Santa Barbara City College Health and Medical Administration (Certificate): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Certificate in Health and Medical Administrative Services
- Public college
- Santa Barbara, CA
- About 49 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release ยท BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Santa Barbara City College health and medical administration graduates earn more than graduates of most health and medical administration programs nationally, $47,046 in their first year. Debt is high. The typical graduate leaves with $18,728 in federal loans, more than at 84% of health and medical administration programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying health and medical administration programs in California.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all health and medical administration certificate programs that report the figure.
Debt and first-year pay at every California health and medical administration program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the California medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $199 a month, or 5.1% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
Prices in the Santa Maria area are about 9% above the national average, so a $47,046 salary here buys what about $43,242 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 health and medical administration, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers
$77,590Median pay in California. 149,230 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 127,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
$54,490Median pay in California. 115,050 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 89,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Medical Assistants
$49,660Median pay in California. 117,060 people work in this job in California. 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.
Computer User Support Specialists
$79,570Median pay in California. 74,490 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 39,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: some college, no degree.
About Santa Barbara City College
Health and Medical Administration is the only certificate program at Santa Barbara City College that reports first-year earnings.
Common questions
The median graduate earns $47,046 one year after graduating. The median across health and medical administration certificate programs in California is $28,984.
The median federal loan balance is $18,728, which ranks 29th lowest of 29 health and medical administration certificate programs in California. That works out to about $199 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 40% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 41%.
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 California 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 health and medical administration 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