Northland Community and Technical College Allied Health and Medical Assisting (Associate's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Associate's in Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services
- Public college
- Thief River Falls, MN
- About 20 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Northland Community and Technical College allied health and medical assisting graduates earn about what allied health and medical assisting graduates earn nationally, $42,509 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $23,750 in federal loans, close to the national median of $19,000. It is one of the higher-paying allied health and medical assisting degrees in Minnesota.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Minnesota and national columns are the medians across all allied health and medical assisting associate's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Northland Community and Technical College graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Minnesota median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Minnesota allied health and medical assisting program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Minnesota medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 1% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $252 a month, or 7.1% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the parts of Minnesota outside metro areas are about 14% below the national average, so a $42,509 salary here buys what about $49,514 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to allied health and medical assisting, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Medical Assistants
$50,480Median pay in Minnesota. 10,580 people work in this job in Minnesota. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 13% from 2025 to 2035, with about 109,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
Pharmacy Technicians
$48,300Median pay in Minnesota. 7,340 people work in this job in Minnesota. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 44,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians
$74,440Median pay in Minnesota. 7,190 people work in this job in Minnesota. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 20,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Surgical Technologists
$80,210Median pay in Minnesota. 1,770 people work in this job in Minnesota. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 7,100 openings a year. Typical education to start: postsecondary nondegree award.
About Northland Community and Technical College
Allied Health and Medical Assisting ranks 4th of 5 associate's programs at Northland Community and Technical College by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($67,075), Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($51,189), and Criminal Justice ($47,216).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $42,509 one year after graduating and $43,034 five years after. The median across allied health and medical assisting associate's programs in Minnesota is $38,930.
The median federal loan balance is $23,750, which ranks the lowest of 6 allied health and medical assisting associate's programs in Minnesota. That works out to about $252 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 56% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 50%. Compare the cost with other Minnesota programs before deciding.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Minnesota comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the allied health and medical assisting program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024