Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College to Close

The Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College (AIMC), which has locations in California and Texas, is closing, the institution announced last week. 

David Solin Lee, president and CEO of the college, wrote in an email obtained by Inside Higher Ed that the decision was made after AIMC’s financial responsibility score fell below the cut-off for federal student aid eligibility. The financial responsibility score is a federal metric that gauges the financial health of an institution. With a score of 0.9, the college had 45 days to find funding. (The minimum required score for student aid eligibility is 1.5.)

“There is no viable path to secure financial protection at the required scale while simultaneously opening and sustaining a new academic term,” Lee wrote in the email that Ryan Hofer, who writes a Substack newsletter about student debt and institutional viability within Acupuncture and Naturopathic Medicine, shared with Inside Higher Ed.

Lee added in the email, “This is the most difficult recommendation I have brought to the board, but we believe it is the responsible one, given the regulatory timeline and current operating budget.”

He also apologized and acknowledged the disruptions the closure will cause for students. The college enrolled 115 students in fall 2024.

“I have been working to the very end with the belief that we could pivot and change and manage a way through, but I cannot begin the next term with only my hopes,” he wrote in the email.

Starting July 1, Chinese medicine graduate programs are subject to new loan limits as their students will only be able to borrow up to $20,500 annually and $100,000 in their lifetime. Lee wrote those loan caps and other federal regulations could hinder other Chinese medicine programs.

“I do not see a path forward with the inevitable termination of federal financial aid for almost all of the Chinese Medicine programs,” he said. “I expect that there are ways to scramble for next term, but the jump becomes larger each and every term. It will rapidly become impossible.”