The Institute of Medicine has found that barriers exist that directly contribute to the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups in health professional education. Yet, little research has been done to evaluate the barriers that affect athletic training students. An integrative review was conducted to identify barriers that affect students in professional healthcare programs, and 52 articles were retained to create an original survey to measure the barriers faced by athletic training students. The purpose of this study is to understand the barriers that affect athletic training students, especially athletic training students from historically excluded groups. This study hypothesizes that athletic training students experience a variety of barriers throughout their professional programs, that historically excluded students experience barriers differently, and that there is an association between the frequency that students experience barriers and their desire to leave their programs. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used which included an online survey completed by 301 athletic training students and athletic trainers and a qualitative journaling study completed by eight athletic trainers. The findings of this study confirm that athletic training students experience a wide variety of barriers, that these barriers affect historically excluded athletic training students differently, and that there is a strong positive correlation between the frequency with which students experience barriers and their desire to leave their programs. Possible implications for this study include an understanding of the barriers that affect athletic training students and insight into future research that is needed to effectively address these barriers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]