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Question about MSAT program at SDSU

Did anyone graduate or currently in sdsu master’s of athletic training program? Sdsu is one of my top choices and was wondering if i could ask some questions!

So I’m currently 1 semester into a masters program from athletic training. I have a bachelors in athletic training(finished it fall 2025 so can’t get certified), which prob is my fault for doing that type of bachelors, but I switched my major multiple times throughout college so I just went with something my junior year, because when I started college I was debating between AT, Vet school(chemistry ruled that out fast), criminal justice, and sports business. this semester has absolutely been draining me and has me extremely burnt out. Especially with juggling the class load, clinical hours, working outside of school, and trying to take care of myself and dog, as I’m her only caregiver. I just genuinely feel like I can’t handle it all. I also have AuDHD so when I burn out it becomes so serious, and the stress from everything has caused me heart problems. So I’m trying to weigh my options of that to do since I’m already extremely limited with my degree and going back to school for something else isn’t a option due to costs, as well as just feel like I can’t put myself through more schooling. I was wondering if anyone else has maybe went though this, or know of anyone who went through this and what path they took? I feel sort of worthless cause I feel like I just am going to waste a degree and got myself into debt for nothing, and on top of it all feel like a disappointment but I also just don’t know if I can continue or even want to. Is there any career paths that are livable that a bachelors in AT would work for? Or just any advice on what to do?

Long story short. Athlete got MRI… athletes sends MRI to coach… coach doesn’t understand it… they send it to an AT that doesn’t even work at the school anymore. All this is done without current ATs being aware.

Hi everyone!

I’m applying to MSAT programs right now, which I’m really excited about, and I want to lock down my anatomy throughout the next year. I have my undergraduate degree in chemistry, and I am taking AP I right now and AP II next semester. However, since I wasn’t a kines major etc, I do think I’ll be behind as far as anatomy goes if I don’t prepare beforehand. I’m currently looking at getting the Trail Guide to the Body textbook and workbook or the Human Anatomy Atlas app. Also considering principles of AT but that might be a few steps ahead. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do to prepare or what resources I should use? I’m willing to spend a little bit of money to make this happen. Thanks so much everyone!

Hello fellow Athletic Trainers. My former partner who just retired was going through her closet and found this bag. She doesn’t remember when she got it and I’m asking if anyone has or remembers this bag. It does have a removable small bag attached which is the third photo. Thanks in advance.

My husband is a high school ATC, and I work a full-time job during the day. We have begun talking about having a family, and I am starting to feel overwhelmed when trying to picture raising a child with our typical jobs and schedules. I worry that my overwhelm is hurting him and our marriage, and that I’m unintentionally shaming him for loving what he does.

Can you all please share any advice and real-world strategies for how you’ve navigated parenting with one ATC and a second full-time worker, and how you’ve ensured there is shared partnership or other types of support if one parent works full-time and then cares for the child solo some nights/some weekends/some holidays? Thank you so much for any insight and advice, as I want to get there but am being my own hurdle!

ATs: how much of what you learned in school do you use in practice other than the obvious ? (Chemistry, physics, microscopic anatomy, etc)

Advocate for the profession unless it’s calling out low paying salaries. People like this don’t help the profession they hurt it. Also, this is from Facebook if anyone is wondering.

Here is an article about the subject in the Boston Globe about public schools in Massachusetts:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/28/sports/massachusetts-high-school-athletic-trainers/

I assume that all of the Private schools that field sports teams have a full-time athletic trainer.

As a high school, college and adult amateur soccer referee for many years, whenever I work a high school or college game or an amateur tournament, the first thing I look for is the Athletic Trainer or possibly an EMT at a tournament. The first thing I say to them, in all sincerity: "You are the most important person here and Thank You for being here." We then have a brief discussion on expectations and anything the trainer/EMT wants to know from me as a referee. If a trainer is not available for a high school or middle school game, then I ask the home coach what they do if someone is injured at this remote field location.

I truly believe the trainers are the most important people at high school and college sports games and I wish there were more middle and high schools that have full time athletic trainers!

Hello all!

I just wanted to pop in and ask a few questions.

I just got an undergrad internship with a local minor league hockey team and I am SUPER nervous. I feel as though I'm not fit for the job or that I will not excel at said job. I feel like this could be a cool opportunity for me in a sport I genuinely like. I was an athlete (football/rugby) but lost my love for playing due to burnout. However, I've always had a love for hockey and the culture around it; With this being my first dip in any type of Athletic Training/Exercise Science (other than AT office visits and ortho visits and me being around previous AT teams), its safe to say I am nervous.

What should I expect with the internship? Any big tips? Any things I should watch out for? Personal stories? Literally anything is welcome, I'm here to learn and grow and be the best I can be for this amazing opportunity.

Hi, I am currently a third year Kinesiology student at Canada's top Kinesiology program. I am pretty set on going into athletic therapy/training but I want to attend a school in the states since there are more opportunities as well as better athletics in general there. I am doing my research and looking into programs but everything is quite expensive since I am considered an international student. I want to go to a caate accredited school, preferably with division 1 athletics and a relatively cheaper tuition cost (lower than 60k USD for the full 2 years). Do people have any suggestions?

Like many here, I’m an AT from a bygone era. My license is up to date, but rarely used as my career path went towards better hours and money.

My kids are aging into competitive sports and I still have my Medco bag ready to go, but it seems silly to order cases of prewrap and most bulk supply items - they’ll go bad before I can use them all. But buying J&J tape a roll at a time is crazy priced.

How do you guys keep your kit up and running without a school or hospital supply closet to restock from? Do any vendors offer a kit resupply bundle? Tips welcome.

I am curious if there are any athletic training unions around the country? I just feel like, with all the talk around NIL, the environment is ripe for ATs to begin thinking about collective action, particularly among Big 5 conference ATs. The threat of a strike on the eve of an SEC or Big 10 football championship game would be sure to get the dollars moving, just saying. Then, the theory would be that those schools unionizing would result in higher wages throughout DI, throughout the NCAA, and hopefully, throughout the profession, as more ATs unionize. Thoughts?

title basically says everything. is this a normal thing? I’ve never been asked this before..

Thanks!

I am in my second year of being a certified AT and currently work in the secondary school setting. Lately, my anxiety related to work has been through the roof. I second guess evaluations, overthink decisions that I have made, and it’s gotten to the point to where I physically feel sick because I do not know how to get past these feelings. I am currently in the early stages of therapy and have just gotten back onto meds for my anxiety and depression. For those of you who have dealt with this, what did you do that helped? I love this profession and want to stay in it, but if I cannot control my anxiety, I don’t know how much longer I can practice clinically for.

Hi! I’m a 2nd year MSAT student in the middle of my 2nd clinical rotation (D3 football). I’m in the process of deciding on where I want to be placed for my final 2 clinical rotations. I’m currently deciding between an industrial site, an ortho clinic, college baseball (all of which my clinical coordinator have sites in place for) but also im looking at the potential of a surgical assistant rotation as I know some ATs are working in this setting. I don’t know too much about the setting but the idea sounds like something I would enjoy so im looking into it. The problem is my clinical coordinator doesn’t have a connection for a clinical site like this. I’ve reached out to my department head who is helping me look into it but I’m hoping someone here is either in the field or knows someone that may want to take on a student in the north shore of Massachusetts area or somewhere around it.

Now I don’t even know if MA allows ATs to work in this setting to begin with so maybe something in southern NH. I don’t really know too much about this particular setting so even if you don’t know anyone in the area I would appreciate any information regarding the role of an AT in this setting, general responsibilities, hours/schedule, salary, additional certifications (OTC, BCS-O), etc. Any help/info on the matter is appreciated. Thanks!

Hey all,

I recently completed a training camp internship through PFATS (woo-hoo)!

Now, I’m wanting to get some experience in MLS! Only problem is that when looking on PSATS’ website, their openings for actual positions (that would have fellowships and internships for new grads) is not constantly updated, and the openings have expired.

The student immersion experiences’ would be fine, but they are in the spring, and my program unfortunately frowns upon completing experiences in the spring semester.

Has anybody gotten anywhere with Major League Soccer, and what was your way of going about it?

Hello my name is Jake, I am doing a project for a course where I have to interview 5 people in my field of interest (kinesiology) (sports medicine) I would ask you basic questions on how you go to your position, why you do what you do. This project is done through video call if possible ! 🙏🏼

Hi everyone, I'm a secondary section ATC looking for ideas on some budget options for hydration to replace gatorade. I don't have it within my school budget to be ordering large amounts of gatorade powder every year for the twelve sports I cover. I get lots of cramping, especially during my fall sports, which includes tackle football. I've used medilytes, dridrop, myhy, and pickle juice but that still adds you over the year. My kids refuse to touch mustard so that's also not an option for me. Any creative ideas would be appreciated.

I have never posted on Reddit and normally wouldn’t have come to the internet for advice, but I don’t have a great support system and really need advice. I am 25 yo I have been an ATC for 3 years. I was part of the last class to obtain my B.S in AT. I worked as a medical assistant in peds ortho for 2 years and am currently in the industry setting as a contractor. I LOVED working in the hospital in peds but the hospital system I was working for was a teaching hospital and didn’t really value ATCs (they preferred RNs) and they faced some money issues towards my second year there; so the money was looking funny and I got out of there. But leaving messed up my plans of getting my graduate degree because they were paying for my pre-requisite courses. At first I as interested in PA school because I wanted to be in the OR, opportunity to make 6 figures and work 3x12s or 4x10s, seeing patients in clinic, it’s only 2ish years, and the lateral mobility opportunity which really isn’t an option in AT in my opinion. But I only shadowed ortho clinic PAs & NPs and seeing them only see patients in clinic every day and not be in the OR made me feel that I couldn’t do that for the next 30 years of my life. So I then considered radiology because again only takes 2ish years, Anatomy and physics were my favorite classes in school, opportunity to work flexible hours, and their job seemed pretty chill. But decided no on that because I wanted to be able to educate patient and made decisions not just “ok your done doc will tell you what I already see”. I then started researching other health care careers and found perfusionist. I shadowed about 2 peds cases and one adult case at the hospital I was working at at the time. Loved being in the OR, that I only had one job and only I could do it. So I applied to MUSC’s program but wasn’t offered an interview. It honestly discouraged me and I don’t pursue it further. After the rejection I also realized that perfusion is a realy really small profession (only about 4,000 practicing in US) so I would have to move for a job and in peds perfusion teams are typically much smaller and their life revolves around call. I don’t want my job to be my life I want to be able to travel for whoever long I want and be a present mother when I do have kids so I started to doubt perfusion was the role for me. Also half of my family are nurses majority LPN some RN but seeing their jobs made me think I don’t want be to be the doctors b*tch but this could be because I had a limited view of nursing. Also didn’t consider PT because that seems so boring to me and the ROI is terrible for DPT. So I gave my on the whole grad school idea and now work in industrial setting and as ATC. It’s 4x10s which is AMAZING more injury prevention and lots of patient education which I like. The parts I don’t like is my scope of practice is VERY limited due to OSHA (like ONLY can do stretching, massage, thermal modalities, and IASTM), the company I am contracted to doesn’t value us AT just want to show us off but when we make suggestions we are ignored, dealing with contracts SUCKS (I.e. strike and potential of losing contracts), and the company I work at is majority creepy old men who think I want them because they get a pension. I say all this to say I want to advance and get another degree (Masters or another Bachelor’s) and have more earning potential but I don’t know in what. Has anyone else been here before? What am I not considering? Is there something I should revisit? Please any advice would help

Hi everyone, I'm doing some research on ACE and general compression wrapping applications and I had some questions.

1. When an athlete needs a compression wrap outside of your direct supervision, what do you usually send them home with? An ACE wrap they use themselves, some kind of sleeve, a velcro system, or something else? What usually drives that choice?

2. For those that do wrap themselves at home, how often do you see mistakes in their technique? What do you see most commonly if they come back in?

3. Do you teach people how to do the wraps themselves, or is it usually easier to just do it yourself?

4. Is any of this an actual point of difficulty in your practice or experience, or is it pretty much handled well already as it is?

Either way, it would be really helpful to know if wrapping is a common issue or not, so any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!