If you are asking “What degree should I get?”, do not start with a personality quiz.
Start with six practical questions:
- What kind of work would I seriously consider doing?
- How much school am I willing to complete?
- What will the program cost me?
- What do graduates in that field actually earn?
- How direct is the path from the degree into work?
- How much flexibility do I want if I change my mind?
You do not need the degree with the highest salary. You need a degree whose work, cost, training length and payoff fit together for you.
First decide how much education you actually want
Degree level changes the economics before major even enters the picture.
An associate degree can offer a shorter, often lower-cost path into some technical and health careers.
A bachelor's degree opens many more occupations and is the standard credential for a large share of professional jobs.
A master's degree can deepen specialization, support a career change or support advancement—but it adds cost and may require time away from work.
Doctoral and professional degrees can be necessary for specific careers, but they involve a much larger commitment.
The point is not to pick the shortest route.
It is to avoid paying for more education than your intended career actually requires.
Choose the job direction before the major name when you can
If you already know you want to be a nurse, accountant, mechanical engineer or teacher, the degree choice becomes easier because the occupation has a relatively legible training path.
If you only know that you “like business” or “want to help people,” the field is still wide open.
Work backward.
Search the actual occupations you can imagine doing. Read what the work involves. Look at typical entry education and licensing. Then identify the degrees that connect to those jobs.
BLS occupational information is useful here, but keep occupation wages separate from DegreeVerdict graduate earnings.
A degree can lead to many jobs. A job can have more than one educational route.
Use earnings as a constraint, not a command
Money matters.
Ignoring salary because “you should just study what you love” can lead to a very expensive surprise.
Chasing the highest salary without caring about the work can be equally shortsighted.
The more useful approach is to define an earnings range that feels workable.
If you expect to borrow $80,000, a field with modest reported earnings deserves more scrutiny than it would at a low-cost public college with little debt.
If you can finish a program inexpensively, you have more freedom to choose a lower-paying field.
Do not treat the top-right corner as “best.”
Treat it as information about the trade.
Debt should change how much risk you are willing to take
Debt turns a degree choice into a financing choice.
Two students can make the same major decision and face completely different risk because one pays $15,000 a year and the other pays $60,000.
Before committing, estimate how much you are likely to borrow.
Then compare that with the earnings range for the actual field and colleges you are considering.
No ratio will tell you whether a degree is personally worth it. But large debt combined with low or uncertain earnings should get your attention.
Average Student Debt After Graduation can help you understand the federal debt data.
Ask whether the degree stands on its own
Some degrees have a clear bachelor's-level labor market. Others commonly lead students toward graduate school.
That distinction matters.
If the jobs you want require a master's, doctorate or professional degree, evaluate the whole education path, not only the first credential.
A relatively inexpensive bachelor's degree can make sense if it is preparation for required graduate training.
An expensive bachelor's degree followed by an expensive graduate degree can create a very different financial problem.
This is especially important in fields where undergraduate earnings look modest because many students continue school.
If you are unsure, flexibility has real value
Not every 18-year-old needs a precise career plan.
If you are genuinely uncertain, consider how portable the degree is.
Ask:
- Does the curriculum build skills used across industries?
- Are there several plausible occupations?
- Can you add a concentration or minor later?
- Does the major force a narrow occupational path?
- How difficult is it to switch into or out of the program?
- Does changing majors add extra semesters?
Flexibility does not show up neatly in federal earnings data.
That does not make it imaginary.
A field with slightly lower measured earnings but broader options can be a better fit for someone who expects their interests to change.
A practical five-degree shortlist
If you are stuck, do this.
Choose five fields:
One high-confidence option
The field you currently think you want most.
Two adjacent options
Related degrees that could lead to similar work.
One financially stronger option
A field with a stronger payoff that you would genuinely consider—not something you hate simply because it pays well.
One lower-cost or shorter route
An associate or lower-cost program that could lead toward a similar goal.
Then compare those five.
This method makes you compare opportunity cost instead of falling in love with one label.
What if your parents want one degree and you want another?
Turn the disagreement into numbers and tradeoffs.
Suppose your parents prefer finance because they see it as safer, while you prefer psychology.
Do not argue in generalities.
Compare:
- actual programs
- actual cost
- reported earnings
- likely borrowing
- graduate-school requirements
- careers you would realistically pursue
You may still disagree. At least you will be disagreeing about a real decision.
Is Finance a Good Major? and Is Psychology a Good Major? show how different the financial cases can be.
What if you only care about getting a job?
Then use Best Degrees for Jobs, but read the methodology.
“Good for jobs” can mean:
- low unemployment
- many annual openings
- strong projected growth
- clear occupation mapping
- solid earnings
- broad employer demand
Those are different things.
A fast-growing occupation can still be small. A major with strong earnings can feed into a competitive market. A broad degree can have many career paths but no single obvious one.
Do not ask one metric to answer a five-part question.
What if you only care about money?
Then start with What Major Makes the Most Money? and Highest-Paying College Majors.
Then add cost.
A high-paying field can still be a weak personal investment if you choose an unusually expensive program or leave without finishing.
The highest salary is a useful screen. It is not a complete decision.
A simple decision rule
A degree deserves serious consideration when:
you can imagine doing the work + the education path is realistic + the cost is manageable + the measured outcomes are acceptable.
If one of those fails badly, investigate before enrolling.
You do not need perfection across all four.
You do need to understand the tradeoff.
Separate “degree level” from “major”
Students often mix two questions:
What should I study?<br/>and<br/>How far should I study it?
They are related, but they are not the same.
You might decide that healthcare is the right broad area and still have several education paths: an associate credential, bachelor's program, graduate professional route or something else entirely.
You might decide that business is the right area but have to choose among accounting, finance, marketing, economics or a general business program.
Make the decisions in layers.
First identify the work and field. Then ask what credential level the target occupations actually require.
This reduces the risk of choosing a degree title first and inventing a career justification afterward.
Use a “bad day” test, not only a dream-job test
When people imagine careers, they tend to picture the best parts.
Try the opposite.
Read about the routine tasks, work environment, schedule and less glamorous parts of the occupation.
Would you still tolerate the job on an ordinary Tuesday?
A high salary is less useful if you hate the work enough to leave the field quickly. A fascinating subject is less useful if the actual jobs bear little resemblance to the classes you enjoy.
This is not something DegreeVerdict can score.
It is something the data should make room for.
Do not choose a degree because you feel you have already invested too much
Students switch majors and adults change careers.
Past tuition is a sunk cost. It can be emotionally painful, but it should not force you to spend another two years and another $40,000 on a path you no longer want.
Compare the cost of switching with the cost of finishing and then retraining later.
Sometimes finishing is still the better option.
Sometimes changing now is cheaper.
The answer depends on credits completed, transferability and what the new path requires.
If two degrees look equally good, compare the colleges
You may reach a point where finance and accounting both look viable, or computer science and information technology both fit.
At that point, the best decision may be driven by the programs available to you.
One college may have much better measured outcomes in one field, stronger completion or a much lower price.
Degree choice and college choice interact.
Do not lock one before looking at the other.
The bottom line
The answer to “What degree should I get?” is not hidden inside a quiz.
Build a shortlist from the work you can imagine doing. Compare degree level, earnings, cost, debt and job path. Then price the specific colleges.
If two fields still look close, that is good news. You have more than one viable option.
The goal is not to predict your entire career at 18 or 28.
It is to avoid making a large education purchase without understanding what you are buying.
Related guides: Best Associate Degrees, Highest-Paying Bachelor's Degrees and Best Degrees for Jobs.
About the data
- College Scorecard field-of-study documentation: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/files/FieldOfStudyDataDocumentation.pdf
- NCES/IPEDS: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
DegreeVerdict data last refreshed: June 10, 2026