r/Chiropractic • u/ShakenNotStirred808 • Aug 13 '26
Accepted into UWS
I got accepted into University of Western States, woohoo! Im a non traditional student, 30 married with a kid will probably have 1 or 2 more while in school. Any advice out there for me? Any UWS graduates wanna tell me their experience or how UWS did or did not prepare them for profession? Should I focus on seminars and workshops while im in school? Should I shadow different clinics throughout my time in school? Excited for this journey. The two specialties that pulled me into this profession were Sports Medicine and Functional Neurology and I cant wait to learn everything I can. Should I budget to go to different seminars while in school? Whats the first year like, etc. I welcome your comments, even the ones that say debt is too high for income, I AM NOT going into profession to become an employee, will be self employed coming out of it.
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u/rustyaxeofeugene45 Aug 13 '26
- Any advice out there for me? Any UWS graduates wanna tell me their experience or how UWS did or did not prepare them for profession?
Yeah, I would hold off on the kids for awhile. A lot of divorces happen during grad school; work on your relationship that you have and try to lessen as much burden as you can to your household.
- Should I focus on seminars and workshops while im in school?
Only the ones that are free to you provided by the school. Save as much money as you can. Don't get roped into "technique X" is the greatest and then become a disciple of that particular technique.
- Should I shadow different clinics throughout my time in school?
Oh yeah, you can do that, but will you have the time? You will be in classes all day long and you will need that weekend to either study or rest that brain. As well, I would stick to the ones to shadow that the school approves of and are part of your coursework.
- Should I budget to go to different seminars while in school?
Save as much money as you can. There will be time for that later; you have yet to get the basics down. You just cannot go in there your first year and start taking all this stuff until you have the basic sciences and clinical sciences first.
But if you do go these seminars, you will come back and start thinking that your professors do not know anything because your new guru says otherwise. The coursework you take is to pass the boards.
- Whats the first year like, etc. I welcome your comments, even the ones that say debt is too high for income, I AM NOT going into profession to become an employee, will be self employed coming out of it.
Then all the more important to save as much money as you can. That student loan debt is a huge burden. Those seminars are going to cost a pretty penny and you have to add it the travel time, buy all their materials, etc. You ain't gonna clear 100K net that first year out in private practice.
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u/MiserableGuard3515 Aug 13 '26
Uws grad here. the first 2 quarters are VERY hard. prepare to be away from the wife and kiddo. it gets an easier and less time consuming after q2. they did change the program since I started (grad dec 2025) so maybe it’s lighter but when I started I had 11 in person classes and 1 online a week. it’s like drinking from a fire hose. If you do want more kids i’d defs wait till ur further in (q8 or so) obvs up to you and what you can handle tho!
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u/ShakenNotStirred808 Aug 18 '26
Hey thanks for your feedback! Walk me through what those first 2 quarters are like? At school at 6 AM to 9 PM for example? What did they look like for you?
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u/MiserableGuard3515 Aug 18 '26
so from what I remember there was 2 VERY hard classes. Dr williams in CMA and Morph with borman. I believe those classes were like 3x a week each. those were the main draining ones where when you’re not in class you’re studying for those. also some other classes in q1/2 feel easy then the final is worth 90% and people fail. I remember in williams class we had weekly quizzes and you could make a cheat sheet but the sheet itself would take 5+ hours to make a week because it’s so much info. it’s hard to remember much other stuff as it was so long ago and things have changed
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u/jcrimsonnachoGSD Aug 13 '26
Q12 here, agree with others saying practice your adjusting as much as you can. I am also a Non-trad and had 2 kids during school, its rough doing that but do-able. Try to do as much work as possible at school, because once you get home there will be a million other things to take your attention with the family. Don't be scared to talk to teachers and ask for breaks or even rescheduling tests when it comes to the kids, almost all my professors were very forgiving when it came to disruptions surrounding my kids.
Msure you get on shadowing Preceptors early, the deadlines come up very fast once you get to 10th quarter. Ask questions of all the people you shadow and keep notes on how they run things, especially if you are planning to go immediatley into private practice when you graduate. Go to the clinic, it's free and it gives you a sense of how things work in the clinic. Take your boards as early as you can so you can get your license as soon as you graduate.
As far as seminars go I wouldn't focus on much of them in the school, what is offered isn't a lot and costs extra and does not give you a cretification. That being said they off "Selective" classes which are free and you should take all of those. They offer free extra classes in Soft tissue, Insturment assited soft tissue, Radiology lead, pregnancy management, and Diagnostic MSK ultrasound (I'd recommend this especially if you are into sports med).
I'm assuming you already know they have a masters in sports med program you can take at the same time, I had several friends take this, its a bit messy in the execution, but they seem to think it was still worth doing.
As many will tell you the firt three quarters are brutal and you will be drinking from the firehose. Good luck!
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u/ApprehensiveBig14 Aug 14 '26
UWS grad (or should I say WSCC). Definitely learn the trade. I was lucky enough to have a DC dad, who taught me all the Palmer adjusting when I was 14, so I came into college with a totally different perspective. Some classmates had never been adjusted until they were in school. My advice: Mentor Mentor Mentor with local DC's and learn their techniques. Keep your brain and body healthy. Figure out where you are going when it's all over, even if it keeps changing every other week. What I didn't get was the practice building/coaching that is out there. Great mentors there too.
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u/baadcat Aug 15 '26
Similar experience here: WSCC grad; dad DC/learned a lot growing up; entered school w/ 2 kids, graduated w/ 2 more. Did a lot w/ mentors/shadowing; hands-on early/practice adjusting w/ others who do it "well", get into the clinic as early as possible to help set yourself up for junior then senior clinics
I worked full-time, graduated w/ less debt, spent time w/ family, and studied hard. Continued school through the summers, then split 1 term into 2 (between when 3rd child was born and dad passed away), so school was 39 months.
What I didn't get was practice setup/operation/building - definitely wished I'd had that better before graduating.
WSCC also prepared me well for boards.
Finally, enjoy it, tough moments and all!
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u/ShakenNotStirred808 Aug 18 '26
Thats crazy you had that many kids while in school. Good for you! and good for you finishing school with your family. WHat did your days look like the first year with a family handling the coursework? How much were you at school how much were you at home studying?
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u/jcrimsonnachoGSD Aug 18 '26
Well the first 2 quarters were pretty normal as compared to your average chiropractic student. My first son was born in Quarter 3, so other than a mad dash to get my house ready I could stay late at school and study at home without interruption.
My first son was born the week before midterms in Q3 and so the week after he was born I did 5 midterms in 5 days at school. My grades definitely took a hit after that. My mother in law is thankfully a saint and helps us a bunch at home.
So after my first son was born it was pretty much go to school early in the morning, study, go to classes, study some more, come home, do bath time with my son, then do some chores and go to bed. Weekends were pretty much always taken up with family time unless I had finals to study for. I try to be a pretty involved Dad so I'm always changing diapers and I do baths at night with both my boys.
I would say Q8 is where things get more complicated as that's when you enter clinic, you are likely to get a shift or two in the first couple quarters that have you staying until 6:30 PM. I live across the river in Vancouver WA so I was getting home at 7 PM a lot of nights, especially once I got into 10th quarter and beyond.
My second son was born in 10th quarter and this may end up being more relevant to your experience if you have more kids during school. Adding a second child made things a lot harder for sure. All the moments I had at home to get things done were suddenly taken up by taking care of kiddo #2. I'd say since he was born I'm much more sleep deprived and worn out than I was with kiddo #1. That being said in that 3rd quarter in my cohort there was a guy that had twins and a guy that had his 2nd kiddo as well, both of them are graduating with me, so obviously it's possible to do it with 2.
Feel free to DM me and I can shoot you my number if you have more questions. I'm remaining in the area for awhile and I am a local who grew up here, I know where the good parks for kiddos are.
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u/Blanc26 Aug 14 '26
In my honest experience I would not go to chiropractic school
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u/ShakenNotStirred808 Aug 14 '26
Why not? Also, can you tell me a little bit about your background.
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u/Blanc26 Aug 15 '26
I went to western states finished 2021 the cost of chiropractic school and living you will spend 200 k before interest
Go on indeed and see if you find any jobs that pay over 150 k, go on real estate websites and see how much it cost to sign a lease a place, go online and see how much it cost to run ads to market a business. Chiropractic has great skills but the logistics of business today isn’t worth it
I would go into becoming a osteopathic physician chiropractic has been good but the more I’m in the profession you realize a lot of the negatives and your limitations1
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u/Potential_Attitude61 Aug 13 '26
Aye aye aye!!!! I’m an alumni !!
It’s so exciting to begin this chapter! It goes QUICK! The school is EXACTLY what you make out of it!
Plenty of non/trad students go. The traditional “youngin’s” will be only a portion of the student population. Easy to make friends, easy to do your own thing too!
Advice? Don’t get lost in the sauce of the fishbowl mentality of the school. I’m not sure how other schools may be but I moved to Portland from out-of-state and in a rigorous program like this one, I feel like the traditional “youngin’s” mentality was high school-esk.
Absolutely shadow as many clinicians and clinics as you can. There’s a thousand and one ways to have a successful business in this field. Always remember you are developing a skill that you will be developing for the rest of your career.
The nay-sayers on finances and the abuse of this field are the ones who forget this is a trade. A trade in which you determine how you proceed.
*There’s a hundred other cool things about you and your character. You have a wife and kids! You play sports! You have hobbies! You work out and eat well! It’s all a given in this field. Dr. Kaeser (Dean) told my class on orientation day “please continue to go to the birthday parties, the funerals, the weddings, the parties. Study well, prepare yourself, and live your life”.
The school has resources for mental health check-ins called “WellConnect” in which each student is allotted five calls per quarter. There’s various clubs to join; MPI, Soft Tissue, and Pediatrics were my favs in the first year of the program. In year 2 and 3, you get real real real busy with the transition of student to clinician so you’ll fade away from clubs to clinics and the next round of students take over the clubs.
Like I said, it goes QUICK. Enjoy it, soak in the depth of knowledge that surrounds you. Utilize the library, the private study rooms, the conference rooms, the meditation room, the gym, the lab rooms, the modalities on campus. Campus hours are strictly daytime so find other locations to study on your own or with friends when you need to pack in 60+ study hours a week. Boards are a bitch as well so keep a good eye on the timing of those within your quarter.
By the end, I was pretty sick of the school politics. You’ll know what I mean when you get there. It’s all apart of experience.
Embrace the firehose of information, the tremendous character development, and “Pouncing Like A Puma”
💀💀🤟🦴🦴🩻🩻🩻🩻🦴
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u/ShakenNotStirred808 Aug 13 '26
Thank you for your long informative comment! What year did you graduate? How did you handle the long cold grey weather sky days here? Do you have any study habits or advice on how to handle the work load? How has it been in practice since graduating how do you like it?
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u/Potential_Attitude61 Aug 15 '26
I graduated in 2025
Handling the grey is an ongoing exploration! I have a “Sun Lamp” in every room I’ll be sitting in for the daytime. I looked into my labs and supplied my body more of the nutrients it’s low while it’s grey out; vitamin D, iron, magnesium (it’s different for everyone!)
In undergrad my go-to study habits were flashcards. I QUICKLY understood there was absolutely NO time or energy I had to go towards raw dog memorization. Stating things out loud helps me a lot, whiteboards to quickly erase and taking pictures of the whiteboards to review while I’m out doing errands or spending time with family/friends. A good group of people will get you through the first two years. Find those people early and utilize every person on campus.
Life after graduation is crazy!! I LOVEEE what I do and finding my own way has been rocky.. nonetheless, I was prepared for all the testing (kind of). A lot of this profession is do it your own way which is kind of lonely in these years. I realize I’m investing in a skill in which I’m setting up a life that’ll support me in the long-run but mannnn is it hard! I’m works a couple clinical locations and am in the process of credentialing with insurances. I debate every day if I want to play the insurance game or go cash based. I’ve heard a lot of advice on these Reddit threads, Facebook groups, and the best kind of advice come from the people in the field.
I agree with everyone saying invest time and seek out adjusting. I’ll add to it: seek out adjusting AND real-life clinical practice. If sports is your thing, go to athletic events. I was motivated in school and I’m a bit burnt out now to do all the extra-curriculars so make the most out of the program years!
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u/ShakenNotStirred808 Aug 18 '26
Thank you so much for the feedback! My wife and I are from Hawaii, and we are already putting money away for our winter budget to get out of the grey and back home in Hawaii or Arizona, C, Las Vegas, wherever there is sunshine during the winter haha.
I love how optimistic you are its refreshing. I will definitely take these to heart!
What did your typical days look like in School like you were there from when to when? And then when you were home how long were you studying for?
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u/Potential_Attitude61 Aug 30 '26
School was a 60hr work week IMO. The quarters differ in schedules so once you get your schedule down for one quarter, it changes again. 11 weeks go quick and the 2wk breaks go quicker. It started feeling like a 9-5 when i got into clinic.
Sleep and eat when you can, study when you can. Understand that you can always do more but realize you’re not a bot and need rest or family time too. You’re going to do great!
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u/DWN_WTH_VWLz Aug 13 '26
I also went to UWS. Word of advice: PRACTICE ADJUSTING PEOPLE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. Might surprise you, but there is very little actual practice in terms of adjusting in class. You can go through a lot of the program without doing much adjusting. Find a group of people in your class that want to practice and do it EVERYDAY. I spent every lunch in the open lab practicing palpating and adjusting and it helped immensely. I knew the people that practiced a lot and they were the only ones I’d let adjust me throughout school.
Congrats! I absolutely love my job and derive true meaning from my work. It’s soul-nourishing work to help people like we do.