Culver-Stockton College Online Master of Athletic Training (MAT)

Culver-Stockton's Master of Athletic Training is a two-year professional degree that leads to the Board of Certification (BOC) exam, and it isn't mostly online. You spend the first year on campus in Canton, Missouri, then finish online while doing clinical rotations anywhere in the continental U.S. It's an athletic training degree, not exercise science, and the price the school advertises is lower than its own fee tables.

Culver-Stockton is a small private college in Canton, Missouri, affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Its Master of Athletic Training is an entry-level program. You arrive with a bachelor's degree, prerequisite science and 50 observation hours with a certified athletic trainer, and you graduate eligible to sit for the BOC exam.

It's 56 credits over about two years of full-time, year-round study. Year 1 is 34 credits on campus with labs and clinicals, and Year 2 is 22 credits online with immersion clinicals. The program starts once a year, in May. The priority deadline is March 15 and the final deadline is April 15.

This isn't an online degree with a few visits. Year 1 is on campus, with hands-on lab instruction and supervised clinical work starting in your first semester. Year 2 is 100% online instruction while you work in clinical placements. The school notes that the teaching modality can't be guaranteed.

The MAT guide adds details the program page doesn't headline. You cover your own travel to clinical sites, which could be an hour or more away. You need liability insurance before clinical courses start. And immersion rotations can average as much as 60 hours a week, so plan your finances and family around that.

Who It Fits

• Career changers who already know they want to be an athletic trainer. A bachelor's from an accredited school works if you finish the required prerequisites, and this is the master's route to the BOC exam.
• People who can relocate for one year and then want their freedom back. In Year 2 you choose clinical sites anywhere in the continental U.S., and the school says those immersions often turn into on-the-job interviews.
• Students watching debt. Direct charges come to $17,110 in Year 1 and $11,830 in Year 2, both under the $20,500 annual federal graduate loan limit the school cites, though living costs push the full cost of attendance higher.

Who Should Skip It

• Anyone who wants an exercise science degree. Athletic trainers evaluate and treat injuries, and only a few courses, such as Nutrition and Conditioning for Human Performance, touch exercise science. Try our online master's degrees in exercise science instead.
• Anyone who can't spend Year 1 in Canton. The first 34 credits, including diagnosis and therapeutic intervention labs, are on campus, and the MAT guide says students must be willing to relocate.
• Anyone who needs part-time study or a steady job. The program is full-time and year-round, and immersion clinical weeks can average up to 60 hours.

Year 1 opens in summer with ATR 510 Foundational Concepts in Athletic Training, ATR 515 Functional Anatomy and a clinical prevention course. Fall adds Clinical Diagnosis I and II, Physical Examination and Diagnostics, and Diversity and Cultural Competence. Spring covers Therapeutic Interventions I and II, Pharmacology and Evidence-Based Research, plus a sports medicine clinical.

Year 2 is online: Behavioral Health, Therapeutic Intervention III, Healthcare Administration, Nutrition and Conditioning for Human Performance, Community Health Promotion and Wellness, a professional development course and the ATR 620 capstone.

Clinical work runs through both years, at a minimum of 40 clock hours per credit. ATR 606 and 607 are immersion clinicals built around four consecutive weeks and 120 hours.

Courses the School Names

• ATR 510 Foundational Concepts in Athletic Training
• ATR 515 Functional Anatomy
• ATR 555 Physical Examination & Diagnostics
• ATR 545 Therapeutic Interventions I
• ATR 530 Evidence-Based Research & Clinical Practice
• ATR 610 Behavioral Health
• ATR 665 Nutrition & Conditioning for Human Performance
• ATR 630 Healthcare Administration

Standout Features

• Year 2 clinicals can be completed anywhere in the continental U.S.

Tuition is $415 per credit for 56 credits, or $23,240. The program page says that rate includes other fees, lists a $100 per-course fee and a $750 annual fee separately, and puts the total cost of attendance at right around $26,000.

The school's graduate cost page, labeled 2025-26, tells a different story. It shows class fees of $1,300 in Year 1 and $1,000 in Year 2, a $950 unified student fee each year and the $750 program fee, for direct charges of $28,940.

Add housing, food, books and travel and the cost of attendance runs $43,642 for Year 1 and $34,040 for Year 2. Discounts are 15 percent for Culver-Stockton alumni and 10 percent for partner-organization employees, and you can use only one.

56 credits at $415 a credit comes to $23,240 in tuition, before fees.

The MAT is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), and the college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Graduates are eligible for the BOC exam, which you need to work as a certified athletic trainer.

The program says its 2026 graduates had a 100% first-time pass rate and that 93% passed over five years. With only 7 degrees awarded in the federal data, those percentages swing a lot from one class to the next.

This degree sits outside the exercise science accreditation rules. The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) governs ACSM exercise physiologist eligibility from August 15, 2027, and CASCE (the Council on Accreditation of Strength and Conditioning Education) governs the U.S. CSCS bachelor's rule from January 1, 2030. A separate bachelor's would carry those.

Where this degree can lead: Exercise Science Jobs.

The full rubric is on the methodology page. A factor marked Peer Median had no published input, so it counts at half weight.

• The cost claims disagree. The program page says about $26,000, the fee lines add up to $28,940 in direct charges, and living in Canton for a year pushes the full cost far higher.
• Year 1 needs you in Canton, a rural town, with 34 credits and clinical hours on campus.
• It starts once a year. A missed March 15 priority date or a late prerequisite can cost you a full year.
• The college's federal graduation rate is 39 percent, which isn't this program's rate, so lean on the BOC pass rates and ask for cohort sizes.

• What are my total direct charges for both years, including per-course fees, the $750 program fee and the unified student fee?
• How many hours a week am I on campus in Year 1, and do I need to live in Canton?
• Which prerequisites can I finish online before I apply, and is a 2.75 GPA a hard cutoff?
• How are Year 2 clinical sites approved, and who pays for travel, housing and insurance?
• What were the first-time BOC pass rate and cohort size for each of the last five years?
• What's the current CAATE accreditation status and next review date?

Culver-Stockton College is a small private liberal arts college in Canton, Missouri founded in 1853. It offers a blended Master of Athletic Training with on-campus year one and online year two.

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