Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) trains master’s and doctoral students, conducts research, and treats patients at clinics on campus and in the community. OCOM’s academic programs are among the most comprehensive in the country, providing students with a solid foundation in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, therapeutic massage, and qi cultivation, as well as a focus on collaboration between Chinese medicine and Western biomedicine.

OCOM’s clinics provide affordable care for general wellness and hands-on experience for students, as well as advanced specialty care for patients facing health challenges. Founded in Portland, Oregon in 1983, OCOM is one of the oldest Chinese medicine colleges in the United States.

The mission of Oregon College of Oriental Medicine is to transform health care by educating highly skilled and compassionate practitioners, providing exemplary patient care, and engaging in innovative research within a community of service and healing.

Portland, whose larger metropolitan area boasts two million residents, enjoys an architecturally rich downtown center, filled with lively street fairs, an intrepid performing arts scene, a diversity of high-concept and low-brow eateries, an extensive urban parks system, and the largest independent bookstore in North America.

OCOM students are also uniquely positioned to enjoy the region's bountiful mix of recreational opportunities and natural beauty – ocean beaches, snow-covered alpine peaks, dense old-growth forest, rushing rivers, high desert – all within a 100-mile radius of Portland.

The magnificent Columbia Gorge provides some of the best hiking, swimming, fishing, canoeing and windsurfing in the country. Mt. Hood, whose white peak is visible from our campus, provides year-round downhill skiing and an abundance of cross-country trails. Eighty miles to the west of Portland is the rugged Oregon coastline, a favorite weekend retreat for city dwellers.

Fans of cycling, thriving arts communities, sustainable development, organic foods, crafted microbrews and local wines will find a home here. Portland is consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the country.

Our four-academic-year (three-calendar-year) program in acupuncture and Oriental medicine consists of 3,344 total hours, for which 215.67 quarter credits are granted. Of these, 996 hours are devoted to clinical studies.

OCOM’s highly qualified faculty members are committed to the college and its mission. They are a dedicated group of professionals who generously share their knowledge and skills with their students. While grounded in the theoretical framework of their subject matter, most faculty members are also skilled practitioners. By continuing to practice their medicine/healing art, they also grow and develop, sharing their scholarship and clinical wisdom with OCOM’s students.

Most of OCOM's classroom faculty teach several courses, often in sequence. They get to know their students well and often instruct them first as new students—opening the world of Chinese medicine to them. In the middle years of the curriculum, they guide students in integrating the theoretical with the practical application. In the final year or the program, the same faculty members serve as clinical supervisors, coaching interns in diagnosis, methodology, and clinical judgment. By the time of graduation, students have formed meaningful bonds with their faculty.

OCOM maintains a core of full-time faculty members with an intentional mix of China-trained and western-trained practitioners/instructors. The full-time faculty is supplemented by part-time and adjunct faculty, often chosen for their depth of knowledge in a specialized area. OCOM’s biomedicine faculty members are naturopathic physicians who are also licensed acupuncturists, enabling them to make the western medicine courses relevant and interesting for a practitioner of Chinese medicine.

OCOM does not offer on-campus housing, but the campus offers parking and is accessible by bus and train.

OCOM seeks individuals who demonstrate the maturity and preparation necessary to undertake the challenges of our Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (MAcOM) program. The admissions committee reviews each applicant based on several criteria, including academic record and professional and life experiences.

Applicants must have completed a minimum of three years of college at an accredited* institution (a minimum of 135 quarter credits, or 90 semester credits), though we recommend that incoming students have completed four years of college. By the time they matriculate, applicants must also have completed the following college-level courses:

- One college-level course in general biology - One college-level course in chemistry - One college-level course in psychology

Each of these science courses must be completed at an accredited* college or university with a grade of "C" or better. Courses in biology, chemistry and psychology must be a minimum of three quarter credits or two semester credits in length. Prerequisite classes of biology and chemistry must have been completed in the ten years prior to matriculation at OCOM; students will be required to retake prerequisite classes in biology and chemistry if more than ten years have elapsed. (Exceptions to this policy may be made for actively practicing medical professionals, those who have completed substantial study of biology and chemistry, or for those who have successfully completed recent coursework requiring biology or chemistry as prerequisites.)

*Accredited means having been approved fully and without contingency by an association or other organization of peers recognized for that purpose by the U.S. Secretary of Education to offer a particular degree or degrees at a particular level, as specified in the approval.

Information for International Students: OCOM is approved by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization to grant admission to full-time students. I-20 forms are available to admitted applicants who meet INS requirements. Students who were not educated in the United States must meet the same admissions requirements as U.S.-educated applicants. Such candidates must have their educational credentials evaluated by an international educational service such as World Education Services and have these sent to OCOM’s admissions office.

Applicants from non-English speaking countries must demonstrate written and oral competency in English. These applicants must submit scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) of 550 for the paper-based test or 213 for the computer-based test, and the currently reported mean score for the Test of Spoken English (TSE). The TOEFL institutional code for OCOM is 4566. The admissions committee may waive one or both of these requirements if language proficiency is established through the application and interview process.

Please note: students who submit the I-20 are not eligible for federal financial aid, and must submit a letter detailing how they plan to finance their education. This school is authorized under Federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.