Penn State Allied Health and Medical Assisting (Associate's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Associate's in Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services
- Public university
- University Park, PA
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Penn State allied health and medical assisting graduates earn about what allied health and medical assisting graduates earn nationally, $35,848 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $18,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $19,000. Several Pennsylvania programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Pennsylvania and national columns are the medians across all allied health and medical assisting associate's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Penn State graduates earn more than the national figure and about $6,925 more than the Pennsylvania median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Pennsylvania allied health and medical assisting program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Pennsylvania 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 23% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned $2,947 less in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed more. Students who expect to rely on grants should weigh this gap.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $191 a month, or 6.4% 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. Separately, 59 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $16,490.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
76% of graduates (157 of 207) were working in Pennsylvania one year after graduating. Prices in the State College area are about 3% below the national average, so a $35,848 salary here buys what about $37,048 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
$43,920Median pay in Pennsylvania. 23,050 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. 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
$40,040Median pay in Pennsylvania. 18,880 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. 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
$51,680Median pay in Pennsylvania. 13,020 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. 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
$62,680Median pay in Pennsylvania. 4,490 people work in this job in Pennsylvania. 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 Penn State
Allied Health and Medical Assisting ranks 8th of 9 associate's programs at Penn State by first-year earnings. The top three are Electrical Engineering Technology ($61,945), Diagnostic and Treatment Professions ($58,317), and Information Science ($51,734).
Other allied health and medical assisting associate's programs near University Park
Common questions
The median graduate earns $35,848 one year after graduating and $43,968 five years after. The median across allied health and medical assisting associate's programs in Pennsylvania is $34,834.
The median federal loan balance is $18,000, which ranks 4th lowest of 13 allied health and medical assisting associate's programs in Pennsylvania. That works out to about $191 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 50% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 50%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 5% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Pennsylvania programs report higher pay, usually with more debt.
Most do. 76% (157 of 207) were working in Pennsylvania one year after graduating.
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 Pennsylvania 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