Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary maps to BLS occupations averaging about $64,925, with roughly 2,210,590 workers nationwide in those roles. Median in-state published tuition is about $4,612; common paths include Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive and Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants.
Key Statistics
Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary: what the data shows
Common questions about executive assistant/executive secretary degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a executive assistant/executive secretary degree?
A Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary program is classified under NCES CIP 52.0402 in the Business Operations Support and Assistant Services field family (52.04).
A program that prepares individuals to perform the duties of special assistants and/or personal secretaries for business executives and top management. Includes instruction in business communications, principles of business law, public relations, scheduling and travel management, secretarial accounting, filing systems and records management, conference and meeting recording, report preparation, office equipment and procedures, office supervisory skills, and professional standards and legal requirements
IPEDS counted 45 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
Types of executive assistant/executive secretary degrees and related programs
Other NCES program codes in the 52.04 family with pages on EDsmart Data:
- Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General (CIP 52.0401)
- Business/Office Automation/Technology/Data Entry (CIP 52.0407)
- Customer Service Support/Call Center/Teleservice Operation (CIP 52.0411)
- General Office Occupations and Clerical Services (CIP 52.0408)
- Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations (CIP 52.0409)
- Receptionist (CIP 52.0406)
- Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician (CIP 52.0410)
How long does it take to get a executive assistant/executive secretary degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 52.0402 in our file:
- 326 Associate (87.9% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 45 Bachelor's (12.1% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
Time to completion depends on enrollment intensity and transfer credits; figures above describe credential type, not calendar time for every student.
What degree do you need?
For Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive (top mapped occupation), O*NET incumbent surveys in our career profile report these education credentials most often: Some college (29%), High School or Equivalent (27%), Bachelors Degree (22%).
O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.
What jobs can you get with a executive assistant/executive secretary degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.
| Occupation | U.S. employment | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 1,737,820 | $46,290 |
| Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants | 472,770 | $74,260 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a executive assistant/executive secretary degree worth it?
College Scorecard national medians for the Business Operations Support and Assistant Services bachelor's program family: median debt $6,740, median earnings $28,311 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.41.
About 47.5% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians.
Among schools reporting in our Scorecard extract, median published in-state tuition is $4,612 and median net price is $8,568.
We do not score "worth" on opinion—compare debt, earnings, wages for mapped occupations, and completion data above against your cost and career target.
Institutions
Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$4,612 Median In-State Public
$13,450 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors are, on average, $4,612 for in-state public colleges, and $13,450 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary programs.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
100,000 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivy Tech Community College | IN | 58,267 |
| 2 | Ivy Tech Community College | IN | 58,267 |
| 3 | Miami Dade College | FL | 46,182 |
| 4 | Lone Star College System | TX | 45,188 |
| 5 | Lone Star College System | TX | 45,188 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barstow Community College | CA | $1,104 |
| 2 | Taft College | CA | $1,108 |
| 3 | Taft College | CA | $1,108 |
| 4 | Antelope Valley Community College District | CA | $1,124 |
| 5 | Antelope Valley Community College District | CA | $1,124 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada College | CA | $32 |
| 2 | Canada College | CA | $32 |
| 3 | New Mexico State University-Grants | NM | $68 |
| 4 | New Mexico State University-Grants | NM | $68 |
| 5 | Fort Peck Community College | MT | $400 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary programs.
Graduation Rates
Graduation rate data is not available for this degree program.
Graduation/completion rates for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary programs across institutions.
Where students complete this major (IPEDS)
Bachelor's-level completions (IPEDS Completions, award level 5) summed by institution state. State is taken from IPEDS Directory (HD2023) for each reporting institution.
Geographic concentration
The largest number of reported bachelor's completions for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary is in PR (45 completions). That state represents about 100.0% of U.S. bachelor's completions reported for this CIP in the IPEDS file we use.
Among states, the highest concentration relative to all bachelor's degrees awarded in-state is PR (0.15% of that state's bachelor's completions).
Top states by count of bachelor's completions for this CIP (IPEDS).
| State | Bachelor's completions (this CIP) | % of U.S. total (this CIP) | % of state's all bachelor's |
|---|---|---|---|
| PR | 45 | 100.0% | 0.15% |
Related specializations
Other NCES program codes in the 52.04 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.
- Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General CIP 52.0401
- Business/Office Automation/Technology/Data Entry CIP 52.0407
- Customer Service Support/Call Center/Teleservice Operation CIP 52.0411
- General Office Occupations and Clerical Services CIP 52.0408
- Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations CIP 52.0409
- Receptionist CIP 52.0406
- Traffic, Customs, and Transportation Clerk/Technician CIP 52.0410
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 52.0402 in the survey year used in our extract (371 total across levels below).
- 326 Associate (87.9% of IPEDS total)
- 45 Bachelor's (12.1% of IPEDS total)
Source: IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), summed by award level for this CIP.
Careers & Jobs
Occupations linked to this major in our degree→career mapping, with wages and employment from processed BLS career profiles in this repo.
Across these BLS occupations, employment-weighted mean pay is about $64,925. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | $57,329 | 1,737,820 |
| Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants | $92,847 | 472,770 |
Open each occupation for full career profile charts and industry breakdowns on EDsmart Data.
Program outcomes (College Scorecard)
National medians across bachelor's programs in the Business Operations Support and Assistant Services CIP family (1 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary graduate.
- $6,740 median federal loan debt among completers
- $28,311 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 0.41 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
- 47.5% of graduates not working and not enrolled one year out (program cohort)
Source: College Scorecard program-level outcomes aggregated by 4-digit CIP family.
Employment
Wages and industry mix below use BLS OEWS data for occupations linked to this major in our mapping—not a graduate earnings survey.
Yearly Income for Common Jobs
$64,925 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors is $64,925.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors.
Occupations by Share
2,210,590 2023 Workforce
The number of Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary.
Age distribution for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
45 Total Degrees Awarded
2 Male (4.44%)
43 Female (95.56%)
Gender distribution of Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
41 Hispanic or Latino (91.11%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors.
Skills Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the same information as the radar chart, displaying the importance of each skill.
Skill importance ratings for Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary majors.
About
A program that prepares individuals to perform the duties of special assistants and/or personal secretaries for business executives and top management. Includes instruction in business communications, principles of business law, public relations, scheduling and travel management, secretarial accounting, filing systems and records management, conference and meeting recording, report preparation, office equipment and procedures, office supervisory skills, and professional standards and legal requirements
In 2023, 100,000 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary.
CIP Code
52.0402 - Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary
What the data shows
At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $6,740 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $28,311, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.41. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary graduate.
About 47.5% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians. That is a program-level mobility signal, not a national underemployment rate.
Women earned 87.4% of 1,380 Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $64,925. The largest mapped role by headcount is Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive (1,737,820 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $4,612 in-state at public colleges and $13,450 at private institutions for programs in this field.
Data Sources
This page uses data from the following sources:
- College Scorecard - U.S. Department of Education
- Institutional characteristics, costs, completion rates, and earnings data
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
- Employment and wage data by occupation
- Latest data: May 2024
- Source: bls.gov/oes
- O*NET Online - U.S. Department of Labor
- Occupational skills, knowledge, abilities, and work activities
- Database version: 28.0 (August 2023)
- Source: onetcenter.org
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) - National Center for Education Statistics
- Institutional data, completions, enrollment, and financial aid
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds
- Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
- Demographic and workforce data
- Latest data: 2023 ACS 5-Year Estimates
- Source: census.gov/acs
Data Processing: All data has been processed, cleaned, and aggregated for presentation. Where specific data points are unavailable, estimates are based on available data and clearly marked.
Last Updated: Data reflects the most recent available information as of January 2025.
Methodology
Data for this profile is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard dataset, IPEDS completion data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
All financial figures are adjusted for inflation and represent the most recent available data. Employment and wage data are from the most recent Census Bureau ACS PUMS estimates.