so I finally figured out what Dick's mysterious second degree is
for context, at the tail end of the Nightwing Rebirth run we were told that Dick has two degrees, one of which is a masters degree in forensics:
"I can have an advanced degree in forensics, but can't figure out the-"
-Nightwing (2016) #43
You could argue that his other degree is his mysterious law degree, which is something he'd never had before and I assume Tom Taylor gifted to Dick because pre-reboot Earth-2 Dick was a lawyer:
"Really? Because I have a law degree."
"Oh, yeah. So do I."
-Nightwing (2016) #80
Though I suspect it's also probably Taylor following up on Humphries changing Dick's major at Hudson University from business (which he studied pre-Crisis) to what appears to be either pre-law or a dual degree program:
-"...and I wasn't Robin either. I was just regular Dick Grayson, Hudson University college student. Taking a semester at Bludhaven College Law School."
-Nightwing (2016) #39
But the Rebirth panels were written years before Taylor's run and a JD is another graduate degree, leaving me ??? about what Dick got his bachelors in. Especially since he notably dropped out of Hudson University after one year (pre-Crisis) or one semester (post-Crisis), and you can't get into law school without an undergraduate degree in the modern era.
Well, I was browsing through old Who's Who profiles and guess what I found?
"This group disbanded when Dick began his college studies at Hudson University. While Dick soon dropped out of college, he later returned to complete his degree in psychology and criminology."
-Who's Who in the DC Universe (1990) #14
Back in the 90s, Wolfman casually slid in that Dick went back to finish his degree program at some point after dropping out of Hudson. Which, to be fair, is something Dick would do. He canonically liked school just fine, he only dropped out because he consistently prioritized heroing over going to class and it killed his grades. In the age of correspondence courses and online degrees, Dick is someone who would realistically actually go back and finish his studies.
It's a bit out of left field, as I'm not sure anyone really picked up the plot thread dropped in this profile afterwards, but it does generally also match up with Dick going through the Police Academy later in Dixon's Nightwing run, since a lot of academies began favoring or requiring a college degree before admittance in the 90s. It also matches up with his academy instructor's final evaulation:
"Despite an overall display of boredom in the legal and forensics classes, his instructors gave him high marks for his finished work."
-Nightwing Secret Files and Origins (1999)
Obviously, the boredom was because he'd been a vigilante for over a decade by that point and both his prior training by Batman and lived experience as a hero had well outstripped anything the academy could offer him, but it is a notable alignment with his stated degrees.
Also, I think it's fun that Dick completing a double major in psychology and criminology rather than his original business major adds a lot of background context to both of his post-Flashpoint graduate degrees (forensics and law) as well as what he clearly perceives to be his full-time career (heroing).
