The REAL Cost of AOM Education

Ok, so we all know that the cost of education in this field has sky rocketed--I know this from personal experience. You could say that this is a view from the trenches. Following on the heels of Lisa's open letter, I want to reveal some information that I had the good? fortune to come into during my tenure at an unnamed educational institution. I'm sure it'd be very easy to guess the school I'm talking about, I just thought it better not to use their name, as this is an indictment of the field as a whole--the specific institution is largely irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. Suffice it to say that this school considers itself one of the largest and most esteemed schools in the country--with good reason, it probably is. Every school, as part of the accreditation process, has to do a "self-study", this hefty document is torturously large and deals almost exclusively with the day to day operations of the school. However, the juicy part I got my hands on is the Alumni Outcomes Survey.

The Alumni Outcomes Survey is a fairly short little document, but it speaks volumes about the state of our fair "profession". The vast majority of the document is a chance for alumni to write about how great the school was and how much they grew personally and spiritually while in school, how they feel they received a quality education, blah blah blah. But what's the bottom line? Not good, when we start looking at the brief section on what the alumni are ACTUALLY DOING now, and HOW MUCH THEY ARE MAKING doing it, we see a damn stark picture.

For the sake of completeness, this survey was conducted in 2003, and just to assuage the idea that a bunch of responses from that same year weighted the numbers unfavorably, only 4% of the respondents were 2003 graduates, while 6% had been in practice over 10 years! 40% in practice for 5-10 years, and 31% 2-4 years. 12% were 2002 graduates. We can see, that the majority of practitioners here are well past that small business "make or break" 3 year window. Only in the AOM "profession" would this argument hold any water--how many legal or medical or accounting schools would consider a 3 year window to success as acceptable for their graduates? They wouldn't! If a law school (which is fairly comparable as far as credit hours and length of programs are concerned) couldn't demonstrate that the majority of it's graduates were gainfully employed after a year or two--they'd have to close shop--no one would enter their program. So, how are the AOM grads doing?

Here I'm going to quote directly from the survey, as I think the numbers speak for themselves, the sample size was 190 grads:

Are you currently practicing Oriental medicine:
Part Time (fewer than 30 hours/week) 56%
Full Time (35 or more hours/week) 44%

If part time, is this by your own choice?
Yes 59%
No 41%

Approximately how many patients do you treat each week?
21 [If you do the math, and compare it to incomes, this number becomes rather suspect. . . ]

How much do you charge per visit for:
New patients $81
Returning patients $59

What percentage of your income results from AOM?
68%

Are you currently involved in other professional activities?
Yes 70%
No 30%

If yes, how would you describe these activities?
Attending continuing education seminars 86%
Teaching 54%
Lecturing about Oriental medicine 53%
Professional organizations 38%
Community service 25%
Research projects 4%
Publishing about Oriental medicine 3%
Legislative lobbying 3%

How did you finance your education? (please check all that apply)
Financial Aid 76%
Work 48%
Savings 36%
Family Support 27%
On-campus Work Study 11%

Do you have monthly student loan payments (from any school, including xxxx)?
Yes 67%
No 33% (many have deferred)

Do you consider your debt load to be an impediment to your practice or lifestyle choices?
Yes 67%
No 33% - Coincidence! [I did not put that in there, that is actually typed in this official document, whether as a ploy to down play the obvious or a bit of whimsy, I personally, fail to see the humor.]

[And now for the coup de grace!]

What was your adjusted gross income in the 2002 tax year (line 32 form 1040)?
Less than $10,000 24%
$10,000-20,000 18%
$20,001-30,000 14%
$30,001-40,000 12%
$40,001-50,000 12%
$50,001-60,000 5%
$60,001-70,000 4%
$70,001-80,000 1%
$80,001-90,000 4%
$90,001-100,000 1%
>$100,000 5%

Leaders, educators and administrators of our profession, how do you sleep at night?

--Matthew Gulbransen LAc