Below are my views, experiences and depictions of a place. Nearly all the students in my class feel similar but these views are solely mine and written by me. This school is quite literally a joke. I graduated some time ago and have found it amazingly difficult to make even the smallest of student loan payments. All this while making doing far better than most of those I graduated with. Nearly everyone in my class of 70 (unless they had it paid for by a parent) is struggling financially. The school loves to rave about the average mean salary of a practicing DC being well into the 6 figures right out of school. That is completely misleading since the best I was ever paid was half that while working for a personal injury clinic (the most lucrative chiropractic positions are in personal injury!).
They let nearly anyone attend this school. I did the right thing - graduated in sports medicine, interned abroad and had the classes I needed to get into this program. As I sat there the first day hearing the backgrounds of other students I couldn’t believe what they waive to get into this “ prestigious doctorate program.” It’s all a money churning business for them. They are filling the seats with unqualified candidates. They know the government is loaning out any amount of money they ask for for tuition so they just hike up the rates. Follow that up with having nearly no actual requirements to get into this school since they waive so much; you get a money machine pumping out anyone and everyone.
I interviewed for an associate position with an old time chiropractor who went to Palmer Iowa. He asked me how much student loans does the average DC graduate with these days. I said $200-250k (which now is way higher). He couldn’t believe it. With insurance paying a fraction of what they used to pay and Medicare barely paying anything he said you’d have to land a one in a lifetime gig to even pay your loans. Or work 2 or 3 jobs outside of chiro.
The most concerning part is that an alarming amount of the faculty are failed DC’s. However, there are a few very successful ones that have taught there (namely Dr. Shreeve and Dr. Lockenour). But most of them are failed practice owners who couldn’t tackle their own student loans or practice so they get a job reading off a power point in a subject they know nothing about. You go to ask a question and they have no idea. It’s insulting. Most of the classes are a story time. You show up and they literally read verbatim off the PowerPoint. Then they give you old tests that they’ve used for years. Which is how 75% of the students pass this program - by studying old test questions. The school knows about it but they won’t do anything about it cause they have to maintain a certain pass rate to keep their accreditation.
Before you come here REALLY consider if this is a rabbit hole you want to go down. In my class, 10- 15 people had a “job lined up right after school”. Only one of them is still at that job cause it was with a relative who took care of him. Nearly 90% of associates get screwed in chiropractic. It’s an “eat your young” profession where you’ll have to work insane hours and do ridiculous marketing on the weekends.
I would find another niche. The insurance companies don’t pay nearly as much as what they used to and society is still on the fence about chiropractors. Along with schools like Palmer over saturating the market for the sake of profits makes it even more of a watered down profession.
I wouldn’t do it. Unless you really like sub-par education and not making your loan payments. Thank me later.