In a Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) program there are certain rules and regulations that the university must follow in order to remain an accredited program. One of the rules that must be followed, as stated in The Standards for Accreditation of Professional Athletic Training Programs, is students will not receive any monetary remuneration during the education experience, excluding scholarships.
Although athletic training students may receive scholarships to help pay for tuition, it is not enough to cover the entire cost. According to Digest of Education Statistic, the current mean cost of a public university education per year is $15,788. Athletic training students who receive little financial aid or scholarship must find another source of income to defray basic cost of living expenses not covered by scholarships.
In a CAATE accredited program, students are allowed to work a maximum of 10-15 hours a week, but they frequently exceed that amount. From a personal perspective, by the end of my clinical rotations during my senior year I had accumulated over 2000 hours. In the athletic training profession, student trainers often work odd hours and do not have weekends off making it difficult for students to find a job that fits within their schedule.
Athletic training students are an essential part of the athletic training staff at the collegiate level. They help keep the training room running smoothly by lightening the head athletic trainers work load. Although some students get a little bit of scholarship money to help with tuition, it is often times not enough. With all the hard work that athletic training students put in, I believe that universities should offer more scholarship money, or allow students to earn work study money once they hit the 15-hour work limit per week.
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