Medical Assistant Program at Highline College

✔️ Page Updated: December 26th, 2025 | Current for 2026, learn more about our data 🛈

For students in Des Moines, WA, Highline College offers an affordable, flexible path into healthcare with a strong 90%+ exam passage rate and near 100% job placement in the Puget Sound area.

This page provides up-to-date tuition costs, outstanding graduation and employment data, accreditation status, direct contact information, and interactive resources including Google Maps and campus videos.

CMA AAMA: Medical Assistant Program Overview at HC

Highline College, conveniently located in Des Moines, WA, offers a highly regarded Medical Assistant program designed to launch your career in the booming Puget Sound healthcare sector. Students have the choice between a nationally accredited Certificate, which takes six quarters, or the full Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree, completed in eight quarters. The comprehensive curriculum trains students in essential administrative and clinical tasks across cognitive, psychomotor, and behavioral domains. The program is led by Program Director Diana Cacho.

Program Structure and Experience

• A key feature is the required, supervised 180-hour externship, ensuring practical, on-the-job experience before graduation.
• The program is cohort-based, but flexibility allows for part-time attendance.

Career Outcomes and Cost

Program outcomes are strong: In 2023, the graduate exam passage rate was over 90%, and those who pass the NCCT exam often see near 100% job placement at local employers such as HealthPoint and MultiCare.

This success prepares students to meet the high demand for MAs – projected to grow 16% nationally. Starting wages in the Seattle/King County area are competitive, averaging $22 to $25 per hour.

Tuition is affordable at $9,846 plus fees, significantly less than private programs.

HC’s Medical Assistant Program Data

Our Data

Our Medical Assistant Program Data is carefully researched and curated from the following government and higher education organizations.

• CAAHEP (Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs) – CAAHEP is the largest programmatic accreditor for health sciences education and the official medical assisting program accreditor for the National CMA (AAMA) Certification Exam.
• IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) – A comprehensive database of U.S. colleges and universities.
• Peterson’s Database – Includes detailed college information and their Distance Learning Licensed Data Set.
• College Scorecard – A U.S. Department of Education tool offering key statistics on college costs, graduation rates, and student outcomes.
• NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) – The primary federal source for data and analysis on education in the U.S. such as cost of tuition. Our data shows average cost of tuition and fees for Public 2 year institutions per state.
• BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) – May 2024 Occupational Outlook Handbook Medical Assistants Data for Salary and Employment. Our data shows the mean annual salary and the total number of employed MAs per state.

• View All Medical Assistant Programs
• View Online Medical Assisting Programs
• View Medical Assistant Schools in Washington