The Herb Garden at ACTCM

These photos are courtesy of Kenan Akbas, former PCOMite and current resident of the Bay Area, where he is enrolled at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Kenan likes it much better there - he says the professors are about equal in terms of quality, but the curriculum is structured in a much better way. For one, they prefer that you do your bioscience elsewhere. In fact, until recently you wouldn't be admitted until you had done your biology, anatomy, etc somewhere else. Now they do have a small bioscience department, but it leaves the rest of the curriculum open for more Chinese medicine. Two quarters of Medical Chinese is required at the beginning. He tells me the library is outstanding. And start to finish the program costs $20,000 less than PCOM.

Oh, and this -

American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) is a California Benefit Nonprofit Corporation. It is exempt from federal and state taxes as an educational organization pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 501(3)(c) arid California Revenue and Tax Section.

When I asked Dr. Carl Miller, our former dean, about why PCOM wasn't a nonprofit institution, he told me there were no TCM schools in America that were nonprofit, that we have a young field and the resources aren't available. Hmm... in addition to ACTCM, a quick web search found the following schools that are nonprofit: Bastyr University in Seattle, New England School of Acupuncture in Boston, and Canadian College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in British Columbia (accredited by NCCAOM, graduates are eligible to take the U.S. exams).

PCOM ought to be a leader in this field. You can't honestly argue that we wouldn't be better off if this was a nonprofit institution. NESA did it, ACTCM did it, Bastyr and that Canadian school did it... can't we?