Athletic Training

Preventing, assessing and rehabilitating athletic injury, and deciding whether someone is fit to play — a licensed clinical profession in Florida, working under physician collaboration. ⚠⚠⚠ It moved to MASTER'S ENTRY: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠⚠ Taught at 8 Florida public institutions, awarding 159 credentials — and 56 of those are still bachelor's degrees.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ A BACHELOR'S IN ATHLETIC TRAINING IS NO LONGER A ROUTE TO PRACTICE. The Athletic Training Strategic Alliance decided in 2015 to move the professional degree to master's level, and CAATE states plainly that after the fall 2022 term baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. Students entering the profession now enter a GRADUATE programme. ⚠⚠ Florida's 2023 data still shows 56 bachelor's degrees under this CIP, all at Florida State — which is consistent with teach-out completions rather than with an open route. ⚠ So if you are offered a bachelor's in athletic training today, ask directly which of the institution's degrees is the CAATE-ACCREDITED PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMME, and get the answer in writing. ⚠⚠⚠ FLORIDA'S STATUTE HAS NOT CAUGHT UP, AND IT READS AS THOUGH A BACHELOR'S IS ENOUGH. Section 468.707, F.S. requires a bachelor's degree from a college or university professional athletic training degree programme accredited by CAATE, plus Board of Certification examination and current CPR and AED certification. There is no loophole — CAATE professional programmes are master's now, so satisfying the statute means holding one — but a student reading the statute alone would conclude otherwise. ⚠ The course file shows the migration mechanically: Florida carries 101 graduate ATR course numbers against 46 undergraduate, and of the 26 ATR courses carried by two or more public institutions, 22 are GRADUATE. ⚠ Note also that the University of Florida awards a professional DOCTORATE in this field, a further step up that is not required for entry.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Athletic Trainer

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Fitness Professional and Exercise Physiologist

⚠⚠⚠ The entry-level education for this occupation is a HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA, and it has about 68,000 openings a year — one of the largest figures on this site. What the job requires is a CERTIFICATION, not a degree. ⚠⚠ So a Florida student in a kinesiology degree needs an answer to a direct question: what is the degree for? There are three good ones — clinical exercise physiology ($59,460, +13%), graduate school in a health profession, or management — and this page is organised around them.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Physical Therapy 24 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The closest relative and the comparison worth making before committing to a master's. A physical therapist assistant reaches $68,380 on an ASSOCIATE degree — above the athletic trainer's $62,520 on a master's — and Florida teaches it at 24 institutions against 8 here. ⚠ Different work and different settings, but a student choosing on rehabilitation interest alone should see both numbers.

Occupational Therapy 8 Florida schools

⚠ The other rehabilitation route, and the same shape: an occupational therapy assistant earns $72,300 on an associate degree. ⚠⚠ Named because athletic training, physical therapy and occupational therapy attract the same students and their credential-to-pay ratios differ sharply.

Emergency Medical Services 39 Florida schools

⚠ Named because the acute side of athletic training — on-field emergency management, spine boarding, environmental illness — is EMS work, and many athletic trainers hold both. ⚠⚠ It is also the fastest way to find out whether emergency decision-making suits you, at 39 Florida institutions and about a semester for EMT.

Public Health 14 Florida schools

⚠ Not a route, but a common second direction: concussion policy, heat illness prevention and injury surveillance are population-health work, and athletic trainers move into it. ⚠⚠ Florida teaches it at 8 institutions, all universities, and the master's outnumbers the bachelor's there too.

Physician Assistant Studies 6 Florida schools

⚠⚠ A genuine onward route rather than a neighbour. Athletic training is hands-on clinical work that counts as patient care experience, and PA admission turns on roughly 3,200 hours of it. ⚠ An athletic trainer who wants broader scope and roughly double the median has a strong application; six Florida public PA programmes.

Kinesiology, Exercise Science and Sport Management 16 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The credentialled neighbour, and a common destination for kinesiology graduates. Athletic training moved to MASTER'S-level entry, is programmatically accredited and is licensed in Florida — so an undergraduate PET or APK course does not accumulate toward it. ⚠ Work backwards from a target programme's prerequisite list rather than assuming your degree covers it.

Florida public institutions offering this program

8 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Bachelor's, Doctorate (professional practice), Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Gulf Coast University

Bachelor's

Florida International University

Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Florida State University

Bachelor's

University of Central Florida

Master's

University of Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (professional practice) · Doctorate (research/scholarship)

University of North Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

University of South Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

University of West Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 22 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.