Question on Bay Area MSTCM programs

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with,

and can offer an opinion on any of the MSTCM

(Master of Science in Traditional )

programs available in the San Francisco Bay Area?

 

I'm looking at ACCHS and ACTCM at the moment, the

first which has a few definite advantages, but am

wondering if anyone here has an opinion on these

or any other ACAOM approved Acupuncture/TCM Masters

programs in this area, as there are a few of them.

Schools in the South Bay are, unfortunately, too

far from me to consider.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Andrea, (aianmeng)

Magestic Illusions

[Guest guest]

Andrea,

 

I have a very opinionated perspective having been an employee of ACTCM. I've been teaching anatomy and physiology for 14 years to students who end up going to one place or the other. So I'm very familiar with graduates of each. You can make either one work for you and work against you. If you speak Mandarin, you could go to ACCHS and get lots of care and nurturing. ACTCM is viewed as more rigorous, and I would have to agree with that assessment. Also living in San Francisco is an entirely different experience from living in or around Oakland. As the CM professors always say ... it depends. I recommend visiting both places, and try if you can to get the inside scoop on what's happening. A bunch of people (administrators and faculty) have just jumped ship at ACTCM. If it were me, I'd probably tend to pick ACTCM as I'd prefer a more rigorous training. It's also a more "stable" school than other SF Bay area schools.

 

Good luck,

Emmanuel Segmen

 

 

-

Ai An Meng

Chinese Medicine

Thursday, November 06, 2003 12:32 PM

Question on Bay Area MSTCM programs

Hi all,I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with,and can offer an opinion on any of the MSTCM (Master of Science in Traditional ) programs available in the San Francisco Bay Area? I'm looking at ACCHS and ACTCM at the moment, the first which has a few definite advantages, but am wondering if anyone here has an opinion on these or any other ACAOM approved Acupuncture/TCM Mastersprograms in this area, as there are a few of them.Schools in the South Bay are, unfortunately, too far from me to consider.Thanks for the help.Andrea, (aianmeng)Magestic IllusionsMembership requires that you do not post any commerical, swear, religious, spam messages,flame another member or swear. To change your email settings, i.e. individually, daily digest or none, visit the groups’ homepage: Chinese Medicine/ click ‘edit my membership' on the right hand side and adjust accordingly. To send an email to<Chinese Medicine- > from the email account you joined with. You will be removed automatically but will still recieve messages for a few days.

[Guest guest]

I would recommend checking out all 3 schools in the immediate Bay

Area - not just the Chinese Academy and ACTCM, but also AIS, formerly

known as Meiji College, in Berkeley. It recently went through an

admin change (for the better, I believe) and a name change (in my

opinion not for the better). Meiji has the most rigorous clinic

training, requiring the most number of hours of any other school in

California, which was a big plus for me. When I was there we didn't

have the elective courses that ACTCM had, but classes were

predictable, i.e., T, Th, Sat 9-5, so that worked well for my work

schedule. It's worth checking out. The college is quite rigorous in

its standards and has a strong with Western medicine curriculum (as

well as a good TCM foundation), which I have since found to be

important (though I didn't think it was at the time).

 

Good luck.

 

Holly

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- In Chinese Medicine , " Ai An Meng "

<aianmeng@s...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi all,

>

> I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with,

> and can offer an opinion on any of the MSTCM

> (Master of Science in Traditional )

> programs available in the San Francisco Bay Area?

>

> I'm looking at ACCHS and ACTCM at the moment, the

> first which has a few definite advantages, but am

> wondering if anyone here has an opinion on these

> or any other ACAOM approved Acupuncture/TCM Masters

> programs in this area, as there are a few of them.

> Schools in the South Bay are, unfortunately, too

> far from me to consider.

>

> Thanks for the help.

>

> Andrea, (aianmeng)

> Magestic Illusions

[Guest guest]

Andrea,

 

I am currently a 1st year student (Night English Course) at ACCHS.

For me the decision had to do with the location and the fact that

ACCHS offerred night courses for people w/ full time job. My

experience has been good so far. However, everybody has different

perspectives and opinions, so you should make call and tour all the

schools you are considering before making the decision. You can also

check http://www.acupuncture.ca.gov/education/schools.htm for the

list of the approved schools in CA. Good luck to you.

 

Ho S. Sung

 

Chinese Medicine , " Ai An Meng "

<aianmeng@s...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi all,

>

> I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with,

> and can offer an opinion on any of the MSTCM

> (Master of Science in Traditional )

> programs available in the San Francisco Bay Area?

>

> I'm looking at ACCHS and ACTCM at the moment, the

> first which has a few definite advantages, but am

> wondering if anyone here has an opinion on these

> or any other ACAOM approved Acupuncture/TCM Masters

> programs in this area, as there are a few of them.

> Schools in the South Bay are, unfortunately, too

> far from me to consider.

>

> Thanks for the help.

>

> Andrea, (aianmeng)

> Magestic Illusions

[Guest guest]

Many thanks to each of you who replied to my question!

Your responses were very helpful! They also brought up

a couple of additional questions.

I also found there were advantages with the flexibility

of the program at ACCHS, but noted Emmanuel's comment

on speaking Mandarin. Ho, is knowing the Chinese language

simply an advantage, or a prerequisite for their program?

Would I be at a disadvantage if I entered their program

before attaining reasonable fluency in Mandarin, or would

it be better to wait?

I had been having a lot of difficulty finding any current

information on Meiji, not realizing they had been through

the name change! Thanks for filling me in, Holly! I found

their web site under the new name the other day, at:

www.aic-berkeley.edu,

although oddly enough, its now

off-line. lol. Looks like I'll have to do more digging.

Emmanuel, you mentioned 'administrators and faculty have

just jumped ship at ACTCM.' Could you elaborate on this?

Thanks again to each of you!

Andrea

(aianmèng)

[Guest guest]

Andrea,

 

They jumped ship to join Meiji, now whatever. The website you provided below does not work for me. The chairman of ACTCM's board (who had lots of money) is now with Meiji. The professors and administrators who left ACTCM to go to Meiji have now left Meiji. So Meiji has a history of wild oscillations of being in good or in bad shape. Despite ACTCM's changes in culture since the 1980s, it does not oscillate quite so much. So my recommendation is to go to ACTCM. I thought, based on your given name, that you could speak Mandarin fluently. If this were the case, then going to the Oakland school would have its advantages. In the absence of fluent Mandarin, ACTCM is the more rigorous program. In these days of CM devaluation as compared to other disciplines, I would pick an institution based on its rigor and opportunities to learn. There are good people on the faculty at ACTCM at this time. I don't know if Alon or other old time graduates stay up with what's happening there. My current contacts there indicate that only one Japanese teaching professor has left ... no one else.

 

I can give you a name and phone number of a couple of current students to check with off list if you are interested in making a more informed decision.

 

Emmanuel Segmen

 

-

Ai An Meng

Chinese Medicine

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 11:46 AM

Re: Question on Bay Area MSTCM programs

Many thanks to each of you who replied to my question!Your responses were very helpful! They also brought upa couple of additional questions.I also found there were advantages with the flexibility of the program at ACCHS, but noted Emmanuel's commenton speaking Mandarin. Ho, is knowing the Chinese language simply an advantage, or a prerequisite for their program? Would I be at a disadvantage if I entered their program before attaining reasonable fluency in Mandarin, or would it be better to wait?I had been having a lot of difficulty finding any current information on Meiji, not realizing they had been throughthe name change! Thanks for filling me in, Holly! I foundtheir web site under the new name the other day, at:www.aic-berkeley.edu, although oddly enough, its nowoff-line. lol. Looks like I'll have to do more digging.Emmanuel, you mentioned 'administrators and faculty have just jumped ship at ACTCM.' Could you elaborate on this?Thanks again to each of you!Andrea(aianmèng)Membership requires that you do not post any commerical, swear, religious, spam messages,flame another member or swear. To change your email settings, i.e. individually, daily digest or none, visit the groups’ homepage: Chinese Medicine/ click ‘edit my membership' on the right hand side and adjust accordingly. To send an email to<Chinese Medicine- > from the email account you joined with. You will be removed automatically but will still recieve messages for a few days.

[Guest guest]

Andrea,

 

No, you do not have to speak Chinese to attend ACCHS. I don't speak

Chinese and my experiences with ACCHS Night English courses have been

wonderful. The teachers are great. If you can speak Chinese, I

highly recommend taking Chinese courses because you don't have to

worry about different English translations.

 

One thing I learned is that (TCM) is not just

science, but is also an art. You cannot practice TCM without knowing

the culture, history, and root. If you are interested in TCM, you

should also find out if school also emphasize the Chinse Culture. If

you are only interested in passing the exam (state board and

national), then you can just ask for their student passing rate.

 

One other factor you might also consider is that if you want to

practice other form of Traditioinal Oriental Medicine (e.g. Japanese

or Korean), because you might want to attend a school with that

influence. Some of my classmates transferred to a school in Southern

California because they wanted to learn more about Traditional Korean

Medicine.

 

Ho S. Sung

 

Chinese Medicine , Ai An Meng

<aianmeng@s...> wrote:

> Many thanks to each of you who replied to my question!

> Your responses were very helpful! They also brought up

> a couple of additional questions.

>

> I also found there were advantages with the flexibility

> of the program at ACCHS, but noted Emmanuel's comment

> on speaking Mandarin. Ho, is knowing the Chinese language

> simply an advantage, or a prerequisite for their program?

> Would I be at a disadvantage if I entered their program

> before attaining reasonable fluency in Mandarin, or would

> it be better to wait?

>

> I had been having a lot of difficulty finding any current

> information on Meiji, not realizing they had been through

> the name change! Thanks for filling me in, Holly! I found

> their web site under the new name the other day, at:

> www.aic-berkeley.edu, although oddly enough, its now

> off-line. lol. Looks like I'll have to do more digging.

>

> Emmanuel, you mentioned 'administrators and faculty have

> just jumped ship at ACTCM.' Could you elaborate on this?

>

> Thanks again to each of you!

>

> Andrea

> (aianmèng)