Do I need a master's or a doctorate to get licensed?

Master's or doctorate — which one do you actually need to get licensed?

Short answer: the master's is enough. If licensure is the goal, you don't need to go all the way to a doctorate to get there — a real worry to put down early, since "doctorate" can sound like the mandatory finish line when it isn't.

At Five Branches, the MAcHM (master's) already fulfills the coursework requirement to sit for the California Acupuncture Licensing Examination (CALE) and the national certification exam through NCBAHM (the body formerly called NCCAOM, renamed 2026-01-02 — same standards, new name). The DAcHM is a dual-degree professional doctorate completed alongside the same master's — it's a deeper, longer credential, not a separate gate you must pass through to practice.

(Five Branches, DAcHM Catalog — as we last checked it, 07/2026.)

One nuance worth knowing if you're weighing California specifically versus other states: CALE is offered in Mandarin, Korean, or English, while NCBAHM (needed in most other states) has been English-only since 2024 — so a Chinese-language exam path keeps you tied to California licensure specifically, not portable everywhere.

The catalog does publish specific numeric CALE pass rates, though each one needs its period and basis to mean anything. 84.6% and 90.5% are Five Branches' first-time annual pass rates for 2021 and 2022. For July–December 2025, the figures are 53% first-time (8 passed of 15) and 35% overall including re-takers (9 passed of 26). That's because the California Acupuncture Board reports twice a year and publishes both a first-time and an overall rate — so a percentage on its own doesn't tell you much without knowing its period, its basis, and its number of candidates. NCBAHM/NCCAOM figures still aren't given numerically — worth knowing if you go comparing schools on that basis.

Is it the California path you're weighing, or thinking about a state where you'd need the NCBAHM exam?