during your 2 years of masters when you felt that perhaps, you were only 'beating around the bush'?

Silly question, eh? Well, you might say that....because when you say 'Masters in German' it obviously does not mean that they are going to teach you algebra. Or teach you the french language?

Then I asked her whether it the same with the bachelors degree? (Her bachelors degree is in sanskrit). Did they teach you only sanskrit for all the 3 years of 'Bachelors degree in Sanskrit'?

If your memory can take you back to maybe your first year of Bachelors degree, you will start appreciating my question. In Instrumentation engineering for instance, first year was a revision of science. Applied physics, applied chemistry, maths.Other subjects were engineering drawing, engineering mechanics etc. Second year and Third year were all electronics,computers and Electrical....electronic devices and circuits, microprocessors, computer networks, Electrical technology etc.

By the time I was in the final year of our Engineering, I had almost forgotten that I was supposed to be specializing in a field called 'instrumentation'. There were subjects related to instrumentation in the last year, of course, but then these were again covering different areas of instrumentation....which in itself is a vast field !!

It seems almost obvious now, that I knew almost nothing of instrumentation when I joined a company as graduate engineer trainees.

The point I am trying to make is....when we say starting of education for a bachelor's degree......doesnt it mean that one is qualified enough to only learn what is related to your subject of specialization? After all, you have been through school, junior college where you do the common subjects anyway. Do you have to do post graduation to totally be in that subject? Is Bachelor's degree just a degree, where you get a stamp of being qualified in a field when you are actually only just familiar with it?