About Alpha School of Massage
Alpha School of Massage, the oldest massage school in the city of Jacksonville, Florida. We have been providing massage education since 1992 in the same great location on Jacksonville's Westside near Ortega. And now we added campuses in Orlando, Melbourne, Tampa, Palm Beach Gardens, Blackshear Georgia, Newport Delaware, and Annandale Virginia.
We’re also now excited to offer Alpha Anywhere, our online learning platform, which is Florida’s most innovative massage program. Alpha Anywhere brings the classroom to you anywhere you are. Our program is our own, not licensed or borrowed from somewhere else. No boring PowerPoints and computer-generated voices. Alpha Anywhere gives you access to more than 50 years of combined massage training experience through our video lectures shot in our multi-camera studio. Lectures are presented mostly by Michael Garcia our lead instructor. Michael has been teaching at Alpha since 1995. He is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Registered Nurse. He knows massage inside and out.
Receiving online credit hours is available only in Florida. We are hoping to see this change happen in other States. At this time, Georgia, Delaware, and Virginia requires online hours to be completed at the campus.
Massage school can be expensive. Not just financially, but it will cost a fair amount of time and energy as well. You want to make an informed decision before investing money or time. You'll want to know what to expect from the school you choose and if it meets the state's requirements so that the end result is licensing and a career.
The following will help you learn Alpha's answers to most of the common and important questions asked by prospective students.
1. Is Alpha School of Massage approved to offer the training in Florida, Georgia, Delaware, and Virginia?
Yes. Alpha is approved by the Florida Board of Massage and licensed by the Commission for Independent Education, a division of the Department of Education, Lic# 1870, to offer both massage and facial specialty training.
In Georgia, we are licensed by the GNPEC, Georgia’s Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission, and the NCBTMB, and approved by the Georgia Board of Massage.
In Delaware, we are licensed and approved by The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE).
In Virginia, located at 7700 Little River Turnpike Suite 203, Annandale, VA 22003 is certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
Training at Alpha will allow you to sit for the MBLEx and receive a license to practice massage therapy. Graduating from Alpha’s massage programs allows you to be licensed in Florida, Georgia, Delaware, and Virginia for massage therapy.
2. What are the basics you should know about Alpha?
Is the staff friendly and helpful?
We have a staff of twenty-two including our administrators, enrollment, instructors, clinical staff, and managers. Each has a heart for making your time here enjoyable and productive. Our clinic staff works very hard to make massage clients feel they are being treated just like they would at our cities best spas and to treat student therapist like professionals. I hope you will visit the school to determine if this is your experience at Alpha.
Can you easily obtain information about Alpha?
I hope you find this to be very true. I work hard to make Alpha transparent by providing lots of information on our website. There you can learn about each of our programs, you can learn about instructors, hours and schedules, our massage clinic, and contact us for more information and tours. Our enrollment team can be reached at (833) 389-9117. My staff and I can email informative flyers and catalogs to prospective students and we are open to walk-in tours to see the campus and meet your instructor. I recommend reaching out to our enrollment team by phone before touring.
3. Now that you have the basics out of the way what more should you know?
What does it cost to attend Alpha?
Our 650-hour program is by far our most popular program. Cost and the experience gained are reasons for its popularity. Currently not all campuses offer the 650-hour program. It does rely on a vast clientele for student massages. Please confirm with our enrollment team if your campus offers the 650-hour program.
Our 650-hour Massage Program cost just $149 per month and just $150 to enroll. We sell you the two physical textbooks, student supply kit, and 3 student t-shirts on the first day of your classes for $299 + Tax. (If applicable in your State.) Depending on your schedule, full-time or part-time, the massage program can last between 8 and 12 months.
Most students will finish with a total financial investment of under $2,000 for the 650-Hour Massage Therapy Program.
Learn more about our programs!
What is Alpha's licensing exam pass rate?
For the 2024 Calendar year. We have had 70 out of 89 pass the MBLEx on their first attempt. Putting us at a 78% first time pass rate overall.
What is the Alpha's drop rate?
Our drop rate is consistently in the 20’s. Our largest number of student withdrawals comes in the first three weeks as some people realize how much touching is involved in massage. I know that sounds funny but it's true. Many people can touch but don't like to be touched. They struggle with it and many drop very early in the program. While we know that number is reason for concern, you might need further explanation. See the next question for clarification and why a 20 to 30% drop rate doesn’t bother us here at Alpha.
What happens if you drop from Alpha?
This is a great question that I love to answer because the answer is nothing. At Alpha you are not bound by a contract that forces you to pay even if you don't attend. Each month you attend you will pay $149, once you drop you stop paying. No debt, no collection calls and no hits to your credit reports. We do not want to force people who don't want to be a massage therapist to become a therapist because they don't want large debt for no reason. We don't want them to stick around just so they can avoid collections on debts they incurred with nothing in return. If you decide that massage therapy isn't for you or that now isn't the right time, you will owe nothing more than what you have already paid.
What is Alpha's placement rate?
Our placement rates remains in the 90’s. Our students get hired because of the amount of real world experience we provide. Our school raises revenue by selling massages performed by our students. These massages are just like any massage you will be doing in any spa you will be working in. With the experience you get at Alpha you will walk into your job interviews with confidence. I'll give you a way to measure this below.
Let's wrap everything up with a few more answers to some very important questions.
How much experience will I get at Alpha?
We touched on this above, but I want to be clear about our mission here at Alpha in serving our students. We want you to be successful in the industry. We want you to leave Alpha with confidence that you can compete with anyone across the state. How do we do that? By designing a program that's heavy with hands-on work for a career that is primarily hands-on. If the program you are looking at doesn't offer extensive hands-on training and the ability to provide you with clients to practice on, ask yourself how well are they preparing you for the field. Your first job interview will include a massage on a skilled massage consumer, how will you do? If you attended Alpha it will be just another day at the office. Another opportunity to show off the skill you have honed with hours of training on real clients. At Alpha, our 650-hour students will do a minimum of 300 clinical practice hours, plus the practice you get on your fellow students. 501-hour students will only meet the State requirement of clinical practice hours.
Sandy Fritz, author of Massage Theory textbook says massage is "Science and art" and we agree. Alpha's mission is to provide you with the hands-on experience to become an artist at your trade; you'll spend the rest of your career mastering it.
Does it work?
Does all that hands-on training work when it comes to finding a job in the industry?
I think that's a question for the employers to answer. That is why I encourage our prospective students to call around and speak to the people who are doing the hiring. Sometimes it's the owner of a spa and other times it's a hiring agent either way, call around and ask to speak to the person in charge of hiring massage therapists. Ask them what's important and where they suggest you go to get what they are looking for. I know you won't hear Alpha every time but I'm confident enough in what we offer at Alpha to believe you will hear us enough to convince you to give us some serious consideration.
Thank you for reading and my sincerest hope is that I help you choose the right place for you. I hope you'll reach out to us with any questions you have. If you choose to visit the school you can make an appointment by email or phone call but feel free to stop in anytime, if that works better for you.