Is chiropractic school easy? I heard only only those not smart enough for med school became chiropractors.

NO. A Chiropractic education is NOT a cakewalk. It's not easy. It can be very challenging. We lose 10-20% of our students by the time an entering class graduates. Students taking a full load of 28-32 hours/trimester (I'm taking a little more than a half load at 17.5 hours this trimester) are usually at school from 7am - 7pm. We do not get summers off. We have a two - three week break between trimesters but quite often that is spent studying for national board exams (we take a series of 4 national board exams plus state boards in some states to be licensed) or for clinic entrance (testing required to begin internship at the Outpatient Clinic). No, Chiropractic College is not for folks who are too dumb to get into traditional medical school. Many have never applied to traditional medical school & have no interest in allopathy. Personally, I thought engineering classes were far more difficult than my pre-med courses & I can say that with conviction since I was in an engineering program that prepared students for a graduate program in allopathic medicine. Anatomy is easier than digital signal processing.

Take a look at the 2008-2009 catalog to see Parker's specific requirements. A synopsis follows.

Requirements for Admission to Selected Chiropractic and Medical Schools

College Courses

 Parker Chiropractic College Harvard Medical School Stanford University
Biological Science (with lab) 8 semester hours (1 yr) 1 year 1 year
General or Inorganic Chemistry
(with lab)		 8 semester hours (1 yr) 1 year 1 year
Organic Chemistry (with lab) 8 semester hours (1 yr) 1 year 1 year
Physics (with lab) 8 semester hours (1 yr) 1 year 1 year
English or Communicative Skills 6 semester hours (1 yr) 6 semester hours
(expository writing)		 no requirement
Psychology 3 semester hours no requirement no requirement
Mathematics no requirement 1 year of calculus no requirement
Humanities or Social Sciences 15 semester hours no requirement no requirement
Electives 35 semester hours minimum, baccalaureate degree (BS in Anatomy) may be completed in conjunction with Doctor of Chiropractic baccalaureate degree required baccalaureate degree required

As for the first two years of preclinicals, here's how the classroom hours stack up - who is spending more time in lecture & lab?

Average Minimum Required Classroom Instruction Hours During 1st two pre-clinical years *

Chiropractic College   Traditional Medical School
366.4 Anatomy/Embryology. 184.6
561.2 Physiology/Pathology 542.3
197 Microbiology/Public Health/Biostatistics 155.3
312.8 Physical Diagnosis/Clinical Medicine 200.5
141.4 Neuroscience 114
105.9 Cell biology/Histology 130.7
66.7 Nutrition 21.5
29.4 Pharmacology 99
1900.8 Average Hours for 1st two years 1556.3
* Source: 2008-2009 Parker catalog

By the time we complete this program at Parker, we will each have 1290 classroom hours of "basic" sciences, 990 hours of chiropractic sciences, and 1320 hours of Clinical sciences. In addition, we will have 930 hours clinical hours minimum working as an intern at the Parker Wellness Center or with a local chiropractor or in one of the international internship programs.

If you think this curriculum is EASY, we'd love to have you join us at Parker to try it yourself. We aren't worried about anyone blowing a curve for us, because Parker classes are NOT graded on a curve. I'm not sure Parker's instructors even know what a curve is. The grade you end up with is the grade you earned.

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