There are many ways to reach the same destination. I have a friend who received a degree in "ethnomusicology" (sic?) many years ago, and she has made a modest living with music all her life. There are also many people, and a lot of them can be found here on Mudcat, who have no formal education in "folk" or "traditional" music (however you choose to define those terms) but who know more about musical presentation and the background of the music they perform than you can possibly imagine. I expect you and your collegues will do as well as any group of graduates in any discipline, as long as you don't think that the degree alone makes you, as you put it, "experts in the field".