West Virginia·Office and Administrative Support Occupations·SOC 43-6013

Best Medical Secretary programs in West Virginia, ranked by enrollment

Perform secretarial duties using specific knowledge of medical terminology and hospital, clinic, or laboratory procedures.

7 schools in West Virginia run programs that feed this job, graduating 236 people a year. The job pays a median of $38,430 in West Virginia across about 1,550 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledUnit ClerkMedical SecretaryMedical ReceptionistUnit Support RepresentativeSchedulerSecretaryWard ClerkWard Secretary
Graduates / yr
236
in West Virginia
Median pay · West Virginia
$38,430
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,550
people employed
Schools
7
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
51%
across those schools
Median net price
$19,134
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in West Virginia that lead to this job

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

4 programs in West Virginia that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in West Virginia (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 West Virginia page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1159
67.4%
3$30,774$17,375
248
20.3%
4$30,774$17,375
315
6.4%
1$30,774$17,375
414
5.9%
2$30,774$17,375

Top 7 schools in West Virginia

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 4 of the 7 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Valley College - Martinsburg
Martinsburg, WV Private not-for-profit · 2 feeder programs
149Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller$20,99366%$25,386
2West Virginia Junior College - Morgantown
Morgantown, WV Private for-profit · 2 feeder programs
29Medical Office Assistant/Specialist$26,44371%$19,134
3Pierpont Community and Technical College
Fairmont, WV Public · 2 feeder programs
19Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller42%
4West Virginia Junior College - Charleston
Cross Lanes, WV Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
14Medical Office Assistant/Specialist$28,00660%$15,408
5New River Community and Technical College
Beaver, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
12Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller36%
6West Virginia Northern Community College
Wheeling, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
7Medical Office Assistant/Specialist33%
7West Virginia Junior College - Bridgeport
Bridgeport, WV Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
6Medical Office Assistant/Specialist$28,00652%$15,053

All 7 schools in West Virginia

Every school in West Virginia 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 West Virginia that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Valley College - MartinsburgMartinsburgPrivate not-for-profit1492
West Virginia Junior College - MorgantownMorgantownPrivate for-profit292
Pierpont Community and Technical CollegeFairmontPublic192
West Virginia Junior College - CharlestonCross LanesPrivate for-profit141
New River Community and Technical CollegeBeaverPublic121
West Virginia Northern Community CollegeWheelingPublic71
West Virginia Junior College - BridgeportBridgeportPrivate for-profit61

What medical secretaries and administrative assistants earn in West Virginia

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

Median annual in West Virginia
$38,430
Mean annual
$41,170
Jobs in state
1,550
What the range looks like
10th pct$30,910Median$38,43090th pct$50,690
Versus the national median
-16.3%

U.S. median $45,930. West Virginia pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.36×

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

Metro areas in West Virginia

Wheeling, WV-OH
$39,200median
160 jobs
Charleston, WV
$38,540median
280 jobs
Morgantown, WV
$38,100median
250 jobs
Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH
$37,490median
190 jobs
Beckley, WV
$37,650median
60 jobs
Parkersburg-Vienna, WV
$38,080median
60 jobs
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
$37,500median
1,240 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+4.2%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
85,900
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
35,300
850,000 → 885,300
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus moderate-term on-the-job training

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 Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants page.

How to become a Medical Secretary

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

SpeakingActive ListeningReading ComprehensionCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

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

Related careers in West Virginia

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 7 majors mapped to Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants7 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 01.8201Veterinary Administrative Services, General
  • 01.8204Veterinary Administrative/Executive Assistant and Veterinary Secretary
  • 51.0710Medical Office Assistant/Specialist
  • 51.0711Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist
  • 51.0712Medical Reception/Receptionist
  • 51.0714Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller
  • 51.0716Medical Administrative/Executive Assistant and Medical Secretary

Common questions

Answers for people weighing medical secretaries and administrative assistants programs in West Virginia.

What degree do you need to become a Medical 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 Medical Insurance Specialist/Medical Biller, which awarded 159 degrees in West Virginia in 2024-25, 67.4% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Medical Secretary?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 4 programs to this occupation. The largest are Health and Medical Administrative Services. Together they graduate about 236 people a year in West Virginia.

How much do medical secretaries and administrative assistants earn in West Virginia?+

The median is $38,430 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 16.3% below the U.S. median of $45,930. 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 medical secretaries and administrative assistants growing?+

BLS projects a +4.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 85,900 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in West Virginia?+

7 institutions in West Virginia reported graduates from at least one of the 4 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 medical secretaries and administrative assistants work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Unit Clerk, Medical Secretary, Medical Receptionist, Unit Support Representative among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-6013.

Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in other statesFloridaCaliforniaKentuckyIndianaColoradoNew YorkOhioWyoming

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

All Clema data sources and release dates →

Explore every U.S. college in one conversation

Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.

Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card