A doctoral program in acupuncture?!

Yours truly recently read an article on PCOM’s website, titled:  Pacific College’s Doctoral Program gets Glowing Reviews in First Semester (link:  https://www.pacificcollege.edu/acupuncture-massage-news/articles/591-pacific-colleges-doctoral-program-gets-glowing-reviews-in-first-semester.html).  A doctoral program in acupuncture? ? ?  I’ve never even heard of such a thing in China, where acupuncture originated.  This must be something incredible, amazing and wonderful all rolled into one!  I’m going to put on my thinking cap and go over this with you.  Maybe it’s worth $32,000 of additional [worthless] debt.

Ok, so the article starts off with praise on how excited students are about the program and how skilled and versatile they are.  Then they interview Greg Sperber, MSTOM PCOM ’97, who is one of the first students in the program.

Greg who?

Greg Sperber, you know, the former president of California State Oriental Medicine Association (CSOMA).

Why should I know him?

Oh, there was an article about his lame response to very serious allegations of financial improprieties way back when in Acupuncture Today:  http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/CSOMA/

What makes you say his response was lame?

Check out the letter he wrote:  http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/CSOMA/CSOMA_ATQuestions_060623.pdf

Getting back to the topic at hand…

Ok, ok.  So, Greg Sperber says that the MSTOM doctoral holders will have more clout with the FDA.

HAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Maybe Robin Tiberi, PCOM ’95, is a more credible interviewee.   According to her, she feels like she can communicate with anyone about Chinese medicine.

Robin needs to pay $32K for a doctorate degree on top of her Masters before she feels confident enough to speak about Chinese medicine?  This is a really sad woman.

Jack Miller, the President of Pacific College is also interviewed.

Well, honestly, what’s he going to say other than rub his hands together that PCOM will be earning MORE money from these suckers and charlatans?  It would have been more credible to interview people from the FDA to confirm/deny Greg Sperber’s hyperbolic statements.

After reading the article, there’s not a lot of critical thinking that goes into introducing the doctoral program.  What did these people really learn for $32K?  How much did it improve their income?  Do patients really lean towards doctoral degree holders vs. regular acupuncturists?

I liked this co…

I liked this commentator’s view from the trenches so much that I’m reposting as an public service message.  Keep in mind that acupuncture schools will pretty much accept ANYONE with money — even if they clearly can’t cut it intellectually.  I find this to be absolutely ‘ABHORRABLE’*!

Posted by goodmedicineforbadschools on July 2, 2012 at 5:59 pmedit

Thank you for the blog post. I think it is worth mentioning the behavior of those people in the acupuncture business making the largest incomes. These slicksters are engaged in businesses that have very little to do with the work of practicing medicine.

When the slicksters nominally practice acupuncture, they aim to hold onto wealthy clients who come in for relaxation, the quest to look younger, and their egomaniacal belief that they should be giving birth to children at an age when AARP is inviting them to join. They also sell their own lines of supplements, and work the seminar circuit for the sake of fleecing acupuncture students, other acupuncture practitioners, and the general public.

A very clear picture emerges when one spends enough time spent observing this profession. The person who has made a killing through acupuncture spends very little time treating disease and a great deal of time lifting wallets.

Real medicine is real work, western or eastern. The acupuncture schools, the (non-community) practice of acupuncture, and all the associated slimebags charging a fee to the student who has suckered themselves into this hell, are definitely not preparing people for work. The environment at acupuncture schools tells all. These businesses are demonstrating the parasitism, lack of professionalism, lack of regulation, and generally unhealthy environment that is the acupuncture business.

Denial of reality among students and acupuncturists is intense – and self-serving for the schools. Many students seem unable to accept that the schools are private businesses making money off of them. Basic reality is that acupuncture schools give their scam victim students, most of whom are unprepared for work in medicine, an abysmal education and a license to enter into a profession full of sleazy Sinophile con-artists. And then we all get to pay off the loans we took out to buy this bridge.

*’abhorrable’ is a made up word a PCOM acupuncture student used because she didn’t have the vocabulary to properly express herself.  For more details, see my post titled Katie Tintz’s response when I followed up on Jason Morris’s suggestion.

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture and Job Prospects

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. 

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine NY Issues

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:

1. 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…

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OH MY — $250K for an acupuncture degree from PCOM?!

OH MY GOODNESS.  Check out this link to an article written in October 2011 and focus on the paragraph below:

Currently, Dr. Tsao works as a part-time professor at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, which is the largest school of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the nation. Over 70 percent of students are American, paying  tuition of  about $250,000  in a degree  granting program that takes three and a half years to complete. http://themidtowngazette.com/2011/10/acupuncture-in-new-york/

I can’t believe that over 70% of PCOM students have $2,500 to spare, much less $250,000 to spend on an education with dubious earnings potential.