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2019-2020 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog

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Master of Athletic Training

Athletic trainers (ATs) are highly qualified, multiskilled health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.

Professional training education in athletic training uses a competency-based approach in both the classroom and clinical settings. Using a medical-based education model, athletic training students are educated to provide comprehensive patient care in five domains of clinical practice: prevention; clinical evaluation, and diagnosis; immediate and emergency care; treatment and rehabilitation; and organization and professional health and well-being. The educational requirements for CAATE-accredited athletic training education programs include acquisition of knowledge, skills, and clinical abilities along with a broad scope of foundational behaviors of professional practice. Students complete an extensive clinical learning requirement that is embodied in the clinical integration proficiencies (professional, practice-oriented outcomes) as identified in the athletic training education competencies.

This program is a professional program in athletic training that will have two routes of entry.

  1. Students may earn the MAT through admission directly to the MAT program. This route would be for students who have earned a bachelor's degree and meet all the pre-admissions/admissions requirements. These students would apply during the fall semester of the year before they plan on beginning the program. If accepted, they would start during the fall semester and have two full years to complete the master's degree.
  2. A student may begin the program at GVSU as a first-year student. Students interested in this program would follow a program that will award a student a B.S. in exercise science with an emphasis in clinical exercise science (C.E.S.) after three and a half years and a MAT when completed after five years. These students will meet all the pre-admission/admission requirements and apply to the MAT program during the fall semester of their third year. If accepted, the student will then start the MAT curriculum the following fall semester and complete the professional program during their fourth and fifth years. These students will have earned the B.S. in C.E.S. upon completion of the fall semester of the fourth year.

All students, regardless of their entry point will go through the program as a cohort and will take the same courses in the same sequence. All students will be required to be full-time students to meet the didactic and clinical demands of the program.

Requirements for a Master of Athletic Training

The degree is comprised of 59 credits.

Suggested Order of Coursework

First Year

Second Year


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