Is Medical Assisting Worth Going to School for?

Is going to a technical school a bad idea for medical assisting?

• The program is about 22,000 with all supplies and books included and that would be for an associate degree. I spoke with financial aide and over half of that would be covered with grants. So i would need to take out about an 11,000 loan. Does this sound like a bad idea? I really just want to be done with school. I went to community college and I kept switching my major and I've been there about 3 yrs with no degree. I just think if i do this program it would be good and I would be graduated with an associates in 16 months.

• Answer:

  Find out if the community colleges in your area offer medical assisting as one of their degree or certificate programs. If they do, it might be cheaper. But if it's a two year program, and this one is only 16 months, you'll have to weigh that - if you really need to be done asap, the extra cost might be worth it to you. I don't feel that an $11k loan for medical assisting would be overly burdensome when you graduate. To be able to work as a medical assistant, your program needs to be accredited by either the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) or the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). If it is not, then depending on your state, you may not be able to work at all. In other states, you can find difficulty finding a job. You can look up all accredited programs near you here: http://www.aama-ntl.org/medassisting/caahep_prgs.aspx