10 Best Medical Assistant Programs in North Carolina – 2025
Written By: Editorial Staff @ NursingProcess.org
Medical assistants in North Carolina make $38,230 a year on average, but you’ll make more money and have better employment prospects if you become a certified medical assistant. You can only become a certified MA by attending one of the medical assistant programs in North Carolina. The medical assisting profession is expected to grow 19 percent over the next decade, but healthcare employers will continue to show a marked preference for hiring certified MAs. The good news is that North Carolina MA programs only take between 9 and 24 months to complete, and many of them are offered online. So, what are you waiting for? Start reading about the 10 best medical assistant programs in North Carolina for 2025.
WHAT ARE THE BEST MEDICAL ASSISTANT PROGRAMS IN NORTH CAROLINA?
(Based on our Ranking Methodology, below are the 10 best Medical Assistant programs in North Carolina. The list includes both campus-based and online programs.)
1) Stanly Community College - Locust
The certificate focuses on the administrative area of medical assisting by including courses in administrative office procedures, medical insurance, coding, and medical laws and ethics.
On the other hand, the diploma and associate offer an extensive curriculum and cover the clinical, clerical, and diagnostic aspects. The only difference between the two is that the associate includes additional general education courses that enhance communication and decision-making skills.
Both the diploma and associate include a five-credit clinical practicum that will help enhance practical skills. However, the certificate being a brief course does not include this component. It highly recommended for you to have a background in biology, mathematics, and typing for a better learning outcome.
2) Johnston Community College - Smithfield
The medical assisting curriculum of Johnston community college trains you in scheduling appointments, processing insurance claims, electrocardiography, patient billing, preparing patients for examinations, etc. On completion of the training, you can apply for employment in physician clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations.
The medical assisting training at JCC is available as a diploma and associate degree. The diploma program can be completed in as little as two semesters. The associate degree in medical assisting is broad and spread across three semesters. Both these programs can be completed in the day (full-time), evening (part-time) or online, depending on your convenience. On completing the education, you will be eligible to take the American Association of Medical Assistants' Certification Examination to qualify as a Certified Medical Assistant.
3) Miller-Motte College - Jacksonville, Fayetteville, Raleigh & Wilmington
Miller-Motte College offers a 15-month medical clinical assisting diploma. The program is delivered in a hybrid format where students go through a rigorous combination of classroom, web-based, and hands-on training. This course ensures students are ready to efficiently perform all clinical duties as well as manage the medical office by executing basic administrative functions.
The curriculum includes lessons in medical billing, insurance processing, pharmacology, phlebotomy techniques, capillary sticks, urinalysis testing, electronic health records, preparing patients for testing, infection control, the scope of practice, etc. You will also complete an externship and a certification exam review course.
Apart from quality training, the college also helps you in resume building and interview preparation in order to put you on the right track for a successful career.
Key Points about Various Campuses Offering this Program
The Jacksonville campus is very popular amongst students from the Beulaville, Richlands, and Jacksonville region.
The Fayetteville campus has been preparing students in various career-centric programs for over 100 years, attracting aspirants from Hope Mills, Fort Bragg and Spring Lake.
The strategic location of the Raleigh campus attracts students from all over Raleigh, Knightdale, Durham, Clayton, and Garner.
The campus in Wilmington caters to the needs of students from Wilmington, Carolina Beach, Leland, Hampstead, and Burgaw.
4) Wake Technical Community College - Raleigh
Wake Technical Community College offers medical assisting education as a combination of classroom and online teaching. Classroom sessions are held at the Perry Health Sciences Campus.
There are two types of programs available at this medical assistant school in North Carolina - diploma of one year and an associate degree of two years. The associate degree is more extensive and wide-ranging as it covers the entire required medical assisting curriculum as well as four general education courses. The associate degree includes courses in basic human biology, infection control, medical law, drug therapy, and medical insurance coding. Apart from this it also includes a clinical practicum of 5 credits conducted in the first year during the summer semester. In the diploma program, the practicum is conducted in the last semester.
The practicum is compulsory for all students and gives you a real-time experience of working in a physician’s office or other ambulatory health care situations.
Both programs enable you to gain expertise on various aspects of medical assisting such as electrocardiography, supervised medication administration and general office functions such as scheduling appointments, billing, collections, and computer operations, thus making you a multi-skilled professional.
5) Gaston College - Dallas
Gaston College helps you earn a medical assisting diploma in as little as one year (48 credit hours). Here you also have the opportunity to further your education by earning an associate after your diploma. Both the programs teach everything you need to know as an entry-level medical assistant, that is, reception duties, processing insurance claims, billing, collections, electrocardiography, supervised medication administration, etc. The associate degree is more comprehensive and provides a well-rounded education that also enhances your communication and critical thinking skills.
The college strives to achieve the perfect balance between didactic training and real-time experience because a medical assistant requires the ability to multi-task by managing patients and performing office functions of the clinic.
6) Vance-Granville Community College - Louisburg
If you want to shine through your career as a medical assistant, then Vance-Granville Community College can be the one for you. This college polishes your communication skills and trains you well in administrative as well as clinical duties required to work as a medical assistant. You will learn about medical terminology, basic anatomy and physiology, medical law and ethics, drug therapy, medical insurance coding, patient examination, and treatment procedures.
The college offers a diploma and an associate degree program. The degree program is of 2 years that requires completion of 66-67 credit hours, while, the diploma program can be completed within one year with coursework of 41-42 credit hours. Both the courses provide in-depth knowledge and are available at the Franklin campus. On completion of the given courses, you will be ready to take the AAMA certification examination to become a certified medical assistant, with the college recording an 81 % passing rate in this examination.
7) Richmond Community College - Hamlet
Richmond Community College’s medical assistant program in NC helps you master all the skills that you need to excel in this field. This dynamic course is available as an associate degree and certificate, and depending on your career goals, you can choose between these two options.
The certificate program requires completion of 18 credits in courses that teach clerical skills such as medical laws and ethics, medical terminology, administrative office procedures, medical transcription, and medical insurance billing and coding.
The associate degree is a comprehensive program that teaches you
everything, from legalities related to patient care to assisting in patient examinations, various treatment, and laboratory procedures. It also helps you gain expertise in administrative duties by familiarizing you with necessary computer skills, coding, and scheduling appointments. With training that covers administrative, clinical, and laboratory procedures, you will be able to explore job opportunities in medical clinics, healthcare organizations, and hospitals.
The associate degree program extends for two years and is divided into four semesters plus a summer session, and the time-period for the certificate program is half of that of the degree that is two semesters.
8) Craven Community College - New Bern
Craven community college offers a diploma and associate degree program that not only prepares you for a medical assisting career but also makes you eligible for the national certification examination administered by the American Association of Medical Assistants. The college reports a promising retention rate of 88% and a job placement rate of 80%.
By pursuing either of these programs, you will master clerical functions such as answering phone calls, organizing hospital admissions, bookkeeping, and maintaining medical records. You will also learn clinical functions such as patient examination, basic health-related procedures like preparing patients for X-ray, sterilizing instruments, lab testing, and disposing of contaminated supplies.
To be eligible for admission, you must have earned a minimum overall GPA of 2.5. The diploma takes three semesters to complete, while the associate will span across five semesters.
9) Central Carolina Community College - Lillington & Pittsboro
If you aim at becoming a medical assistant in NC, then you need to have the love for medicine and health, along with a bent for technology and computers. The Central Carolina community college focuses a lot on practical teaching methods. You will gain real-time experience in important functions such as drawing blood, sterilizing equipment, applying tourniquets or compression bandages, and examining actual samples in laboratory conditions.
The college offers a one-year Diploma spread over three semesters and an Associate in Applied Science Degree course of five semesters that will take two years to complete. The diploma is available as a day course at the Chatham Main Campus and Harnett Health Sciences Center. If you are enrolling for the associate, then the second year of your study will be at the Lee Main Campus with evening and online classes.
10) Southeastern College - Charlotte
The Southeastern College offers a well-designed associate, diploma and certificate program in medical assisting. The college aims at not only enhancing your intellectual understanding of your role as a medical assistant but also focuses on developing the right professional attitude.
The associate program gives you the flexibility of completing on a full-time basis in 16 months or on a part-time basis in 22 months, with a total of 60 credit hours required for both. The diploma and certificate programs are comparatively shorter in terms of the time period when compared to the associate degree. The diploma and certificate programs can be wrapped up in as little as eight months when completed on a full-time basis and 14 months if you do it part-time.
The core subjects of the diploma and certificate include clinical procedures, medical terminology, and lab procedures. What makes the diploma course unique is the fact that the curriculum also includes a radiography course of 6 credits. Both these programs include two externships of 3.5 credits each. Upon completion, you are eligible to take the certification exams such as CCMA, CMAA, CPT, CET, CEHRS, and CPCT.
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