Athletic Training

Types of Degrees Athletic Training Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many athletic training graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	1,381
Basic Certificate	124
Associate Degree	97
Undergraduate Certificate	15

What Athletic Training Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, athletic trainer majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Athletic Trainer Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in athletic trainer should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Skills for Athletic Trainer Majors

athletic trainer majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

Abilities for Athletic Trainer Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a athletic trainer student include the following:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Athletic Training?

Roughly 51% of the graduates are women, and 49% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of athletic trainer majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	13
Hispanic or Latino	32
White	45
International Students	2
Other Races/Ethnicities	5

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Athletic Trainer, too. About 2.1% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Athletic Training Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Athletic Trainer majors often go into careers with median salaries of $49,280. This median refers to all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Athletic Training

Some careers associated with athletic trainer require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for athletic trainer careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Bachelor’s Degree	23.9%
Master’s Degree	70.1%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	3.7%

Online Athletic Training Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	6	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	32	1
Bachelor’s Degree	5	2
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	225	4
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	2	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	5	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	1	1

Is a Degree in Athletic Training Worth It?

The median salary for a athletic trainer grad is $49,280 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 24% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $187,600 after 20 years!

Trades Related to Athletic Training

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to athletic trainer.

Major	Number of Grads
Emergency Medical Technology/Technician (EMT Paramedic)	27,240
Physician Assistant	12,000
Radiologic Technology	10,633
Surgical Technology	7,412
Respiratory Care Therapy	6,569
Diagnostic Medical Sonography/Sonographer and Ultrasound Technician	6,160
Medical Radiologic Technology/Science - Radiation Therapy	4,080
Other Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions	2,012
Cardiovascular Technology/Technologist	1,367
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Technology	773
Electrocardiograph Technology/Technician	652
Nuclear Medical Technology/Technologist	575
Electroneurodiagnostic/Electroencephalographic Technology/Technologist	391
Polysomnography	233
Perfusion Technology/Perfusionist	147
Mammography Technician/Technology	109
Cardiopulmonary Technology	51
Radiation Protection/Health Physics Technician	48
Hearing Instrument Specialist	18
Orthopedic Technology	17
Gene/Genetic Therapy	10

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.