I haven\'t attended SCNM, and I\'ve only spoken with a couple students who have (very few people tranfer from SCNM to Basyd.) A faculty member who had taught at both schools told me that Bastyr suffers from \"magical thinking\" whereas southwest is more rationally based. Also southwest\'s clinical program has a rep for being more developed and more integrative.

I definately think that that natural/interative/CAM medicine is relavent, otherwise I wouldn\'t have started at a naturopathic school. But, I don\'t neccesarily embrace many aspects of naturopathic philosophy as taught at Bastyr. Increasingly I feel that to be a competantly trained in diagnosis, one needs to attend a conventional medical program. Otherwise, one risks becoming like naturopaths who apply a pet diagnosis (food allergy, liver toxicity, etheric imbalance, etc.) to every patient that walks in the door.

There are ethical naturopaths out there (even many of the true flakes are well intentioned). There are also many who use expensive therapies (like IV nutrition)or prescribe shoppingbagsfull of supplements (often at 100% markup) to every patient in order to pad their incomes. Here in Washington, where NDs are coverd by insurance, a number of naturopaths have been investigated recently for improprieties.

From the many practitioner I\'ve spoken to profitability seems to vary greatly. Established naturopaths in licensed states seem to do the best. In my (unlicensed) home state, I know one correspondace naturopath who makes big money (he\'s now in PA school to enhance his practice privlages) and one licensed naturopath who\'s barely scraping by.

Hope I\'ve answered your questions. Remember, I can only speak from my own experiences. I recomend that you visit SCNM, talk to students, faculty and, most important, patints. Sit in on classes, visit the clinic (as a patient, if possible.