University of Western States at a glance
- Program: Doctor of Chiropractic
- Campus: 8000 NE Tillamook Street, Portland, OR
- Formerly: Western States Chiropractic College
A renamed, relocated program
UWS operated for decades as Western States Chiropractic College before rebranding and moving to its current Portland address on NE Tillamook Street. Students researching the school by its older name will land on the same program under its current name.
UWS's published NBCE results
UWS discloses its licensing outcomes on a dedicated NBCE and Completion Rates page, tracking the share of graduates who passed all parts of their licensing exams, or were licensed within 6 months of graduation:
| Year | UWS rate |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 88.8% |
| 2023 | 91.1% |
| 2024 | 88.6% |
| 2025 | 89.1% |
UWS's current disclosure gives only the combined figure across all four Parts. An older UWS page broke results out by Part through 2015, and those figures appear further down this page.
Planning your boards from Portland
Like every CCE-accredited program, UWS students take Part I in their second year of study and Part II in year three, with Part III required within nine months of graduation and Part IV within six. The NBCE's computer-based testing windows run most months from January through November, giving Portland-based students a fairly wide set of dates to choose from between clinic rotations. Part IV, however, is now held only at the NBCE's Assessment Center in Greeley, Colorado, so UWS students need to plan that specific trip separately from any local testing they can do for Parts I through III.
Studying with a consistent record
UWS's four straight years of results sitting in the high 80s to low 90s suggest a program where outcomes don't swing wildly year to year. That kind of consistency doesn't remove the individual work of preparing for Part I's six basic-science domains or Part III's diagnostic imaging component, but it does mean incoming students aren't stepping into a program with an unpredictable track record.
UWS's page frames the figure as a completion-and-licensure metric rather than a pure exam pass rate, since it counts anyone licensed within six months of graduation, not only students who passed on a first attempt. Keep that distinction in mind if you're comparing it against a school that reports first-time pass rates by individual Part instead.
UWS earlier classes and first-time results by Part
UWS has published its NBCE results in more than one form. The current table counts all graduates who passed all parts or were licensed within six months. Older tables counted graduates who passed all four parts among those who attempted any part, and among those who attempted all four parts. All three are shown, with the years the school published.
| Graduating year | Passed all Parts or licensed, of all graduates | Passed all four Parts, of graduates who attempted any part | Passed all four Parts, of graduates who attempted all four |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | — | 91.2% (114 of 125) | 99.1% (114 of 115) |
| 2012 | — | 87.9% (116 of 132) | 99.1% (116 of 117) |
| 2013 | — | 92.9% (130 of 140) | 99.2% (130 of 131) |
| 2014 | — | 83.8% (93 of 111) | 94.9% (93 of 98) |
| 2017 | — | 91% (106 of 116) | 97% (106 of 109) |
| 2018 | 94% (148 of 158) | 87% (116 of 133) | 97% (116 of 119) |
| 2019 | 98% (163 of 167) | 88% (137 of 155) | 99% (137 of 139) |
| 2020 | 94% (165 of 175) | 78% (115 of 147) | 98% (115 of 118) |
| 2021 | 87% (141 of 162) | — | — |
UWS also posted its first-time pass rate for each NBCE Part by year on an older NBCE pass-rates page.
UWS first-time NBCE pass rate by Part, number passed of number tested
| Year | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | PT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 84.9% (107 of 126) | 88.3% (83 of 94) | 93.8% (91 of 97) | 92.9% (78 of 84) | 97.4% (112 of 115) |
| 2005 | 81.7% (94 of 115) | 83.5% (101 of 121) | 93.4% (114 of 122) | 93.5% (100 of 107) | 96.5% (109 of 113) |
| 2006 | 81% (102 of 126) | 83.8% (88 of 105) | 94.3% (100 of 106) | 92.5% (99 of 107) | 99.1% (114 of 115) |
| 2007 | 86.8% (92 of 106) | 85.6% (107 of 125) | 94.2% (113 of 120) | 95.5% (127 of 133) | 99% (96 of 97) |
| 2008 | 84.6% (110 of 130) | 87.6% (85 of 97) | 94.8% (91 of 96) | 84% (89 of 106) | 95.8% (115 of 120) |
| 2009 | 83.2% (89 of 107) | 88.7% (102 of 115) | 92.7% (114 of 123) | 98.4% (122 of 124) | 96.2% (102 of 106) |
| 2010 | 81.5% (101 of 124) | 88% (95 of 108) | 94.2% (98 of 104) | 94% (110 of 117) | 97.5% (117 of 120) |
| 2011 | 78.9% (105 of 133) | 81.4% (92 of 113) | 94.7% (107 of 113) | 94.9% (111 of 117) | 100% (103 of 103) |
| 2012 | 83.3% (120 of 144) | 82.7% (105 of 127) | 96.1% (124 of 129) | 91.9% (113 of 123) | 97.4% (150 of 154) |
| 2013 | 91.2% (114 of 125) | 80.5% (107 of 133) | 92.5% (124 of 134) | 94.9% (130 of 137) | 99.1% (110 of 111) |
| 2014 | 79.1% (91 of 115) | 85.4% (105 of 123) | 86.8% (105 of 121) | 93.2% (110 of 118) | 95.2% (118 of 124) |
| 2015 | 79.8% (95 of 119) | 84% (84 of 100) | 89.9% (89 of 99) | 88.9% (88 of 99) | 98.8% (83 of 84) |
A dash means the school's files do not show a figure for that year.
Compare other chiropractic schools
Practice with ChiroEDU
ChiroEDU's practice exams are built to feel like the real computer-based test: domain-by-domain exams for Part 1 and Part 2 with four attempts each, four mock exams for Part 3 with radiology, and PT exams with item analysis. Interested in helping classmates prep? ChiroEDU is looking for student reps at every school.
Sources: UWS NBCE and completion rates · Licensure outcomes and completion rates. Figures as published by the university; checked September 2026. The year-by-year tables above come from the school's own published disclosures, linked here as archived copies where the current page no longer shows them: archived copy, Apr 2016 · archived copy, Mar 2022 · archived copy, Nov 2022. ChiroEDU is independent and not affiliated with University of Western States or the NBCE.
