North Dakota·Office and Administrative Support Occupations·SOC 43-6011

Best Executive Secretary programs in North Dakota, ranked by enrollment

Provide high-level administrative support by conducting research, preparing statistical reports, and handling information requests, as well as performing routine administrative functions such as preparing correspondence, receiving.

3 schools in North Dakota run programs that feed this job, graduating 5 people a year. The job pays a median of $61,270 in North Dakota across about 540 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledExecutive AssistantExecutive SecretaryAdministrative AssistantAdministrative SecretarySchedulerStaff AssistantOffice AssistantProtocol Officer
Graduates / yr
5
in North Dakota
Median pay · North Dakota
$61,270
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
540
people employed
Schools
3
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
42%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in North Dakota that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in North Dakota that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in North Dakota (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own North Dakota page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
15
100.0%
3$25,993$9,500

Top 3 schools in North Dakota

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 3 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Bismarck State College
Bismarck, ND Public · 1 feeder programs
3Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General47%
2Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Fort Totten, ND Public · 1 feeder programs
1Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General28%
3Dickinson State University
Dickinson, ND Public · 1 feeder programs
1Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General51%37%

All 3 schools in North Dakota

Every school in North Dakota with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in North Dakota that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Bismarck State CollegeBismarckPublic31
Cankdeska Cikana Community CollegeFort TottenPublic11
Dickinson State UniversityDickinsonPublic11

What executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants earn in North Dakota

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in North Dakota
$61,270
Mean annual
$64,900
Jobs in state
540
What the range looks like
10th pct$46,350Median$61,27090th pct$86,170
Versus the national median
-20.0%

U.S. median $76,590. North Dakota pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.42×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in North Dakota

Grand Forks, ND-MN
$64,570median
70 jobs
Fargo, ND-MN
$65,090median
250 jobs
Bismarck, ND
$61,890median
120 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
-1.6%
Decline
Openings per year
50,000
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
-7,900
502,800 → 494,900
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants page.

How to become a Executive Secretary

Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Work experience needed
Less than 5 years

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Top skills

Active ListeningReading ComprehensionSpeakingWritingCritical ThinkingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in North Dakota

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 2 majors mapped to Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 52.0401Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General
  • 52.0402Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary

Common questions

Answers for people weighing executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants programs in North Dakota.

What degree do you need to become an Executive Secretary?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General, which awarded 5 degrees in North Dakota in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming an Executive Secretary?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Operations Support and Assistant Services. Together they graduate about 5 people a year in North Dakota.

How much do executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants earn in North Dakota?+

The median is $61,270 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 20.0% below the U.S. median of $76,590. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants growing?+

BLS projects a -1.6% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 50,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in North Dakota?+

3 institutions in North Dakota reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Executive Assistant, Executive Secretary, Administrative Assistant, Administrative Secretary among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-6011.

Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants in other statesCaliforniaIdahoTexasAlabamaMinnesotaKentuckyGeorgiaLouisiana

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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