The degrees with the most student debt are not automatically the worst investments. Medicine, dentistry, law and other professional paths can involve substantial borrowing and also lead to high-paying careers.
The more useful question is whether earnings appear proportionate to the borrowing and education path.
Keep credential levels visible
A bachelor’s degree with $35,000 in federal debt and a professional degree with $120,000 represent different investments. Program length, foregone earnings, licensing and prior education all change the decision.
The live table keeps the credential beside every field. It also shows reported earnings so a high debt figure is never presented without income context.
Federal debt is not total family debt
College Scorecard field-of-study debt measures cover federal student borrowing for defined cohorts. They do not include every private loan or Parent PLUS balance. The true household burden may therefore be higher.
DegreeVerdict labels the measure as federal debt and leaves unavailable values missing.
High debt needs earnings context
High debt combined with strong earnings may be manageable, though it is never harmless. High debt combined with modest earnings deserves closer scrutiny because standard payments consume more of the graduate’s income.
Debt-to-earnings is a useful screen, not a guaranteed repayment score. Interest rates, cost of living, career progression and public-service choices can all change the personal result.
College choice can matter as much as field
National field figures can hide wide variation across colleges. The same major may produce very different federal debt and earnings records depending on the institution.
Each row links to a degree profile where available, allowing readers to compare the same field and credential across reporting colleges.
Professional and graduate degrees need a personal baseline
Graduate ROI depends on what the student would earn without the new credential. Someone leaving a $90,000 job for an MBA faces a different investment from someone entering directly after college.
DegreeVerdict therefore does not apply a generic undergraduate ROI percentage to graduate and professional programs. Use the calculator with your current earnings, expected price and borrowing.
Avoid debt shaming
Some students choose lower-paying public-service careers deliberately. Some high-debt fields require long training paths. The goal is not to declare that borrowers made a mistake; it is to show whether the borrowing, earnings and credential appear aligned.
The DegreeVerdict verdict
High debt is not automatically bad. High debt with weak earnings is the combination that requires the closest inspection. Keep credentials separate, preserve the federal-debt definition and compare actual colleges before deciding.
Keep exploring on DegreeVerdict
- Majors with the lowest federal debt
- Compare earnings and debt by major
- Explore individual program outcomes
- Test a personal repayment scenario
Sources and methodology
DegreeVerdict uses College Scorecard field-of-study cumulative federal debt and earnings with exact credential definitions. The table requires at least 10 reporting programs and does not infer total family borrowing from federal student debt.