HonestA's Review: Utah College of Massage Therapy - Salt Lake City

I'm an alumni and was a straight A student at UCMT. This school is like a boot camp. It marches students through to graduation with little regard for the health or physical well-being of the students. Quality of instruction varies tremendously. If they don't have a teacher for a class, they'll pull someone in who has just barely graduated. Their instructors are all full-time with a few adjuncts (see above). They often work from 9am to 10:30 pm on the days they teach. So when do they have time to run a private practice? If 65 students sign up for one class, they'll stick them all in one classroom, which naturally leads to substandard instruction. Some of the good instructors, unfortunately, are bullies. You learn good stuff in the program about injury, anatomy, structural, but the shiatsu, acupressure classes are very substandard. Don't expect any of your instructors or classmates to know much about yoga, tai chi, qi gong or the importance of environment, diet, nutrition, movement in establishing a healthy lifestyle much beyond the need to burn more calories than you consume. I had a number of questions about yoga on the National exam, nothing that was covered in this program. The instructors themselves have unbalanced, unhealthy lifestyles. If you have any learning disabilities or are a single parent without much support, don't expect much support from the school. They don't walk their talk. When they slip up, and yes, they make many mistakes, they'll blame it on you. And yes, you'll literally pay through the teeth for it. Tuition is $12,000 and rising, thanks to the Steiner Corporation takeover in 2006, and repeats cost money. And after so many repeats, they'll keep your money and kick you out of the program. Unless you want to be a physical therapist or work or a chiropractor, check out another massage school in your area or in SLC, The Myotherapy College of Utah. If I had to do it all over again, that's where I'd go. Add to that, horrible chairs to sit in. If you do the day program, you'll often have two lectures in a day, that's 7 hours of sitting in horrible chairs. They'll lecture about good body mechanics, but Steiner has no money to buy decent chairs. You can check their balance sheet online to see how much profit Steiner Education makes from tuition. Through the ceiling!!!