Job Placement
High Schools: Many athletic trainers are employed in a high school setting, some full-time (teaching as well as providing athletics coverage) and some who are contracted through a sports medicine clinic or hospital (work part-time in the clinic and part-time in the high school). Students may want to consider obtaining an education degree if interested in teaching as well as serving as an athletic trainer in a high school.Colleges & Universities: Individuals working in this setting will have obtained a master’s degree in a related field. Athletic trainers are employed in these settings as athletic trainers (athletics coverage only), or as teaching faculty or program directors for CAATE-accredited curriculums.
Professional: This usually involves only one sport, primarily football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, but may also involve the performing arts.
Clinical: Athletic trainers can be employed as clinicians in sports medicine and rehabilitation or sport enhancement clinics. Corporate and Industrial: Athletic trainers are also employed in industrial and corporate health care programs.
Graduate Schools
Anderson University is very successful at placing students into graduate schools, usually at a larger university, where the student may obtain a graduate assistantship, which allows them to earn a master’s degree while gaining further experience as an athletic trainer and receiving financial compensation (tuition waiver, stipend). Students have received assistantships at schools such as Ball State University, Western Michigan University, Miami University of Ohio, Michigan State University, University of Florida, Valparaiso University, University of Illinois, and Ohio State University, as well as various physical therapy schools.Furthermore, many students choose to pursue a graduate degree in an allied health care professional program, such as physical therapy, physician assistant, and nursing. Other students have gone on to medical school. If students choose to further their education in a medical or allied health care professional program, the student will be required to take other courses outside of the athletic training major to prepare for such programs.
