Athletic Training 3+2 Program

Earn your B.S. in Health Sciences/M.S. in Athletic Training

Become an Expert in individual and team wellness

Imagine yourself working with elite athletes, providing care under the supervision of world-class health professionals, or treating patients in an athletic injury clinic — all while you’re still a student. A five-year M.S.A.T. track within SWAGÊÓƵ’s Athletic Training (AT) is now available. The program combines the study of health-related sciences with the art of preventing, managing, and rehabilitating athletic and orthopedic injuries to make you an expert in every aspect of improving individual and team wellness.

We also offer a two-year M.S.A.T. program for those who already hold a bachelor’s degree and satisfy all prerequisites.

An athletic training student measures the length of another student's arm
A student practices icing her elbow

Why SWAGÊÓƵ for Athletic Training 3+2 Program

Gain vital experience collaborating with specialists in other health disciplines by studying at a comprehensive health professions university. Athletic Training’s partnership with SWAGÊÓƵ’s medical school offers many exciting opportunities, including classes in human gross anatomy and hands-on patient experiences in the on-campus Interprofessional Injury Care Clinic, where medical students and Athletic Training students work side-by-side to care for fellow students. Plus, the innovative 3+2 format allows you to complete your undergraduate and graduate work in five years — trimming a full year from the traditional format.

  • Earn your B.S. in Health Sciences - Athletic Training and your M.S.A.T. in just five years
  • Training in interdisciplinary team-based care
  • Custom-designed teaching and lab spaces
  • 105,000 square-foot athletics complex
  • Motion Analysis Lab for the study of biomechanics, rehabilitation, and more
95%

of graduates employed as athletic trainers or enrolled in the graduate program of their choice within six months of graduation

100%

first-time pass rate on the Board of Certification Examination

(Class of 2019)

Headshot of John Dusel

John Dusel ’16

Athletic Training/M.S. 3+2

SWAGÊÓƵ’s Athletic Training program prepared me extremely well to work and operate as a clinician and as an athletic trainer. The program really hammers home the basics of a really good orthopedic evaluation — and that really helped me on my way to becoming a great athletic trainer.

SWAGÊÓƵ really stress the fundamentals, which I think are really important in athletic training as a person. As a person, the University helped me become a leader. While I was at SWAGÊÓƵ, I was a resident advisor, and the Housing Office enabled me to become a student leader in the community.

SWAGÊÓƵ also played a huge role in getting me started professionally. The facilities and interprofessional collaboration here really are amazing, and they lend themselves to these incredible clinical opportunities that let you learn and grow as a professional.

Lifelong Learning

I currently work as an assistant athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach for the Atlanta Hawks. Before that I was working with the Golden State Warriors. I actually got that job with the help of Eric Cressey, who graduated from SWAGÊÓƵ in 2003. Eric runs some high-performance training gyms. I had heard a lot about him and it just so happened that in 2016, Eric was being awarded the Young Alumni Award and I being presented with the St. Francis College Alumni Council Scholarship at the same time during Alumni Weekend, so I introduced myself. From June to August 2016, I ended up interning in his Hudson, Mass., location working directly with athletes on their strength and conditioning programs. Eric connected me to the health and conditioning coach of the Golden State Warriors, and working there ultimately allowed me to connect with the Atlanta Hawks.

I like being able to work with extremely driven individuals who want to be the best at what they do. Being able to work with such an incredibly talented performance team, in a setting where we can really collaborate, is probably what I find the most rewarding.

I’m proud of being in a position where I can give back some of my knowledge and experience. I'm at a place where I can look at my time at SWAGÊÓƵ, and since graduating; I can understand what I did well and evaluate things I could have worked on. Now I'm actually able to impart a little bit of that knowledge and experience to current SWAGÊÓƵ students.

SWAGÊÓƵ played a huge role in getting me started professionally. The facilities and interprofessional collaboration here are amazing, and lend themselves to these incredible clinical opportunities that let you learn and grow as a professional.

Athletic Training/M.S. 3+2

What Will You Study? Athletic Training 3+2 Curriculum Overview

Our Athletic Training 3+2 program enables you to obtain your master’s (M.S.) in just five years. (A two-year M.S. track is available for those entering with a B.S. who have met all prerequisites.)

Athletic Training 3+2 Courses

The following are just some examples of the exciting courses that the Athletic Training program offers:

  • Human Gross Anatomy
  • Manual Therapies
  • Rehabilitative Techniques in Athletic Health Care
  • Athletic Performance and Conditioning
  • Clinical Reasoning in Athletic Training
  • Clinical Practicum

To learn more about the Athletic Training 3+2 program, see the Curriculum or visit the Academic Catalog.

MEET OUR FACULTY AND PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Biddeford to Beijing: SWAGÊÓƵ Athletic Training Professor at the Olympics

Career Paths for Athletic Training 3+2 majors

Through your coursework, labs, clinical field experiences, and internships, you will be well on your way to an exciting career in athletic training.

Our Athletic Training 3+2 graduates have landed jobs with major league franchises, such as:

  • Boston Red Sox (MLB)
  • Atlanta Hawks (NBA)
  • Connecticut Sun (WNBA)

Athletic trainers are employed by physicians’ offices and sports teams and in military settings. You may also work in related fields, including:

  • Strength Coaching
  • Injury Prevention
  • Performing Arts/Dance Medicine
  • Public Safety
  • Occupational Health

Career Advising in the Athletic Training 3+2 Program

Whether you have a specific career goal in mind or a vague idea of the field that interests you, Career Advising is here to help you plan your next step.

B.S. in Health Sciences - Athletic Training

If you are enrolled in our five-year M.S.A.T. program, you will be awarded a B.S. in Health Sciences - Athletic Training degree after you successfully complete your fourth year.  Completion of the B.S. in Health Sciences - Athletic Training does not prepare you for certification or licensure as an athletic trainer, you must complete all requirements for the M.S.A.T. to become eligible for the Board of Certification exam.

Athletic Training Facilities

As an Applied Exercise Science or Athletic Training major, you enjoy extensive modern facilities for the study of exercise and sport performance. In addition to the discipline-specific equipment and training spaces in the Harold Alfond Forum, Campus Center, and Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences, you also benefit from the cutting-edge computer resources, modern labs, and classrooms SWAGÊÓƵ has to offer.

The Alfond Forum

The Harold Alfond Forum, which opened in 2012, includes a 105,000-square-foot athletics complex featuring: an ice hockey rink with 900 seats; a basketball court with 1,200 seats; classroom space; a fitness center; and multi-purpose indoor practice courts that can also be used for performances and other events, with a combined seating capacity of 3,000. It also houses the Athletic Training and Applied Exercise Science programs, which have custom-designed teaching and laboratory spaces.

The Campus Center

Opened in 1989, the 55,000-square foot Campus Center houses a sports complex that includes a 25-yard/six-lane handicapped-accessible swimming pool, an eight-person hot tub, and a fully-equipped fitness center with two racquetball courts and a free weight area. It also contains a 12,100-square-foot gym with a 1/12-mile balcony track, showers, a sauna, and locker rooms. The Campus Center is also home to BodyWISE, a SWAGÊÓƵ and community-at-large resource designed especially for people who have specific physical performance objectives, ranging from rehabilitating physical limitations to enhancing peak athletic performance. BodyWISE is an extension of SWAGÊÓƵ's educational mission and serves as a clinical training program for exercise and sport performance students as well as students in other allied health professions programs.

The Harold Alfond Center for the Health Sciences

The Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences is a state-of-the-art laboratory and educational facility. Located at the center of our scenic shoreside campus in Biddeford, this three-story building houses labs and lecture halls. It places SWAGÊÓƵ at the national forefront of health and life sciences education. The Center's gross anatomy lab is used by medical, health professions, and Exercise and Sport Performance students.

Motion Analysis Lab

The Motion Analysis Lab on SWAGÊÓƵ's Portland Campus allows you to observe and measure human motion that cannot be observed with the naked eye, and to quantify the forces in the joints and neuromuscular and muscle systems.

The research you do in this technologically-advanced 1500-square-foot learning space allows you to apply the theoretical knowledge you’ve gained in the classroom to projects investigating such crucial matters to your field as better understanding the laws of sports biomechanics, or the most effective approaches to ACL rehabilitation.

Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center

As Athletic Training or Applied Exercise Science student, you utilize our Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center to apply the knowledge you gain in the classroom to realistic clinical situations before putting actual patients at risk.

Guided by skilled instructors, you participate in simulations specifically designed to enhance your clinical aptitudes. Simulations allow you to test your skills in evaluating a patient in an emergency situation or to individualize patient care for a variety of medical conditions. Rather than just hearing about and reading about difficult or unusual cases, you experience them by treating our high fidelity patient simulators and patient actors in scenarios that mimic real life.

Tour Our Facilities

Experiential Learning in the Athletic Training 3+2 Program

Hands-On Learning

Whether you’re conducting research, performing clinical rotations, interning, or working with injured students in the Interprofessional Injury Care Clinic, you don’t just learn athletic training at SWAGÊÓƵ — you do athletic training.

Internships

Graduates of our Athletic Training program have completed a wide array of exciting internships with organizations, including:

  • Maine Red Claws
  • Maine Mariners
  • Maine Medical Partners Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
  • Bowdoin College Sports Medicine
  • SWAGÊÓƵ Athletic Medicine
  • L.L. Bean Employee Health