Medical Office Assistant/Specialist

Types of Degrees Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many medical office assistant/specialist graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	2,655
Undergraduate Certificate	1,522
Associate Degree	715
Bachelor’s Degree	1

What Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, medical office assistant/specialist majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in medical office assistant/specialist should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills for Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors

When studying medical office assistant/specialist, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors

As a medical office assistant/specialist major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with medical office assistant/specialist:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Medical Assistants	29.0%	$33,610
Medical Secretaries	22.5%	$35,760

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Medical Office Assistant/Specialist?

This major is dominated by women with about 97% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of medical office assistant/specialist majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	10
Black or African American	201
Hispanic or Latino	101
White	241
International Students	2
Other Races/Ethnicities	160

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Medical Office Assistant/Specialist. About 0.3% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Medical Office Assistant/Specialist majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $34,540 to $37,090 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Medical Office Assistant/Specialist

Some careers associated with medical office assistant/specialist require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for medical office assistant/specialist careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	24.4%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	42.3%
Some College Courses	25.0%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	9.8%

Online Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Programs

In 2020-2021, 279 schools offered a medical office assistant/specialist program of some type. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	146	19
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	71	14
Bachelor’s Degree	1	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Medical Office Assistant/Specialist Worth It?

The median salary for a medical office assistant/specialist grad is $34,540 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Medical Office Assistant/Specialist

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to medical office assistant/specialist.

Major	Number of Grads
Health Care Management	16,886
Medical Insurance Coding Specialist/Coder	10,149
Health Information/Medical Records Technology/Technician	9,623
Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller	8,186
Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant & Medical Secretary	8,049
Medical Office Management/Administration	3,555
Hospital & Health Care Facilities Administration/Management	3,088
Health Information Management	2,688
Other Health & Medical Administrative Services	1,870
Medical/Health Management & Clinical Assistant/Specialist	1,176
Medical Reception/Receptionist	781
Long Term Care Administration/Management	275
Medical Office Computer Specialist/Assistant	224
Medical Transcription/Transcriptionist	198
Clinical Research Coordinator	127
Health Unit Coordinator/Ward Clerk	94
Medical Staff Services Technology/Technician	23
Health Unit Manager/Ward Supervisor	20
Health/Medical Claims Examiner	15
Disease Registry Data Management	8

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.