The Salter School Inferior education, unqualified teachers, unqualified students, will not get your money's worth. Tewksbury Massachusetts

I graduated from the massage therapy program at The Salter School in Tewksbury, Massachusetts in 2012. I am currently working as a licensed massage therapist but I do not recomend anyone attending this school. If you do decide to attend this school (or any occupational, for-profit school) I urge you to read and understand all contractual terms and obligations before you sign anything. This school has a pro rated refund policy that is only in effect for the first few months of enrollment, so there is the ability to leave, but it will cost you money. The education costs over $13K and you will not be getting your money's worth. Here are the reasons why:

Unqualified students:

The admission process at the school consists of taking a "entrance exam" that costs $25.00. If you "pass" this exam and are accepted and decide to attend, this fee will be deducted from your overall tuition and costs. This exam is very basic  consisting of math, reading, and writing skills. Anyone with a high school diploma should be able to pass it without any problems. However, this entrance is exam is a sham as I personally know two graduates (one of whom was a classmate of mine) who told me directly they were given the answer key to this exam as they couldn't answer all questions correctly themselves. So, right there you are admitting students who are unqualified and will be struggling with the curriculum. I had such students in my class and they needed a lot of hand holding over the course of the program. 

So by bending the rules for admission to reach their target number for new students, they are already sent a message that you can get away with cheating. Most students consisted of people with high school diplomas or GEDs who have not taken any additional education since graduating. My classmates all were motivated the first two weeks of the program, but once the work began (i.e. reading, studying, taking tests, etc.) the complaining and excuses began. It was very much an unprofessional, high school atmosphere and culture.

The massage day program was 9 months  4 days a week 9 am - 2 PM and the night program ran 14 months 4 nights a week 5 PM - 9:30 PM. That is a huge committment of time.

Unqualified teachers:

I only had 2-3 teachers at this school who were knowledgable, dedicated, and prepared (with actual lesson plans) to teach. The majority of the other teachers would read to you from the textbook. Most teachers weren't prepared to teach and would continually dismiss us early from class. The MA state requires a certain minimum number of hours for each course and the Salter School boasts that their massage therapy curriculum is a 900 hr program. It isn't. I estimate total actual hours spent in class closer to around 700 - but that still exceeds the states' minimum so why complain? I complain because many of the classes were a huge waste of my time. I would come prepared with assigned reading and homework assignments completed but other classmates would not, so the teacher would give them time in class to finish their assignments which would take 30 - 60 minutes at the beginning of class. So already time is being wasted. Once my classmates saw this was allowed, they continually expected to have this time in class to finish homework assignments.

Disregard for school policies and course requirments:

The school has an anti-drug policy and school code behavior policy that I signed at the beginning of enrollment. However, the school frequently turns a blind eye to enforcing this policy, or they will indirectly enforce it by having everyone re-read and re-sign the policy without ever directly stating to us why it was necessary. I think I may have signed this policy 3 times at least while attending this school. I remember while in clinic, a fellow student came in smelling of marijuana and the teacher's response was, "You need to work on that," and still allowed this student to massage clients.

The school also was suppose to allow students to provide anonymours feedback after each module of classes. We weren't given this opportunity until we learned about it ourselves and started demanding to have the feedback forms. However, you run the risk of a teacher's ire if you critized their class and then have them again another course. I found the feedback form ineffective. ineffective.

The school has a course catalog and clearly states which courses are prerequisites  before students can proceed to the next course, but the school again disregarded this policy and we took courses out of sequence to the detriment of our education. Almost halway through the program, the school allowed a brand new student to join our class and this person had not taken any previous required courses and so, was failing. We complained so much that eventually they removed this person and placed them in the proper sequence of courses. One teacher suggested that we should spend extra time with them to help them study and I pointed out I was paying money to be a student, not a teacher. 

Which brings me back to my original point of having unqualified students. This student's English language skills were very poor. This student was a sweetheart but I wondered how they "passed" the entrance exam when they could not keep up with the anatomy & physiology terms.

Course textbooks weren't available when we began classes. The course schedule would continually change and we wouldn't be notified. We learned about schedule changes by attending class based on the schedule given to us and then being told we were in the wrong class.

Exams and quizzes were continually simplified in my classes due to complaints of my other classmates not being able to keep up. Exams were simplified to the point that my intelligence was insulted. Most of the time, we would be given the questions AND answers to exams/quizzes beforehand to memorize them. That isn't learning.

The administrative dysfunction at the school is frightening. There is a revolving door with the staff at the school which is 

The school has a course catalog and clearly states which courses are prerequisites  before students can proceed to the next course, but the school again disregarded this policy and we took courses out of sequence to the detriment of our education. Almost halway through the removed this person and placed them in the proper sequence of courses. One teacher suggested that we should spend extra time with them to help them study and I pointed out I was paying money to be a student, not a teacher. 

Which brings me back to my original point of having unqualified students. This student's English language skills were very poor. This student was a sweetheart but I wondered how they "passed" the entrance exam when they could not keep up with the anatomy & physiology terms.

Course textbooks weren't available when we began classes. The course schedule would continually change and we wouldn't be notified. We learned about schedule changes by attending class based on the schedule given to us and then being told we were in the wrong class.

Exams and quizzes were continually simplified in my classes due to complaints of my other classmates not being able to keep up. Exams were simplified to the point that my intelligence was insulted. Most of the time, we would be given the questions AND answers to exams/quizzes beforehand to memorize them. That isn't learning.

The administrative dysfunction at the school is frightening. There is a revolving door with the staff at the school which is unbelievable. In particular, I remember the Director of Admissions position as a revolving door. We would start a new module of courses with a new Director and they would be gone in 2-3 months. I think there may have at least 6 Admission Directors while I attended that school.

As I stated in the beginning I did get through the program and now am working as a licensed massage therapistst. The course books were comparable to a good massage therapy education, but no one in my class would bother to read them. My classmates began to expect maximum educational value with minimal effort on their part and the real world doesn't work like that. So they sold themselves short in that regard because their attitude became, "This school sucks, so why should we bother trying," which was an unfortunate attitude to have. Again, I wonder if the school raised its admission standards they would get more serious students.

Which brings me to my final point. This is a for-profit school and while they are licensed by the State to teach massage therapy, their primary focus is profit. So they will admit anyone (regardless of the school's admission policies) to meet profit requirements and cut and reduce teachers and supplies to meet those requirements.