Associate degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Medical Assisting (Associate)
Graduates who complete a associate degree in Medical Assisting earn a median of $42,269 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $28,587 and $56,048. We rank the 187 U.S. colleges whose Medical Assisting programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 14,873 graduates in all. That puts Medical Assisting at #19 of 27 associate degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
Casa Loma College-Los Angeles, in California, leads at $72,307, 55% above the median ranked school ($46,632). The gap between schools is moderate: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $42,050 and $51,555, and the lowest earns $29,469. 137 of the 187 ranked schools (73%) match or beat the national median.
Public universities dominate the top 20: 14 public, 5 private nonprofit and 1 for-profit. Across all ranked schools, 70% are public. California places 4 schools in the top 20, ahead of Texas (4).
The top 20 schools cost less than most: a median net price of $9,440 a year, against $11,465 across all 187 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $15,311 in federal loans, about 25% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 0.8 years.
Showing the top 50 of 187 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | Casa Loma College-Los Angeles Sherman Oaks, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $72,307 | 32 † | $26,250 | $27,596 | 1.6 |
| 2 | CBD College Los Angeles, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $71,543 | 127 | $19,995 | $23,033 | 1.3 |
| 3 | Nassau Community College Garden City, NY Public · 2-year | $68,998 | 29 † | — | $7,095 | 0.4 |
| 4 | Highline College Des Moines, WA Public · 4-year | $66,918 | 34 † | — | $9,879 | 0.8 |
| 5 | Stanbridge University Irvine, CA For-profit · 4-year | $65,946 | 256 | $28,326 | $45,372 | 3.1 |
| 6 | Parker University Dallas, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,198 | 50 | $21,000 | $29,135 | 1.9 |
| 7 | Weatherford College Weatherford, TX Public · 4-year | $65,044 | 59 | $10,500 | $9,967 | 0.7 |
| 8 | Muskegon Community College Muskegon, MI Public · 2-year | $64,331 | 31 † | — | $4,005 | 0.3 |
| 9 | Sacramento City College Sacramento, CA Public · 2-year | $63,615 | 49 | — | $6,614 | 0.5 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania Western University California, PA Public · 4-year | $62,740 | 94 | — | $18,256 | 1.4 |
| 11 | Essex County College Newark, NJ Public · 2-year | $61,635 | 29 † | — | $4,436 | 0.4 |
| 12 | UCNJ Union College of Union County New Jersey Cranford, NJ Public · 2-year | $59,825 | 29 † | — | $8,257 | 0.7 |
| 13 | Harcum College Bryn Mawr, PA Private nonprofit · 2-year | $57,557 | 111 | $20,000 | $24,776 | 2.4 |
| 14 | Austin Community College District Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $57,381 | 47 | $13,000 | $6,390 | 0.6 |
| 15 | St Petersburg College St. Petersburg, FL Public · 4-year | $57,312 | 32 † | $12,200 | $1,471 | 0.1 |
| 16 | New England Institute of Technology East Greenwich, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,971 | 119 | $19,666 | $36,483 | 4.4 |
| 17 | Genesee Community College Batavia, NY Public · 2-year | $56,954 | 71 | $13,000 | $8,334 | 0.8 |
| 18 | North Shore Community College Danvers, MA Public · 2-year | $56,623 | 63 | $11,050 | $9,000 | 1.2 |
| 19 | College of DuPage Glen Ellyn, IL Public · 2-year | $56,383 | 28 † | $10,000 | $7,401 | 0.7 |
| 20 | Navarro College Corsicana, TX Public · 4-year | $56,051 | 56 | $15,311 | $14,820 | 1.4 |
| 21 | Blinn College District Brenham, TX Public · 2-year | $55,794 | 27 † | $13,242 | $10,844 | 1.0 |
| 22 | Carroll Community College Westminster, MD Public · 2-year | $54,882 | 29 † | — | $2,725 | 0.3 |
| 23 | Southwest Tennessee Community College Memphis, TN Public · 2-year | $54,736 | 26 † | — | $4,754 | 0.5 |
| 24 | CUNY LaGuardia Community College Long Island City, NY Public · 2-year | $54,544 | 80 | $8,049 | $6,120 | 0.7 |
| 25 | Jefferson State Community College Birmingham, AL Public · 2-year | $54,512 | 28 † | — | $9,086 | 0.8 |
| 26 | Lone Star College System The Woodlands, TX Public · 4-year | $54,262 | 63 | $8,042 | $11,252 | 1.2 |
| 27 | Albany State University Albany, GA Public · 4-year | $54,178 | 30 † | $15,750 | $11,898 | 1.2 |
| 28 | Community College of Rhode Island Warwick, RI Public · 2-year | $53,946 | 45 | $11,000 | $6,513 | 1.0 |
| 29 | Polk State College Winter Haven, FL Public · 4-year | $53,932 | 60 | $13,000 | $9,427 | 1.0 |
| 30 | Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA Public · 2-year | $53,720 | 28 † | — | $9,919 | 1.2 |
| 31 | San Jacinto Community College Pasadena, TX Public · 4-year | $53,546 | 26 † | — | $12,143 | 1.3 |
| 32 | Murray State College Tishomingo, OK Public · 4-year | $53,511 | 48 | $10,500 | $12,844 | 1.4 |
| 33 | University of Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $53,250 | 48 | $26,561 | $21,602 | 2.6 |
| 34 | Fox College Tinley Park, IL For-profit · 2-year | $53,166 | 172 | $18,625 | $13,109 | 1.5 |
| 35 | Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University Baton Rouge, LA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $53,116 | 50 | $19,667 | $18,552 | 2.0 |
| 36 | Morton College Cicero, IL Public · 2-year | $53,105 | 29 † | — | $5,191 | 0.6 |
| 37 | Arkansas State University Jonesboro, AR Public · 4-year | $53,002 | 89 | $13,864 | $12,366 | 1.2 |
| 38 | Tyler Junior College Tyler, TX Public · 4-year | $52,786 | 36 † | $13,784 | $10,206 | 1.1 |
| 39 | Holmes Community College Goodman, MS Public · 2-year | $52,746 | 34 † | $13,250 | $5,643 | 0.5 |
| 40 | Taylor College Ocala, FL For-profit · 2-year | $52,604 | 32 † | $25,250 | $20,300 | 2.2 |
| 41 | Delaware Technical Community College-Terry Dover, DE Public · 4-year | $52,551 | 101 | $8,000 | $11,578 | 1.4 |
| 42 | Connecticut State Community College New Britain, CT Public · 2-year | $52,347 | 99 | — | $11,513 | 1.6 |
| 43 | Houston City College Houston, TX Public · 4-year | $52,208 | 62 | $15,000 | $5,737 | 0.7 |
| 44 | Lane Community College Eugene, OR Public · 4-year | $51,870 | 31 † | — | $9,123 | 1.2 |
| 45 | St Catherine University Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $51,868 | 248 | $21,000 | $19,764 | 2.8 |
| 46 | Volunteer State Community College Gallatin, TN Public · 2-year | $51,709 | 41 | $8,750 | $7,802 | 0.9 |
| 47 | Spokane Community College Spokane, WA Public · 4-year | $51,624 | 26 † | — | $5,473 | 1.0 |
| 48 | Whatcom Community College Bellingham, WA Public · 4-year | $51,485 | 29 † | — | $11,795 | 2.2 |
| 49 | Eastwick College-Ramsey Ramsey, NJ For-profit · 4-year | $51,319 | 190 | $16,615 | $27,074 | 3.8 |
| 50 | Green River College Auburn, WA Public · 4-year | $51,280 | 42 | — | $13,803 | 2.6 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only associate degree programs in Medical Assisting (CIP 5108, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 187.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 2 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Medical Assisting earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $68,745 | 4 | Casa Loma College-Los Angeles |
| Illinois | $53,136 | 4 | College of DuPage |
| Texas | $52,786 | 15 | Parker University |
| Maryland | $51,266 | 3 | Carroll Community College |
| Washington | $51,130 | 8 | Highline College |
| New Jersey | $50,738 | 7 | Essex County College |
| Virginia | $50,523 | 6 | Northern Virginia Community College |
| Massachusetts | $50,341 | 4 | North Shore Community College |
| Oregon | $50,222 | 3 | Lane Community College |
| Mississippi | $49,986 | 4 | Holmes Community College |
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