Masters of Athletic Training?

[canadianatheart]

I am currently working on my undergrad in Exercise Science. I have the opportunity to transfer into a 2-year Masters of Athletic Training program. If I graduated from this program, I would not graduate with a Bachelor's degree but I would only have a Master's degree in Athletic Training.

I am very, very interested in pursuing the AT program and working as an ATC for a couple years before Med School. This would make me a non-trad student. Would this look good on my application? Or should I just stick with Exercise Science and go straight into Med School?

I can see myself doing either of these paths.

Thank you!

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[Weirdy]

I am currently working on my undergrad in Exercise Science. I have the opportunity to transfer into a 2-year Masters of Athletic Training program. If I graduated from this program, I would not graduate with a Bachelor's degree but I would only have a Master's degree in Athletic Training.

I am very, very interested in pursuing the AT program and working as an ATC for a couple years before Med School. This would make me a non-trad student. Would this look good on my application? Or should I just stick with Exercise Science and go straight into Med School?

I can see myself doing either of these paths.

Thank you!

Doesn't help you get into med school or give you a leg up on the competition.

I would save your money and go straight med school unless someone is paying for your Masters.

 

[aformerstudent]

No

 

[BombsAway]

If you wanna be an athletic trainer, be one. If you wanna be a physician, apply to medical school. If you wanna collect a bunch of XP points from an obscure quest, to impress the adcoms and win the game, this isn't it. Unless you're getting the AT degree from oxford under a prestigious scholarship AND you join the rowing team.

 

[akinetopsia]

I am currently working on my undergrad in Exercise Science. I have the opportunity to transfer into a 2-year Masters of Athletic Training program. If I graduated from this program, I would not graduate with a Bachelor's degree but I would only have a Master's degree in Athletic Training.

I am very, very interested in pursuing the AT program and working as an ATC for a couple years before Med School. This would make me a non-trad student. Would this look good on my application? Or should I just stick with Exercise Science and go straight into Med School?

I can see myself doing either of these paths.

Thank you!

Work as an ATC because you have an interest in being an athletic trainer. It wouldn't look that much different from a lot of people that apply after being EMTs, medical assistants, medical technicians, etc. It gives you work experience or patient contact, but in a slightly more tangential way, because on the whole athletic trainers are working with ... athletes, who tend to be healthier than the average person. (Insert picture of obese athlete here).

It may be interesting to have on an application, but it wouldn't really set you apart from other applicants, and you'd probably be further in debt by pursuing it unless it was the kind of master's you'd get a stipend for doing.

Don't neglect the time value or money either. I don't know how much athletic trainers make but I'd assume it's probably in the $50-80k range. If you put off applying to medical school and standing medicine to be an ATC, you gain two or three years of $50-80k salary, which is nice, but you lose out on being closer to make what a physician would earn - which can highly vary depending on your specialty or practice setting (and assuming you get in, and successfully graduate, match, and complete a residency).

 

[Doc_Ock]

Like most Masters programs, it won't help. Just get your bachelor's and apply.

 

[canadianatheart]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!
Honestly, I really like the idea of being an ATC, at least for a while before Med School, but I do realize it is a sacrifice of time and money. I have to check to see if my scholarship will transfer over and count towards the Master's, then I will have at least the first year paid for.
I am not so much choosing Athletic Training simply to put it on my application, but instead because I am really interested in it. Although my ultimate goal is to be a Physician.

 

[Cawolf]

Although my ultimate goal is to be a Physician.

That answers your question then.

Why head down a circuitous path when you recognize your goals early enough to take the path of least resistance?