Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Clinical associate education requirements
Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
There are several educational requirements to become a clinical associate. Clinical associates usually study nursing, psychology, or biology. 52% of clinical associates hold a bachelor's degree, and 15% hold an associate degree. We analyzed 3,672 real clinical associate resumes to see exactly what clinical associate education sections show.
The most common colleges for clinical associates are the West Virginia University and the West Virginia University.
There are also many online clinical associate courses to help get the education required to be a clinical associate.
There are certain clinical associate certifications that you should consider. These clinical associate certifications include Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP) and Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT).
What education do you need to become a clinical associate?
What degree do you need to be a clinical associate?
- Bachelor's, 52%
- Associate, 15%
- Master's, 12%
- Doctorate, 6%
- Other Degrees, 15%
What should I major in to become a clinical associate?
- Nursing, 26%
- Psychology, 16%
- Biology, 9%
- Business, 8%
- Other Majors, 41%
Most common colleges for clinical associates
| Clinical associate common college | Percentages |
|---|---|
| West Virginia University | 14.94% |
| University of Phoenix | 11.49% |
| Temple University | 7.76% |
| Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey | 5.75% |
| New York University | 5.46% |
Best majors for clinical associates
| Rank | Major | Percentages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nursing | 25.7% |
| 2 | Psychology | 16.0% |
| 3 | Biology | 8.7% |
| 4 | Business | 7.8% |
| 5 | Health Care Administration | 5.2% |
Best colleges for clinical associates
The best colleges for clinical associates are Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University in the City of New York.
A clinical associate with advanced education typically earns a higher salary and has access to better jobs. That's why Zippia looked into the best colleges for clinical associates. We based this list on several metrics: admissions rate, retention rate, mean earnings of graduates, the ratio of working vs. non-working students ten years after admission, the average cost of attendance, and median debt for graduates who become clinical associates.
1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
In-state tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
In-state tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
In-state tuition
$59,430
Enrollment
8,216
4. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
In-state tuition
$53,740
Enrollment
5,567
5. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
In-state tuition
$6,798
Enrollment
31,503
6. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
In-state tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
7. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Private
In-state tuition
$7,182
Enrollment
16,205
8. University of California - Davis
Davis, CA • Private
In-state tuition
$14,402
Enrollment
30,698
9. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Private
In-state tuition
$11,207
Enrollment
30,905
10. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
In-state tuition
$9,625
Enrollment
17,407
20 best online courses for clinical associates
Advertising disclosure
1. Clinical Kidney, Pancreas and Islet Transplantation
Kidney transplantation is a major advance of modern medicine which provides high-quality of life for patients with end-stage renal disease. What used to be an experimental, risky, and very limited treatment option more than 50 years ago is now routinely performed in many countries worldwide. The number of renal transplants is expected to rise sharply in the next decade since the proportion of patients with end stage renal disease is increasing. Are you interested in clinical kidney, pancreas...
2. Clinical Trials Data Management and Quality Assurance
In this course, you’ll learn to collect and care for the data gathered during your trial and how to prevent mistakes and errors through quality assurance practices. Clinical trials generate an enormous amount of data, so you and your team must plan carefully by choosing the right collection instruments, systems, and measures to protect the integrity of your trial data. You’ll learn how to assemble, clean, and de-identify your datasets. Finally, you’ll learn to find and correct deficiencies...
3. The Simplest Guide to Clinical Trials Data Analysis with SAS
Step into the world of Pharmaceutical industry Clinical Trials Clinical Research Biostatistics Clinical SAS SAS...
4. Basic of Clinical Data Management
Clinical Data Management...
5. Introduction to Clinical Data Science
This course will prepare you to complete all parts of the Clinical Data Science Specialization. In this course you will learn how clinical data are generated, the format of these data, and the ethical and legal restrictions on these data. You will also learn enough SQL and R programming skills to be able to complete the entire Specialization - even if you are a beginner programmer. While you are taking this course you will have access to an actual clinical data set and a free, online...
6. Clinical Trials Analysis, Monitoring, and Presentation
In this course, you’ll learn more advanced operational skills that you and your team need to run a successful clinical trial. You’ll learn about the computation of sample size and how to develop a sample size calculation that’s suitable for your trial design and outcome measures. You’ll also learn to use statistical methods to monitor your trial for safety, integrity, and efficacy. Next, you’ll learn how to report the results from your clinical trials through both journal articles and data...
7. Good Clinical Practice ICH GCP for Clinical Research
Certification on ICH GCP E6 R2 Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research The Only Complete Course You Can Find Online...
8. Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research Professionals
The Complete, Certified ICH GCP (R2 & R3) Course for Investigators, Study Coordinators, Sponsors, Monitors and Study staff...
9. Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials
In this course, you’ll learn how to design and carry out clinical trials. Each design choice has implications for the quality and validity of your results. This course provides you and your team with essential skills to evaluate options, make good design choices, and implement them within your trial. You’ll learn to control for bias, randomize participants, mask treatments and outcomes, identify errors, develop and test hypotheses, and define appropriate outcomes. Finally, a trial without...
10. Addiction Treatment: Clinical Skills for Healthcare Providers
This course is designed with a singular goal: to improve the care you provide to your patients with substance use disorders. By delving into a model case performed by actors, seven Yale instructors from various fields provide techniques to screen your patients for substance use disorder risk, diagnose patients to gauge the severity of their use, directly manage treatment plans, refer out to treatment services, and navigate the various conditions that may limit your patient’s access to treatment...
11. The Beginners Course for Clinical Research
The Essentials of Clinical Trials - Clinical Research for Beginners...
12. Certificate Course in Clinical Research (CCCR)
A Clinical Research Course-ICH-GCP E6(R2), Clinical Trials, Essential Documents, Sponsor, Investigator, Pharmaceuticals...
13. Predictive Modeling and Transforming Clinical Practice
This course teaches you the fundamentals of transforming clinical practice using predictive models. This course examines specific challenges and methods of clinical implementation, that clinical data scientists must be aware of when developing their predictive models...
14. Making Data Science Work for Clinical Reporting
This course is aimed to demonstate how principles and methods from data science can be applied in clinical reporting. By the end of the course, learners will understand what requirements there are in reporting clinical trials, and how they impact on how data science is used. The learner will see how they can work efficiently and effectively while still ensuring that they meet the needed standards...
15. Good Clinical Practice (GCP)
Key features of the GCP guideline, roles and responsibilities involved and the requirements of essential documentation...
16. Clinical Research for beginners
The Art of Publishing - Master Pub Med, Study design, Biostatistics, Journal choice, Manuscript writing & Referencing...
17. Prehospital care of acute stroke and patient selection for endovascular treatment using the RACE scale
Acute stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency. In acute ischemic stroke, the first objective is to restore brain flow using sistemic thrombolytic treatment and, in patients with large vessel occlusion, by endovascular treatment. In hemorrhagic stroke there are also specific treatments that can improve the clinical outcome. The sooner the initiation of all these therapies the higher the clinical benefit. Thus, the organization of Stroke Code systems coordinated between emergency medical...
18. Clinical Natural Language Processing
This course teaches you the fundamentals of clinical natural language processing (NLP). In this course you will learn the basic linguistic principals underlying NLP, as well as how to write regular expressions and handle text data in R. You will also learn practical techniques for text processing to be able to extract information from clinical notes. Finally, you will have a chance to put your skills to the test with a real-world practical application where you develop text processing...
19. Abnormal Behavior & Clinical Psychology (Certificate)
Guiding students into the field of mental health services for either personal and/or professional development...
20. HI-FIVE: Health Informatics For Innovation, Value & Enrichment (Clinical Perspective)
HI-FIVE (Health Informatics For Innovation, Value & Enrichment) Training is a 12-hour online course designed by Columbia University in 2016, with sponsorship from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The training is role-based and uses case scenarios. Also, it has additional, optional modules on other topics of interest or relevance. Although we suggest to complete the course within a month's timeframe, the course is self-paced and so you can start and...
Top 10 most affordable universities for clinical associates
The most affordable schools for clinical associates are Hunter College of the City University of New York, california state university - long beach, and university of south florida.
If the best universities for clinical associates are out of your price range, check out these affordable schools. After factoring in in-state tuition and fees, the average cost of attendance, admissions rate, average net price, and mean earnings after six years, we found that these are the most affordable schools for clinical associates.
1. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Private
In-state tuition
$7,182
Cost of attendance
13,998
2. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
In-state tuition
$6,798
Cost of attendance
18,306
3. University of South Florida
Tampa, FL • Private
In-state tuition
$6,410
Cost of attendance
20,456
4. California State University - Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA • Private
In-state tuition
$6,942
Cost of attendance
14,469
5. Brigham Young University
Provo, UT • Private
In-state tuition
$5,620
Cost of attendance
18,136
6. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Private
In-state tuition
$6,381
Cost of attendance
21,034
7. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
In-state tuition
$7,309
Cost of attendance
16,714
8. Florida International University
Miami, FL • Private
In-state tuition
$6,556
Cost of attendance
19,434
9. Minot State University
Minot, ND • Private
In-state tuition
$7,064
Cost of attendance
15,576
10. Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL • Private
In-state tuition
$5,656
Cost of attendance
21,623
Top 10 hardest universities to get into for clinical associates
The hardest universities for clinical associates to get into are Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University in the City of New York.
Some great schools for clinical associates are hard to get into, but they also set your career up for greater success. The list below shows the most challenging universities to get into for clinical associates based on an institution's admissions rates, average SAT scores accepted, median ACT scores accepted, and mean earnings of students six years after admission.
1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
Admissions rate
9%
SAT average
1,516
2. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
Admissions rate
11%
SAT average
1,513
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
Admissions rate
6%
SAT average
1,512
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Admissions rate
8%
SAT average
1,508
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
Admissions rate
20%
SAT average
1,419
6. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
Admissions rate
10%
SAT average
1,514
7. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
Admissions rate
23%
SAT average
1,434
8. University of Rochester
Rochester, NY • Private
Admissions rate
29%
SAT average
1,422
9. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
Admissions rate
6%
SAT average
1,517
10. Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, PA • Private
Admissions rate
9%
SAT average
1,465
Top 10 easy-to-apply-to universities for clinical associates
The easiest schools for clinical associates to get into are Bluefield College, d'youville college, and gwynedd mercy university.
Some schools are much easier to get into. If you want to start your career as a clinical associate without much hassle, check out the list of schools where you will be accepted in no time. We compiled admissions rates, average SAT scores, average ACT scores, and average salary of students six years after graduation to uncover which were the easiest schools to get into for clinical associates.
1. Bluefield College
Bluefield, VA • Private
Admissions rate
95%
SAT average
980
2. D'Youville College
Buffalo, NY • Private
Admissions rate
100%
SAT average
1,072
3. Gwynedd Mercy University
Gwynedd Valley, PA • Private
Admissions rate
92%
SAT average
1,031
4. Mount Saint Mary's University
Los Angeles, CA • Private
Admissions rate
84%
SAT average
1,031
5. Curry College
Milton, MA • Private
Admissions rate
93%
SAT average
1,026
6. Wayland Baptist University
Plainview, TX • Private
Admissions rate
98%
SAT average
1,003
7. Felician University
Lodi, NJ • Private
Admissions rate
81%
SAT average
999
8. Nyack College
New York, NY • Private
Admissions rate
98%
SAT average
999
9. Barry University
Miami, FL • Private
Admissions rate
91%
SAT average
1,006
10. Life University
Marietta, GA • Private
Admissions rate
94%
SAT average
979
Average clinical associate salary by education level
| Clinical associate education level | Clinical associate salary |
|---|---|
| Master's Degree | $141,388 |
| High School Diploma or Less | $69,179 |
| Bachelor's Degree | $111,691 |
| Doctorate Degree | $162,445 |
| Some College/ Associate Degree | $77,017 |
Clinical associate education FAQs
Have more questions? See all answers to common executive management questions.
Search for clinical associate jobs
Updated January 8, 2025
Updated January 8, 2025