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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Therapy & Rehab

Athletic Trainer (ATC)

Prevents, evaluates, and rehabilitates injuries — usually the first medical provider on scene when an athlete goes down.

Years after high school

6

Degree

Master's in Athletic Training

Entrance exam

None standard

Median pay

$62,520 national median for athletic trainers (BLS, May 2025).

What the job is actually like

Taping and warm-ups before practice, sideline coverage during games, injury evaluation on the spot, then rehab sessions. Evenings, weekends, and travel with teams are standard. Also employed in hospitals, the military, and industrial settings — not only in sports.

The path

  1. 014 years undergraduate with prerequisites
  2. 022-year master's in athletic training — now the required entry degree
  3. 03BOC certification exam

Good fit if

  • You want to make real-time evaluation calls under pressure
  • You genuinely enjoy sports culture and team environments
  • You want to work hands-on with mostly healthy, motivated people

Think twice if

  • You need evenings and weekends free — you will not have them
  • The pay-to-debt math worries you; compare this against physical therapy first

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Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.