Athletic trainers help athletes and active people prevent, diagnose, and recover from injuries. You work in clinics, schools, and sports settings. The role requires a master's degree and extensive preparation, but offers meaningful work supporting people's health and performance.
Pathly builds you a free, personalized roadmap and helps your counselor champion you along the way.
Athletic trainers assess injuries, provide immediate care, and develop rehabilitation plans for athletes and active individuals. You document patient information, monitor progress, and make clinical decisions about treatment and return to activity. The work involves active listening to understand how injuries happened, speaking with patients and coaches about care plans, and staying current with medical knowledge and therapy techniques. You establish trust with the people you support and organize their care across multiple sessions.
Core work activities
Career video courtesy of CareerOneStop.
Athletic Trainers earn a median of $62,520 a year, based on 2025 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and location.
The outlook is strong. Employment is projected to grow 11 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than average for all occupations, with about 2,400 openings a year.
Top skills
Knowledge areas
You will need a master's degree in athletic training or a related field. This typically follows a bachelor's degree with relevant coursework in anatomy, physiology, and health sciences. During your education, you will develop skills in critical thinking, active learning, and clinical decision-making through coursework and supervised practice. After completing your degree program, you will need to meet certification requirements in your state before you can practice independently.
The main route to this career is earning a master's degree after completing prerequisite coursework. Since the education path is substantial, Pathly can map the athletic trainer path that fits you with your school counselor or academic advisor to map out your timeline and ensure you are taking the right courses.
Many athletic trainers must be licensed, and professional certifications can strengthen your resume.
Common certifications
Licensing is handled at the state level and the requirements vary, so check the licensing board in your state. Pathly shows your state's specific steps inside your roadmap.
You are drawn to work that centers on helping others. You listen carefully, think critically about complex situations, and build strong relationships with the people you support.
Reading about a career is the easy part. Turning it into a plan is where most students get stuck. Pathly takes you from curious to a clear next step, and gives your counselor the insight to champion you along the way.
Start with a quick quiz and assessments that surface your personality, your EQ, and what really motivates you, so your next steps are built around who you actually are.
Your free AI guide weighs this career against your strengths and goals, and surfaces the colleges, trades, and scholarships that match, so you know if it truly fits before you commit.
Get a personalized, step-by-step plan to reach this career, with the training, coursework, and credentials tracked in one place. Link your school or IEC and your counselor in the loop.
Last updated July 1, 2026.
Data sources. Career details from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Salary and outlook figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025 wages; 2024–2034 projections), delivered via the CareerOneStop API. Certification, licensing, wage, and outlook data from CareerOneStop, sponsored by USDOL/ETA and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).