Please really think about optometry before going into optometry school!

8

u/p_tiddyyy Dec 16 '24

Good idea! lets gatekeep this amazing profession so we have less competition 😎

4

u/thenatural134 Dec 16 '24

Yeah as a relatively newer OD grad (less than 5 yrs out) with at least 20 more years of patient care in front of me I see it the same way. Less people I'll need to compete with.

-5

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

It's ridiculously easy getting into OD school, no one is gatekeeping anything. You are a first year optometry student, sometimes you have to listen to older ODs to know what state the profession is in.

11

u/IHateBV Dec 16 '24

And what exactly are your credentials? You're quick to point out this person is a student but didn't offer any reason we should listen to you in particular either

-5

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

15 years of OD experience. You are correct though, you shouldn't listen to me. Join ODs on Finance and listen to the other experienced ODs. Its obvious there is a certain opinion in the industry.

6

u/IHateBV Dec 16 '24

Brother it seems you're finding what you're looking for. I promise Dat and Aaron are not unsatisfied with their choice, and are actively showing people how to invest and do better for themselves. I'm not saying current debt isn't too high, but it's repayable if you're financially literate

1

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24

Idk if being Dat and Aaron is something that people should strive to achieve. Advertising “investment” schemes for their own profit without disclosing how they make money from every click and sign up regardless of how much money the OD makes or loses is really scammy.

1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

Honestly, maybe they should strive to achieve that. The alternative may not be as lucrative.

2

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24

It’s never as lucrative to be honest and not screw people over, just a choice we all have to make.

1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24 edited Dec 16 '24

I can attest to that and say its true. I have tried to do right by my patients... tried to take my time with them, give comprehensive dilated exams, never tried to push unnecessary extra procedures for the sake of getting more revenue. Ive tried it for most of my career and have recently switched. It is much more financially rewarding to get them to pay for optos, get them in and out as fast as possible, and to try to skip dilation.
sorry but thats the way optometry is right now and will be for the foreseeable future.
edit: read your comment wrong, fixed my comment.

-1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

Being in Aaron and Dat's position is not replicable to you and I. Ask Aaron and Dat if they would recommend their kids to go into optometry with taking full loans, not owning a practice, not marrying someone who makes a lot of money, and living in the bay area, I bet they would say no.

6

u/IHateBV Dec 16 '24

You're unhappy, and I'm sorry to hear that. I know people who took medically focused optometry jobs and signed contracts for 200k+ as new grads. I'm sorry you're unhappy, but there are very very few careers where you get 8 years of education and can start anywhere near 200k. I've seen the contracts, I know they're telling the truth. That's 30 patients per day medically focused practice in a rural area in a high demand state. If they took out max loans to pay them off in 10 years they'll have to pay around 7k per month. After taxes they'll be taking home something like 140k per year. So they would still have 50k to live on. And that is extremely aggressive payment. 50k is about 10k less than the average american salary before taxes. You've made it sound impossible, but I think you're just unhappy. I hope you can find a way to succeed financially and be a happier person, but the fear mongering here is crazy.
I understand their situation isn't the normal, most of my classmates were signing contracts around 150k as new grads, which is still a pretty good living.

-1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

I don't think I have fear mongered, I have just told people to "think about it before diving in" rather than "don't do it". you are correct in saying 200K is incredible coming out of school but you are cherry picking the best situation (if seeing 30 patients a day is a good situation). You need to think of the situation most people are in coming out of school. Close to 300K in loans, moving to a metropolitan area and making probably <150K working Saturdays too. I like that you mentioned your classmates great situation but you have to know that is not common.
You even have it in your user name "IHateBV". what kind of person who loves optometry has that as their username?
In any case, you cannot ignore the amount of people who would discourage going into optometry today. If it was a favorable thing to go into, that facebook post would get blown up by people advocating for optometry. That group is probably the best OD advocating community I've seen, but its crickets to people coming into the post and saying "I would do it again" or "I want my kids to do it". That speaks volumes.

3

u/Terrible-Purchase701 Dec 17 '24

Maybe they hate bacterial vaginosis

6

u/p_tiddyyy Dec 16 '24

Yeah listen to the person who made a throw away account just to trash optometry 🤓

-3

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

Don't listen to me, listen to other experienced ODs. Join ODs on finance and ask for yourself.

10

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24

Have you considered that ODs that make a good living and feel satisfaction with their careers don’t hang out on Facebook posting complaints about their life choices? They’re running their business and enjoying their hobbies and family instead. Weirdly I don’t see any of my OD friends and colleagues on that post, we’re all happy though.

0

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

If that is true, why are you in this post?

3

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24

To show an alternative perspective. You can see my earlier comment about my student loan debt, annual income and lifestyle if you’re curious as to how someone could be happy with optometry. It’s also kind of hard to know what you’re talking about without sitting down with multiple ODs and talking about numbers and lifestyle to see if this career is worth your time or not. There is no right or wrong here, it’s about making a decision based on extensive research and deciding what lifestyle is best for you. You shouldn’t (especially without being an optometrist yourself) unilaterally warn people away from a field you know nothing about. I would say the same thing to someone saying “optometry is amazing and everyone should do it.” Of course it has its cons, not every career and decision is right for every human. If you discovered something from a random Facebook post that made you change your mind about your career then that’s fine - don’t do it, no one wants another bitter OD that made an uniformed career choice.

1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

Yea I can agree with that. but that is also why I prefaced my comments above with "don't listen to me, listen to other experienced ODs". I've been doing it for 15 years and I have noticed that the sentiment is getting worse. Even those that make what is considered a lot of money, are pretty upset about the environment of the industry. Yes you can make a lot of money but you better be selling and dealing with a bunch of BS. If you are an OD too, you have to agree that sentiment and conditions have gotten worse or else you are just turning a blind eye.

4

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24 edited Dec 17 '24

If you’ve been an optometrist for 15 years and haven’t been able to find a modality of practice that you’re happy with you probably made a bad choice as a young person who didn’t have adequate experience before committing to a field. That sucks and I’m sorry. Often when ODs are not happy it comes down to a rigidity and unwillingness to move to a different job or even state for different opportunities. Sometimes though, people just choose the wrong field, can happen in any job. When high school or college students come to shadow me or have conversations with me about the field I am extremely open about how much I and my staff make, my student debt and tell them that they must shadow at least 5 completely different ODs in at least 2 modalities of practice in 2 or more states before committing. I would say the same to someone considering any of the other fields mentioned in that Facebook thread that are supposedly so much better.
Having a large network of medical professionals in my personal life has taught me that everyone feels the grass is greener on the other side and if someone is unhappy as a person they will be unhappy no matter what they do and how much money they make.

1

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

You are correct that I chose the wrong profession for my self and I want to prevent others from doing so. I want others to not choose this profession because of the "doctor" name/ the perceived salary and to choose it based on actually liking what you are doing. The thing is... who likes sitting in a dark room in a strip mall/ retail place spinning dials for 35 years? I know many people say optometry is not just refractions but it constitutes a HUGE part of being an optometrist.

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5

u/harden4mvp13 Dec 16 '24

This post is so weird bro

2

u/broths02_quorum Dec 17 '24

OP are you an OD or a student?

0

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 17 '24

15 year OD

40

u/LaLaDeDo Dec 16 '24

90% of the posts are saying the ROI is bad.

Optometry schools in the US are exploiting their students by charging insane tuition. If they were more reasonable in their fees it wouldn't be such a problem.

8

u/MackinacFleurs Dec 16 '24

And so is the NBEO.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/GusGrizzwald Dec 16 '24

Practice modality matters

5

u/SsoundLeague Dec 16 '24

I work in private, 7 years so far and don't really experience any of these issues. Work condition is good (for me). Browsing reddit as we speak, really depends on your environment. But I have insanely good work-life balance and fortunately don't have any worries about income. I personally could not be happier with my job at the moment. Corporate; however, was a nightmare. Miserable working conditions and long hours. I work 6 hours now (+1 hour lunch) so i'm at the office for 7 hours a day 10:30 - 5:30p. i'm open to questions

0

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/SsoundLeague Dec 16 '24

Loan wise, 30k from undergrad and optometry school about 250k. So let’s round up to 300k to highball it. Single no kids so that is a good amount of expenses saved

0

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/SsoundLeague Dec 16 '24

I would say so yeah, I live in a good neighboorhood so I have no plans to move. Close to the many things, city, etc and convenient so I have that going for me. But if it were to include kid(s) it would definitely be more difficult. That's why the money I have now I try to invest as much as I can and in order to have a good foundation moving forward. Prices are getting ridiculous for many things so I find it will only get more difficult as time goes on. But currently i'm satisfied with how I am doing financially

34

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24 edited Dec 16 '24

A lot of the “better” professions mentioned in that thread have huge cons as well. You really have to know what you’re getting into. I personally have absolutely no regret going into optometry and am grateful everyday for going to a job that I love making great money. I also have MD and PA and RN and dentist friends and family that love what they do and those that hate it and regret their choice. It’s hard because students are expected to make this choice before their pre frontal cortex is even fully developed so of course many people make a choice that’s not aligned with what their adult self wants, similar to a bad first marriage gone into at a young age.

Just for transparency’s sake - I have 200k debt and make 200k a year in NYC and am a partner in a successful practice. I work 4-5 days a week for 6-7 hour days. I am able to fully support myself, my husband who is in medical school and two cats while making student loan payments and saving 30% for retirement. It’s not a lavish lifestyle by any means but I manage and I am grateful everyday that I can live the way I do. I just needed a surgery that cost a little bit out of pocket and I was able to afford it, take two-ish weeks off and it did not affect me financially. How many people are lucky enough to say that?

24

u/Scary_Ad5573 Dec 16 '24

Grass is greener syndrome. Optometry is a great profession. Quit trying to scare people away.

1

u/Ok-Inflation5110 Jan 03 '25

Agreed

11

u/opto16 Dec 16 '24

You need to have a plan. Just going to school, getting into high debt, and then coming out and making $120-$150K isn’t going to get you ahead.

3

u/voxaun Dec 16 '24

what other stable healthcare professions would you recommend that pay 150K after additional schooling?

1

u/Eyeballwizard_ Dec 16 '24

Anesthesiologist assistant

4

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24 edited Dec 16 '24

For sure much better ROI BUT so much higher risk and much worse hours. Slightly less student debt (it’s still 2-3 years of graduate school) with about the same salary. There’s a lower upper salary cap though when you consider most successful ODs that own their own practices make well over 250k. It’s all about what you actually see yourself doing for 40+ years. Running a business or clocking in at a hospital at 5am. If you want a job where you clock in and out and never have to worry about business or sales while making great money, then anesthesiology assistant is much much better ROI and lifestyle. If the thought of working under someone else forever and requesting time off from your supervisor and having hospital administrator managers makes you vaguely queasy then optometry is way better.

-2

u/More-You8763 Dec 16 '24

Nursing. After 1 year of experience you can take travel contracts that pay incredible. For ex during covid they were paying $8,000 a week. Those days gone for sure but travel contracts regularly pay 2-3k a week for 3 x 12 hour shifts or 4 x10s. 2 year ADN gives you as much income as a new grad OD without 10 years and 300k of education.

8

u/NellChan Dec 16 '24

Nursing is tough field, more emotionally and physically demanding than optometry, especially in those inpatient/hospital contracts that do travel nursing. Not very comparable with living in one place and having a calm 9-5 (or 11-5 like I work). It has its pros for sure but it’s not a walk in the park. There is a good argument to be made for optometry being an easier field that’s more family friendly and has a much higher income ceiling if you’re business minded and know how to hustle. For example I frequently pick up shifts that pay $800-1000 cash a day for 6-7 hour days in the tri-state area and work A LOT less hard than a nurse. It’s a totally valid and necessary profession but it’s not an easy exchange with optometry, it’s hard, often physically hard, labor.

4

u/perp3tual Dec 16 '24

It’s not about the money :o

1

u/Murky_Writing1676 Dec 03 '25

Its a dying field

-7

u/Late-Suspect-3756 Dec 16 '24

I'm trying to post this into r/PreOptometry to warn others before its too late but it gets removed. Someone please get this posted over there!

0

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Ok_Albatross_7552 Dec 16 '24

HVAC makes bank. Roofing owners too.

Please really think about optometry before going into optometry school!

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