Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey has never been one to mince words, and his latest take on higher education is no exception. In a recent YouTube video, he took aim at students who rack up degrees without thinking about whether those credentials will actually pay off.
"All education is not smart. Some people are stupid about education," Ramsey declared. "Isn't that the paradox of the world?"
His argument is pretty straightforward: education has value, but that value needs to be measured in dollars and cents. "Education is valuable. Valuable in terms of money. It makes you money," he said, dismissing the romantic notion of learning purely for intellectual enrichment.
The Rising Cost of Getting It Wrong
Ramsey's warning comes at a time when the stakes are getting higher. College tuition is jumping more than 3% for the 2025-26 school year, according to U.S. News. That makes choosing the right field of study less of a philosophical exercise and more of a financial calculation.
Known for his no-nonsense approach to debt and wealth building, Ramsey urged viewers to avoid what he calls "absurd degrees" that have no real-world application. He threw out an example that's become something of a meme in his commentary: a PhD in German polka history. In his view, that's the textbook definition of a "useless" degree.
What Actually Pays the Bills
So what should students study instead? According to the University of Bridgeport, graduates who land the highest-paying jobs typically have degrees in computer science and engineering, medicine and healthcare, data science and analytics, finance, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. These are fields where the marketplace is willing to pay a premium for expertise.
Ramsey pointed to a frustrating disconnect he sees in the labor market: highly credentialed people who can barely make ends meet. He compared perpetual students to thermometers, passively collecting degrees like a thermometer collects degrees of temperature, yet lacking the ability to financially support their families.
Education as Investment, Not Hobby
His prescription is simple: pursue knowledge only in areas where the degree directly translates to higher income or better business skills. "Get a degree, get some knowledge in an area that actually has application in the marketplace," Ramsey said. The goal should be a "better quality of income" or a "better ability to run your own business."
For Ramsey, the ultimate test of a degree's worth is whether the culture cares enough about the subject to pay for it. If employers aren't writing checks for that expertise, the credential is essentially worthless, no matter how intellectually stimulating the coursework might have been.
As college costs continue their steady climb, his message is clear: treat education as a calculated financial transaction, not a hobby. It's a cold calculation, maybe, but in Ramsey's world, that's exactly the kind of thinking that keeps you out of debt and on the path to building wealth.