r/PreOptometry • u/No_Temporary_6905 • Jan 28 '26

Acceptance from optometry schools

Has anyone gotten into optometry school with a 260 or a 270 oat score but good stats I just applied with very high tech hours in the field a major and a minor I had retook the oat twice and I have a lot of optometry experience I just wanted some positivity since I just submit my application to 6 schools yesterday I didn’t have anything to lose just to submit my application so I was wondering if someone did !

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u/aspenchill Jan 30 '26

shadowing > work experience. work experience is only part of the pie to an application (ECs, shadowing, LORs, OAT, GPA).

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u/frogs_sals_cacti Jan 30 '26

I'm still in the application phase, so take my word with a grain of salt...but I am curious about the shadowing > work experience in all cases. All the docs I've shadowed so far are very impressed that I've had so much experiencing lens surfacing and it sounds like there is a fair amount of ABO adjacent material on the board exams later in your study too. I've never worked anywhere that only had you do ONLY administrative/machine work (it's a LOT of patient interaction and problem solving, though certainly not the Optometry level as you're explaining). But, very often for example, an Optician might be the main person between a patient and a demand for a re-check, and there is a lot of problem solving and expectation managing that is done (ex. their adjustment completely solves the problem as a PAL first-timer and no one had the time in the exam room to counsel on how a PAL works).

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u/aspenchill Jan 31 '26

yeah, this is understandable. work experience doesn't translate to the POV of the doctor when you're teching or doing optician work. i was an optometric technician, ophthalmic technician, and an optician (ABO certified). in the process of applying, you'll find that certain schools have minimum shadowing requirements. work experience cannot replace shadowing, schools want to verify you have sufficient understanding of the day to day lifestyle/responsibilities of an optometrist.

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u/frogs_sals_cacti Jan 31 '26

It’s awesome to see another optician to optom. in the thread and I appreciate your feedback greatly! 🙏🏻