Cynthia Neipris, the director of Career Services at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine’s (PCOM) NY campus recently responded to my posting on the livelihood of acupuncturists. I considered taking the conversation offline and addressing the hurt she felt over the posting and make it clear that I am not into causing pain or distress. I re-read my posting to see if I was unfair, cruel or hateful and then I read her post again to try and see things from Cynthia’s point of view. Here are my thoughts on this:
- My existence would be truly blissful if everything I read about myself were positive. However, this isn’t a realistic scenario. I need my friends and family to be there and tell me all the negatives so I could be an even BETTER person. I need my bosses and co-workers to tell me what they see so I could do an even BETTER job. Cynthia, you should find INSPIRATION (not censure) from my posting and CHALLENGE yourself to THINK “what MORE should I be doing to address the issues this person is writing about?”
- Cynthia, I’ve seen you in school in the late evenings and also on some weekends. You walk around with a tight expression on your face and, while I recall exchanging niceties with you, you never asked me about my career ambitions, my thoughts on post PCOM plans, invited/informed me of upcoming events nor invited me to sit with you. You’re the face of the career services department and should be more of an ambassador/representative. Why don’t you talk more to the students you meet? You should invite people/inspire them to come see you!
- On that note, Cynthia, over the past decade that you’ve spent at PCOM, would you say that, between the PCOM alums and the current student body for all of the programs (massage, acupuncture, herbs), you are now (theoretically) working for 10 times the number of people you had originally? Has your department’s budget (or your salary) increased by a factor of 10? You are the only name that I associate with Career Services and that’s a shame. I think that Career Services should at least have 3-4 people staffing it. How realistic is it for *ONE* person adequately support the Career Services responsibilities for a school the size of PCOM? If you really think you’re doing a FABULOUS job right now, how much MORE do you think you could accomplish if your department staff and budget were increased? I think you should consider this – and if it’s out of your hands, let the student council know that you’d like them to spend some of their budget helping you out.
- I’d like to make it clear that other than the small pleasantries at the elevator banks, I don’t know you. My blog is not a personal attack on you. It’s a space I created to share my opinions on how PCOM can be improved and my DIRE WARNING to potential students — DON’T GO TO PACIFIC COLLEGE OF ORIENTAL MEDICINE UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO BURN.
- Lastly, on the job front, it may help to allow current students to see the job postings alums have access to online so they can see what they’re getting themselves into.
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine NY Issues 
Posted by betterpcomstudent on February 24, 2012 at 3:12 am
Been reading through your blog and it seems to me you’re just a whiner. Not only does the career services (aka Cynthia) constantly send out job postings to the current students and alumni, they are rarely paid so little. As for your concerns about the SIZE of career services, how about getting a petition of students together to ask for more of the school’s budget to be put towards a bigger staff for Career Services? Because from what i can see, the student body is more concerned with having a nicer student lounge. You say you dont know Cynthia, and she never exchanged more than simple niceties, well maybe thats because like the rest of the administration she’s busy tending to the 700 or so students that fill the school? Its unrealistic to expect her or any other member of the administration to know every student in the building. That being the case, i’ve never seen any other school where you’re welcome at ANY time of the day to go into the Director of Career Services without an appointment, to get career advice or seek out opportunities. I’ve always known her to be warm, inviting and full of information which she is always happy to share. You said you spent 2 years in this school, did you ever bother to speak to her about your concerns over expected salaries or this so-called lack of job opportunities? If you did, i notice those exchanges didn’t make it onto your blog. Perhaps you should’ve used your time a little more proactively like the rest of the SUCCESSFUL student body.
Posted by pcomacupuncturetransparancy on February 26, 2012 at 2:00 am
Reblogged this on Pacific College of Oriental Medicine NY Issues and commented:
I’m glad you’re a successful student and that you feel PCOM’s Career Services/Cynthia Neipris is doing right by you. In all sincerity, I hope that my grim opinion on the income potential for PCOM acupuncture students is wrong and that every single PCOM acupuncture graduate earns a living wage.
Acupuncture is a fascinating field of study and the decision to walk away from the degree and my spent tuition money wasn’t easy. I took a hard look around and assessed the ROI of a potential L.Ac. I spent my clinic shifts talking to the advanced students and didn’t hear of any success stories. I looked at the people who obtained the degree and where they were in life. It wasn’t a very compelling outlook.
Every single one of these people were passionate about acupuncture and did well in school. I tried to find success stories when I searched using the terms ‘acupuncture, salary, pay, income’ and I found a whole community of acupuncturists who agree that making a living is ridiculously hard. Do the search yourself (https://www.pocacoop.com/ is a good place to start, as is http://www.theturningpointacupuncture.com/SoYouWantToBeAPunk.html) – I have absolutely NOTHING to gain from this blog.
As to your suggestions on how I can help Career Services, what would Cynthia do with any extra money she receives when she thinks she’s doing a great job thus far? I spent 2 years at PCOM and recall that the only e-mails she sent out were for overpriced CEU credits, calls for UNPAID volunteer work, UNPAID internships, UNPAID externships (look up the difference between internships and externships), and ‘exciting opportunities’ to work as an UNPAID assistant at an acupuncturist’s office.
I have the following suggestions for improving career services:
1. Publicly post the number of PCOM graduates (broken down by campus) working full time as acupuncturists. Include the mean, median and mode salary and all info relevant for statistical integrity (total # of graduates, total respondents, definition of acupuncture field, etc).
2. Allow students and prospective students to see the alumni job boards – they should know what they’re getting themselves into.
3. Like the students who are on the hook for student loans, Cynthia should have some skin in the game. A significant portion of her income should be based on the percentage of graduates earning $55K or higher per year (this bar is set LOW for NYC — and no cheating, only income from acupuncture work counts).
4. Have the SBA or a management consulting firm come in and review the career services program. I graduated from a good school and I know that job boards should consist of real employment positions – not unpaid ‘opportunities’.
5. Students pay a LOT in tuition money and they deserve an innovative career services department.
Posted by betterpcomstudent on February 29, 2012 at 1:55 am
Yes there are people who fail at acupuncture, as any other degree. I previously went to school for illustration, a career that is extremely hard to break into, and survive in. Guess what? there are ALWAYS people that dont make it once they graduate! and they’re the ones with blogs just like this one, blaming the institutions they went to for not making it. PCOM isn’t perfect, but give credit where credit is due. Again, you never went to Cynthia’s office to talk to her about your concerns and yet you’re blaming her for not providing you with more opportunities. After leaving the school, the best you could do was this blog. Secondly, you claim Cynthia thinks she’s doing an excellent job- how do you KNOW something like that without ever bothering to SPEAK to her?? Thats a ludicrous assumption on your part. She invited you to speak to her about your concerns after your post- have you taken her up on this offer to get the information you seek and come to a resolution? If you have, again that transaction hasn’t made it onto your blog.
The school isn’t perfect by any means but school is also what you make of it and you have some accountability for your not-so-great days at PCOM. If you’re going to whine about all the things you thought were wrong without ever having bothered to address your concerns then you really shouldn’t be talking. Even if you didn’t want to speak to her directly you could have tried going through student council or even just making an appointment with the dean or campus director or emailing them both, their cards are outside the reception window for everyone to take if needed. Same with your student advisor. Again if you tried those methods, you haven’t made mention of it here.
And about giving credit where credit is due, lets not be too hasty in pointing the finger at the school for the loan amounts that the students have to pay back and start pointing the finger at the students themselves because if I had a dime for every student who MADE SURE to take the MAXIMUM amount of student loans EVERY term because they wanted to live a block from the school because they didn’t want to have to “travel” i’d be rich! Not to mention the ones who take out as much money as they can because they don’t want to work while in school and especially Not to mention all the students i see getting their loan/grant money to go on VACATION. That has nothing to do with the school and everything to do with the stupidity of some of the students at PCOM.
Posted by Jtkz on September 25, 2013 at 1:53 am
If there are 700 plus students at PCOM how on Earth is only one staff person responsible for “career services”?? It’s really no wonder why Cynthia Neipris comes off as a cold bitch in the halls. Poor thing. She must be over burdened! However, if students are required to pay so much for education at PCOM and yet have so little available to them then a certain amount of whining from students is expected. Class sizes are a joke as well! Certain classes that are required can be learned at your local gym for less than 10% of what is charged here. I’d recommend any PCOM prospective student go to CUNY instead, especially for the massage course, pay much less, or just do something else in health care as a career. This school is a not only a bad, sad joke but a dangerous one. AND the joke doesn’t get funnier when after six months it’s time to start paying off your student loan debt. I guarantee you there will be no Cynthia Neipris (or any other PCOM staff) in sight when that time comes. DO NOT BE TAKEN IN. DO NOT BE A SUCKER. Study elsewhere. Save yourself while you can.
You. Have. Been. Warned.