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?

Plenty of UNPAID internships to go around at PCOM. Paid jobs? Does Minimum wage count?

Plenty of UNPAID internships to go around at PCOM. Paid jobs? Does Minimum wage count?

A friend of mine recently received an e-mail blast from ‘career’ services at PCOM offering paid massage positions in NJ.  I’m blogging about this because paid positions from PCOM are almost unheard of.  My friend responded and received a curt response from Cynthia Neipris that the position is only open to current PCOM students.  Is that why it was sent to the alumni distribution list?  I guess even though she graduated PCOM, has an NJ massage license and is eminently qualified doesn’t count for much when PCOM has to parse out jobs because career services sucks.  

That being said, I’d like to bring your attention to the NYT article that recently came out regarding the pushback employers are receiving when they depend on unpaid internships.  People who peruse the PCOM NY job boards probably have to scroll for a few hours before finding PAID (minimum wage) jobs and then scroll until their computer equipment gives out to find anything remotely above minimum wage.  Why would students pay $200K for a degree that only nets them unpaid internships and minimum wage jobs? 

That brings me to my next topic:  Gluttony.  I think there are 2 kinds of gluttony in this world.  Honest gluttony (where you treat yourself well from the fruits of your labor) and repugnant gluttony.  Repugnant gluttony is what I feel PCOM NY engages in because they scam students into believing that they’ll earn a decent living when they graduate while charging them an arm and a leg.  Employees at PCOM (I really hold the career services department to be the main culprits) are really fat (metaphorically, if not physically…but sometimes both) from repugnant gluttony.  

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.

New updates from the trenches — more reasons to avoid attending acupuncture school

I just read the updated POCA articles below (thanks Shauna!).  Can we say u-g-l-y?  People who invested a  fortune in an education with the goal of helping others are having a hard time getting by.

I define a good standard of living as being able to live a life relatively free of financial stress,  feeling prepared should misfortunes fall and being able to look after oneself.

The majority of acupuncturists don’t have this standard unless they work at exploiting other people (think acupuncture schools, the way I’m thinking about Pacific College of Oriental Medicine).  How many school administrators are laughing their way to the bank as earnest students and graduates mortgage their futures to an overpriced education with zero job prospects?  I say zero job prospects because $35K per year, which seems to be the average annual salary of an acupuncturist in 2012 (according to the posts below) DOES NOT AFFORD ANYONE A GOOD STANDARD OF LIVING (the reason for working in the first place).

Let’s say it again:  AVOID ACUPUNCTURE SCHOOL.

https://www.pocacoop.com/james-restons-appendix/post/guest-blog-dollars-and-sense-information-for-prospective-acupuncture-and-or

https://www.pocacoop.com/james-restons-appendix/post/dont-go-to-acupuncture-school

https://www.pocacoop.com/james-restons-appendix/post/replicability-and-the-economics-of-practice

PCOM student council edicts — read, heed and obey (…or else)

On November 12, 2011, PCOM’s student council posted the following:

Pcom Ny

FROM STUDENT COUNCIL: READ. HEED.
Recently, Students at Pcom Ny have hurled expletives & names at Staff members, kicked/overturned office chairs, & violently ripped papers from the hands of Reception/Records Assistants. It is understandable that people get emotional, however, SELF CONTROL AND RESTRAINT ARE REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES. The College clearly outlines policies for appropri…ate behavior and will enforce these policies – which entail IMMEDIATE ACTIONS from Admin, such as: warnings, SUSPENSIONS and/or EXPULSION.

While I believe that it is important to maintain civility and show respect to one another, I laughed at the examples they provided and the preaching/lecturing/warning to paying customers.  How much indignity should students/customers put up with before they’ve had enough?  I’ve heard the more callous response to this question ‘if they don’t like it, they should go.  PCOM is a business.’  Fair enough, but good businesses issue refunds and have customer service departments.  Students can’t exactly get a refund after going through the program, after taking x number of courses and investing the time and money — all in good faith that they’d be treated fairly and receive the bill of goods they were sold.  When PCOM customers are unhappy, the only resolution they have is to leave and continue to pay off the student loans/write off the tuition already spent or suck it up and take it.  I can understand how students become fed up and reach a breaking point. It’s ironic that PCOM bills itself as a ‘healing’ environment/school yet administration can’t reach peaceful resolutions with unhappy students.

PCOM:  If you believe strongly in the school’s personnel, the program and the earning potential for graduates then offer a money back guarantee.  Be open, genuine, caring and honest in all of your dealings.

Student council: It’s better to inspire good behavior rather than trying to legislate it. Please work on behalf of those you’re supposed to represent and resolve the problems that are driving people to those aggressive measures. Clinical counseling classes should have covered this.

Katie Tintz’s response when I followed up on Jason Morris’s suggestion

So, I followed up on Jason Morris and Julie Cho’s suggestion that I contact Katie Tintz if I were curious about the student council budget.  They assured me that it was an open book and would be happy to shed light on matters.  Ready for the response?

Katie Tintz:

show details Jun 19

I’m sorry but excuse me? What could you possibly want with our budget? I don’t even have access to it unless I’m on campus and go to see the people in charge. Our budget should be of no concern to anyone. We share with everyone what we spend the student council money on and you can see it – the break room renovation, luncheons, comps review sessions, the benefit show, karaoke nights and bringing in people to do lectures, etc. And from what I know you are no longer a student, so Im not sure of your interest. If this is a major concern for you I welcome questions and I urge you to contact Gina if you think there are shady business practices going on

Katie Tintz

I also do not appreciate the things that were written on Facebook yesterday degrading the work and intention behind the show in November. I find it abhorrable that you would question our motives, especially in a place as public as Facebook.
– Show quoted text –

See below for 3 examples of major schools who have NO PROBLEMS publishing their budgets:

Click to access USG-budget-2011-20122.pdf

Click to access 2010-2011%20budget.pdf

http://facu.columbia.edu/

Jason Morris’s correspondence re: my FB postings

In response to my Facebook postings, I received a rather negative message from Jason Morris.  It really shocked disappointed me to see an aspiring healer write such a negative and judgmental e-mail response my Facebook suggestions (which were neither personal nor mean-spirited):

Jason Morris: 

Soo, please read this before you spread any more negativity. Honestly, my heart is breaking reading what people are sending me that you’ve said. You’re attacking my personal efforts and I don’t understand why.

It is senseless, mean, and really not something i would expect from a grad student to be so aggressively writing about issues you’ve never brought to any forum, luncheon, info session, or council member. Beyond this, it’s an abuse of the link I shared. That link was to let people know that I personally worked insanely hard to provide Broadway-caliber performers for people to enjoy, while raising money for Cancer Research… not for you to use for your pcom-bashing purposes. Council will definitely be helping, but what you’re writing is attacking my personal efforts and mine alone.

The reason Julie’s taking your posts so hard is because you are very clearly attacking someone’s hard work, without actually talking with them or anyone related to get clear facts. Ranting about these points without actual understanding is what’s making you look ignorant. And you just posted that you would not even talk with Council, which is just coming off bitchy and closed-minded.

Here is the info you’ve been referencing.

1. The performers were not charged at the last event. that was a mistake at the door; had anyone notified me of what happened with the latin dancers, they would have been immediately refunded. they arrived a lot later than the other performers, so the door person – not knowing who they were – may have thought they were trying to get in for free. mistakes happen. you should not hold such a grudge for something that just came to light. we were extremely short staffed, so katie and i could not be at the door the entire time to supervise…

2. If you want bookkeeping, you should ask. We – as the Student Council – have no reason to publicly post our finances, as most of it is simply funding luncheons, flyers, info sessions, workshops, intern bags, etc; as a student organization there is no need to post our expenses. You are more than welcome to see everything we do. You have never asked to see these things; therefore you didn’t. Using my link to badmouth a school you have issues with is not the proper use of an event’s info that i have worked so hard to put together.

3. The ticket price in november was based on fund-RAISING. it was not based on anything else. we took polls of over thirty students who all said $25 was fair. beyond that, at the show patrons gave $30 and $40, telling us to keep the change. but outside of that, the event was open to the public, for those afore-mentioned fundraising purposes… it was not necessarily geared towards just pcom students being in attendance. and if students are so strapped for cash, why are half of them posting about going to phish shows, bayside concerts, seeing david foster, and other broadway shows. all of these events are more than $40, and we only charged $25.

4. As for expenses, the theatre rental was $600, paid for entirely out of the SC budget, not out of the funds raised. All of the funds taken that night went to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. Had you read the fliers, listened when the show was discussed, or paid attention, you would have realized that the event was a fundraiser for them. not avery man.. not cairey tai… for the sickle cell disease association of america. Cairey was one of my closest friends, and I held her hand when they took her off life-support, but I cannot raise money for her family. That would be inappropriate. Cairey and Avery were memorialized because we felt it was the right thing to do – the night was held in memoriam. But, the money did not go to the families; it went straight to sickle cell research. In addition, there was no “spring” show, just the one last november.

5. Even I did not like the person at the door just taking cash from people with no kind of accounting table. Okay? But that’s all we could do. My mom’s an accountant, so I like clean books, but there was no one versed enough to do this at the last show. We took the cash drawer from the night, put everything in an envelope, and handed it to Amanda to deposit. I don’t like shitty bookkeeping, so this time the ticketing is being done online – through TicketLeap.com; if you would like to see attendance after the night has passed, you are more than welcome!

6. As nice as I can say this, please take down my link. Spread love, not hatred. I am not PCOM. I have never done anything mean or malicious to you. All of your words are a complete personal attack on me, as I’m the one in charge of this… and pretty much doing it by myself. I lost a grandmother, a grandfather, and my mother to cancer… I’m doing this, because I want to raise money for this cause. I don’t deserve this abuse. I really don’t. Please take down that post.