Baby Steps

One of the topics that interests me greatly is the sheer diversity of degree programs available at modern colleges. It somewhat baffles me how there are so many  'experts' in our colleges. In addition, as colleges grow they broaden the fields in which they provide study/degree programs in. I am curious as to how colleges got to have such a wide variety of degrees, and what constitutes a 'field'. More importantly to me, I am interested in the success of graduates from those 'newer' programs, as well as the 'older' ones.