Journeymen and Perpetuals can't even access the full spell list though.
Also there's the question of magical prowess: Mathilde has sort of spoiled us in regards to typical expectations for Magisters - she got 7 Magic when she made Magister and then got to got to 8 and then 9 within 3 years. Johann - who is older than us if I remember correctly - has just recently reached a whooping Magic 7. Even Regimand - an accomplished senior magister just doesn't want to deal with Battle Magic beyond the borderline Smoke and Mirrors whilst Mathilde can cast certain BM spells without risk and is currently inventing BM spells.
It seems that going into higher tiers of Magic is really rare and the risks are frontloaded only if one wants to stay in their lane and cap their advancement (for example a Magister that just doesn't learn BM).
Perpetuals - They simply don't have the ability to learn, since a Perpetual is stuck at like, Magic 1 or Magic 2, if they aren't one of those who need magic suppressors to live. Theres nothing keeping an Apprentice's Master from teaching them any spell except their ability to not explode casting said spell.
Journeymen - They don't have free access to the spell list, but a Journeyman can write to their Master for any learning materials, which, if the Journeyman is in good standing or backed by a request from their employer, could be any spell their Master accepts. This is mainly a responsibility thing, a Journeyman isn't tested yet, so their ability to expand their capabilities is gated by the Magister in charge of them.
As for magical ability...your syllabus gives you up to +5 Magic on its own,
if you can complete it. And I'd note your spell knowledge could apparently decay if unused. So if you're relying on spells you can't cast reliably to obtain a particular rating you must cast said spells riskily at least infrequently to maintain that rating.
Without traits, from what I recall of the spellbook mechanics:
If you started with Magic 1, you could get to Magic 3 without taking any risks, and you could TOUCH Magic 4 if you lived dangerously with Moderately Complicated spells.
If you had a base of Magic 2, you could get to Magic 4 without taking any risks, but getting to Magic 5 requires taking risks, and the risks will continue until you learn all the Moderately Complicated spells, stabilizing there. You could then learn Fiendishly Complicated spells to get you to Magic 6, but you'd probably decay down to 5 if you don't take some risks regularly. If you DID take some risks you'd eventually either die, cripple your magical ability or pick up the right trait/arcane mark to go to the next bracket.
If you got to a base Magic of 3, you could simply learn the whole spellbook and stabilize at Magic 7, never taking risks at any point.
But, as far as I can tell, most wizards just plain start at Magic 1. Your options are:
-Get a staff - Staves are the product of quite a bit of skill investment and tedious labor. Simply by getting a staff you have the potential to master the basic spellbook given risks. The biggest thing you could probably do for the Colleges Magisterial graduation rate is to have every Journeyman start out with a staff...but theres a lot more graduating Apprentices than Magisters willing to make staves. You don't get the attention of a good staff turner without doing something standout, which usually means something risky.
-Get a Familiar - You get a familiar. You then need to roll the obsession gacha over and over to get the magic boost trait, as well as an external weak point. Its not a bad risk if you're a shut in academic wizard.
-Get the Arcane Mark - Absolutely not safe to get at all. It involves casting a LOT of spells in stressful conditions, without rolling "you asplode". A Journey puts the wizard in a good position to get it.
-Get a +magic Trait - This is rare as hell. It requires taking significant magical risks or natural talent, with no guarantee of the outcome unless you're a Quest Protagonist and had some level of say over what kinds of traits you wind up with. This is what Mathilde got as her breakout skill. A Journey puts a lot of novel stressors to get one.
So presuming there's an average career path at all, I'd expect a 'normal' academic wizard career path to be: Graduate apprenticeship with Magic 2, grind their way up to Magic 4 over their Journey, acquire a staff and familiar at some point and work the familiar until you get +Magic out of it(probably becoming very Obssessed, but its not a big deal for an academic), learn something from the last spell bracket, then pass the Magister exams and settle for a life of squeezing out the minimum publishable unit. They'd never be looking at Battle Magic, but will never be more than "pretty decent" at magic.
What got Mathilde there at this rate was that she had:
-A +magic trait out of her Windsight talents.
Then she got the following after graduating:
-A +magic familiar out of the box, thanks to Ranald.
-A +magic Staff she made herself.
-Finished the spellbook.
Mathilde basically got carried by her Windsight.
E: Noting this is very simplified, you can miscast spells you can cast reliably too, and learning a spell is never entirely safe even if you had the Magic for it. Some people have talents or anti-talents like Johann ensuring they can only get half the spellbook Magic ratings.
If we wanted a typical new Magister, start of expedition Johann was apparently a fairly fresh Magister who spent most of his advancements on Gilding.
E2: Also the Grey College may not be representative since they put a lot of value in nonmagical skills.
