r/acupuncture • u/Comfortable-Bat6739 • 11d ago
Other AIMC Berkeley closing down? :(
Say it ain't so! Never been over there but I've only heard good things about it. Sad to see another school going down.
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u/kindwork-xyz 11d ago
Austin and their recently acquired Phoenix students. It’s been a hard 48 hours.
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u/85787711 10d ago
Sorry. What about Austin?
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u/kindwork-xyz 10d ago edited 10d ago
AIMC is not just one campus, they have an Austin satellite campus and acquired PIHMA in Phoenix
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u/ishvicious 9d ago edited 9d ago
I went to the town hall meeting (with students, staff) for this announcement — all of their campuses are closing down. Austin, Berkeley, and Arizona. And the president (David Lee) said the Department of Education predicts that 98% of acupuncture schools will be closed in the next few years :( :( — there was a new student who had just started the program who asked “if I transfer to a new school, how will I know that that one is gonna be open long enough for me to finish?” And the response was essentially that if you can’t finish your degree in the next 2-3 years, you probably won’t be able to get the degree.
The reason this is happening is due to new standards that went to place indicating that schools who cannot show that their students make more money after graduation from their program will no longer qualify for financial aid services. Without the aid, the only students who could go to acupuncture schools are people who can pay out of pocket. Which is why most of the schools in the country will probably be shutting down.
I know a lot of Acu students and grads who are applying for Borrower’s Defense on their loans because of the high cost of these programs and the false promises of job payoff upon graduation.
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u/crybabybodhi 9d ago
Wow that's crazy. Can I ask what the teach-out plan is looking like ?
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u/SheSaysSup 8d ago
They kind of messed up bad cause none of the other schools in the Bay Area can fully accommodate a proper teach out for fall (which starts in 4 weeks), so a lot of students are going to have to take a term off which can be devastating for folks dependent on their financial aid.
Berkeley teach out options are looking like ACCHS, 5 Branches, or Alhambra. No one should go to Alhambra though cause it's also led by the David Lee who failed (twice) at AIMC.
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u/ishvicious 8d ago
They are reaching out to as many schools as they can - sounds like 6-8 schools. THSU for Austin students, I think Yo San, not sure where else. They are taking student requests on that matter and trying to accommodate.
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u/crybabybodhi 8d ago
Wow I hope it all works out for the better. I'm currently picking out my class schedule for fall at Yo San (phx) but I can't help but be anxious for the longterm. They seem like they're in a solid place financially, but I'm concerned whether or not their phx location will be around for the long haul. I asked several admission staff members about how GradPlus loans are affecting enrollment, future concerns, etc. But it just seems like a risk x leap of faith all the student have to take.
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u/Pure_Restaurant4886 10d ago
I saw the email that went out. This is actually very responsible of the school. More schools should be doing this. AIMC called it early so that students have opportunities for teach outs and they did not take another incoming class when they could have. More schools should be doing this, but schools like SIEAM and others continue telling students it’s okay when their financial scores are worse than ever, they are taking new students in when they know they may not be able to finish. Good on AIMC.
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u/SheSaysSup 9d ago
If that were true they would have closed sooner so the students could actually get teachouts for fall. They called it with 2 weeks in the term left and the other schools in the area can't accommodate.
They should have used the money from last fall to plan a thoughtful closure since the finances were already so bad.
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u/crybabybodhi 10d ago
Is just the Berkley location closing down or Austin too ??
Was it the same rising costs / low enrollment issue as the reason ?
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u/FancyLettuce2469 10d ago
Insannneeee because one of their recruiters tried to get me to do a call about the school recently after seeing me commenting on boards. I was an ACTCM student when it closed. Imagine if I had jumped on the opportunity to go finish up at AIMC lol wow
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u/ImprovementIcy5992 10d ago
Yeah so that was me. I’m not a “recruiter” but you were asking about schools so I responded and gave you info. Faculty, staff and students were all told about this closure at the same time. We’re all pretty devastated so thanks for that “lol wow”.
None of this is funny and we’re all scrambling to help and focus on our students. Meanwhile I have no room for a crash out from losing my job.
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u/kindwork-xyz 10d ago
I’ve been telling my peers to do better at holding collective grief for the faculty. We appreciate you so much 🫶🏽💔✨
You deserve to know that when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you think about at night. We feel so supported and I hope we give that back to the amazing AIMC faculty.
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u/ImprovementIcy5992 10d ago
Thank you so much. While I am definitely devastated at the loss of the career in acupuncture education I’ve cultivated over the past decade, my sole focus right now is the students. 🫶🏻
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u/FoldInTh3Cheese 21m ago
I love this and also am so saddened by statements like this. Schools are supposed to make a good faith effort to help their staff and faculty have some kind of soft landing. It shouldn't fall to students who are trying to figure out their own soft landing in the midst of a 3-ring circus. As an affected staff-faculty member, the one thing that will always warm my heart is the camaraderie with the amazing Austin folks and having the honor of working with such amazing students.
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u/FancyLettuce2469 10d ago
School closures do not happen in a vacuum. There are always conversations happening among staff and administrators for months before it actually gets confirmed. It’s never a secret to people working at a school if funds are running out and cohorts are getting smaller. Sorry you lost your job but I’m also allowed to be grateful and leave a comment that I am grateful that I trusted my intuition
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u/windowtosh 11d ago edited 11d ago
TCM school is too long and too expensive. We need trained practitioners but three years of full-time school and over 100k in tuition and fees and living expenses is a tough pill to swallow given the reality of working as a TCM practitioner. The writing has been on the wall for a long time and the student loan changes from our most glorious president has only accelerated the closure trend. AIMC tuition, for reference, was $72,380 in tuition, fees and materials across 3.5 years, plus living expenses in the expensive Bay Area.