Best programs to become an emergency medical technician
You do not need a college degree to become an emergency medical technician. BLS lists a postsecondary nondegree award (a certificate) as the typical entry-level education. The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic) (IPEDS completions).
1 college program at 662 schools trains emergency medical technicians, graduating 32,524 people a year (IPEDS completions). The job pays a median of $44,470 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About emergency medical technicians
Assess injuries and illnesses and administer basic emergency medical care. May transport injured or sick persons to medical facilities.
An emergency medical technician (EMT) is a medical professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found serving on ambulances and in fire departments in the US and Canada, as some departments require their firefighters to be EMT certified.
Read more on Wikipedia →Best programs to study to become an emergency medical technician
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.0904 | 32,524 | 100.0% | 662 | $53,520 | $20,250 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
What emergency medical technicians earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | $39,870 | 6,060 | 0.53× | 41 | 4,680 |
| California | $46,380 | 21,880 | 1.03× | 55 | 3,453 |
| Texas | $37,260 | 12,770 | 0.78× | 51 | 2,733 |
| Wisconsin | $43,060 | 3,930 | 1.15× | 17 | 2,273 |
| Arizona | $39,500 | 3,970 | 1.05× | 18 | 1,837 |
| Colorado | $45,750 | 3,060 | 0.92× | 14 | 1,837 |
| Ohio | $40,220 | 5,560 | 0.86× | 32 | 1,631 |
| Illinois | $42,260 | 7,840 | 1.11× | 30 | 1,340 |
| Alabama | $37,810 | 2,020 | 0.82× | 17 | 1,244 |
| Tennessee | $40,330 | 3,860 | 1.01× | 15 | 980 |
| Utah | $38,930 | 1,280 | 0.64× | 12 | 926 |
| Georgia | $45,550 | 6,260 | 1.10× | 21 | 913 |
| Iowa | $40,660 | 1,510 | 0.83× | 12 | 655 |
| Louisiana | $35,870 | 2,450 | 1.09× | 7 | 627 |
| Kentucky | $36,800 | 2,770 | 1.19× | 15 | 571 |
| Arkansas | $36,230 | 1,120 | 0.74× | 23 | 561 |
| New Mexico | $37,550 | 1,260 | 1.24× | 11 | 546 |
| Kansas | $35,780 | 1,510 | 0.90× | 10 | 528 |
| Oregon | $49,270 | 1,970 | 0.86× | 11 | 477 |
| Michigan | $39,870 | 4,230 | 0.83× | 18 | 435 |
| Nevada | $37,560 | 1,530 | 0.85× | 5 | 421 |
| Virginia | $45,420 | 4,490 | 0.94× | 21 | 420 |
| North Carolina | $44,250 | 6,680 | 1.17× | 46 | 403 |
| Oklahoma | $34,170 | 2,410 | 1.22× | 9 | 378 |
| Missouri | $42,160 | 2,800 | 0.82× | 14 | 353 |
| South Carolina | $40,370 | 4,010 | 1.50× | 10 | 302 |
| New York | $48,400 | 14,840 | 1.32× | 15 | 227 |
| Minnesota | $48,090 | 3,160 | 0.92× | 11 | 211 |
| Mississippi | $36,630 | 1,390 | 1.03× | 9 | 190 |
| Massachusetts | $50,230 | 4,550 | 1.08× | 7 | 143 |
| Pennsylvania | $43,310 | 10,160 | 1.44× | 8 | 123 |
| Indianalimited | $42,740 | 4,160 | 1.12× | 1 | 106 |
| West Virginia | $34,360 | 900 | 1.11× | 6 | 96 |
| Maryland | $48,100 | 3,400 | 1.06× | 11 | 89 |
| Nebraska | $41,710 | 540 | 0.45× | 7 | 85 |
| Mainemoderate | $46,340 | 1,110 | 1.49× | 4 | 66 |
| Connecticutlimited | $50,640 | 2,190 | 1.11× | 2 | 64 |
| New Jersey | $53,610 | 6,120 | 1.23× | 5 | 54 |
| Washington | $52,690 | 2,940 | 0.71× | 8 | 48 |
| Montanamoderate | $36,140 | 860 | 1.44× | 3 | 44 |
| Idaholimited | $38,840 | 780 | 0.78× | 2 | 40 |
| North Dakota | $39,670 | 760 | 1.52× | 5 | 33 |
| Wyomingmoderate | $47,070 | 400 | 1.23× | 3 | 27 |
| South Dakotamoderate | $36,800 | 600 | 1.13× | 4 | 26 |
| Hawaiilimited | $66,410 | 560 | 0.77× | 1 | 23 |
| New Hampshirelimited | $46,790 | 1,010 | 1.27× | 2 | 21 |
| Vermontlimited | $45,600 | 790 | 2.25× | 1 | 21 |
| Delawarelimited | $46,790 | 950 | 1.69× | 1 | 7 |
| Alaskalimited | $57,440 | 310 | 0.81× | 1 | 4 |
| Rhode Islandlimited | $51,290 | 430 | 0.75× | 1 | 4 |
| District of Columbialimited | $46,650 | 370 | 0.46× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and knowledge
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Administer first aid treatment or life support care to sick or injured persons in prehospital settings.
- Assess nature and extent of illness or injury to establish and prioritize medical procedures.
- Attend training classes to maintain certification licensure, keep abreast of new developments in the field, or maintain existing knowledge.
- Comfort and reassure patients.
- Communicate with dispatchers or treatment center personnel to provide information about situation, to arrange reception of survivors, or to receive instructions for further treatment.
- Coordinate work with other emergency medical team members or police or fire department personnel.
- Decontaminate ambulance interior following treatment of patient with infectious disease, and report case to proper authorities.
- Drive mobile intensive care unit to specified location, following instructions from emergency medical dispatcher.
How to get in
How to become an emergency medical technician
- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
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.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Emergency Medical Technicians1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.0904Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic)
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become an emergency medical technician?+
You do not need a college degree to become an emergency medical technician. BLS lists a postsecondary nondegree award (a certificate) as the typical entry-level education. The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic) (IPEDS completions).
Which college majors lead to becoming an emergency medical technician?+
The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic) (IPEDS completions). In all, the NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 program to this job, which graduates about 32,524 people a year.
How much do emergency medical technicians earn?+
The median is $44,470 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $34,130 at the 10th percentile to $62,500 at the 90th. 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 emergency medical technicians growing?+
BLS projects a +5.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 14,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
662 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 program 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 emergency medical technicians work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records First Responder, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 29-2042.
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 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected 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 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, 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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