The ICA’s student membership carries the first post-graduate year free on conversion, and, for US members, two further years at reduced rates. The ACA gives SACA members one free year after graduation, or five years at half price through its New Practitioner Prepaid Plan. The IFCO publishes a first-year rate for new doctors, separately from its student rate. The ICPA’s student membership renews annually until the expected graduation date, after which the member must contact the ICPA to upgrade to its first-year DC rate. See the ICA, ACA, SACA, ICPA and IFCO entries on the organizations page for each body’s own wording.
What to do: for the ICA, the ACA and the ICPA, the offer runs through student membership, so ask each before you graduate how its student membership converts.
The rehabilitation diplomate requires a valid Chiropractic licensure or diploma from a CCE approved Chiropractic college
(ACRB program information, read 5 October 2026), so a graduate need not yet be licensed to meet that requirement. Animal chiropractic certification from the AVCA cannot be held until you are licensed; its examination site sets out a Student Alternative Application route with its own conditions, quoted in the AVCA entry on the organizations page. The sports board’s own pages differ on how much a student may do. Its CCSP page: The Board of Directors has approved a groundbreaking proposal allowing DC students in their final year of clinical education to enroll in and complete a CCSP® program prior to graduation.
Its FAQ: One CCSP® class (no more than 10 percent of the hours of a 100-hour certification course) may be taken while the applicant is still an undergraduate.
(CCSP; FAQ, read 5 October 2026.) They differ on the examination too: the CCSP page reads You must be a licensed doctor of chiropractic in order to sit for the CCSP® examination.
, and the exam application page reads If you are not yet licensed, a copy of your DC diploma* may be accepted.
(CCSP exam application, read 5 October 2026.) When you can begin and when you can hold the credential are separate questions; see each board’s entry on the organizations page.
These are separate decisions by separate boards. The American Board of Chiropractic Specialties recognizes boards; the two boards above that it recognizes publish their own rules for who may apply.
Before you act. Membership prices, fee schedules and eligibility rules change; confirm anything decisive with the organization itself before acting on it.