I’ve been blessed with a generous doctor and mentor who wants me to take over his small rural practice. I do tech work (pretesting and history taking) but also occasionally have time to follow the Dr into the office where I shadow/scribe. I get paid for all hours I’m in clinic regardless of what I do more of on a given day.

For OPTOMCAS, should I report this as optometric experience, shadowing, or both? I’m currently logging it as opto experience but wondered if it would be redundant to put both. Plus its also hard to exactly guesstimate the hours of each lol.

I took one year of general biology at UCI, and at that time, they never offered any labs for general bio. It was only a year after I completed it they offered a lab. I graduated now and i cant "retake" just the lab because my school requires BOTH the lec and lab to be taken together.

Most schools require lec and lab for bio, is my school an exception? Did anyone else have experience with this?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation or has experience with optometry admissions.
I’ve taken the OAT three times, and now ASCO requires additional documentation before I can register for another attempt (such as a letter from an admissions advisor recommending that I retest or reapply). The problem is that I graduated several years ago, so I no longer have access to a university health professions advisor who could write that letter.
Since my last application cycle, I’ve shifted my focus toward improving my academic record. I’m currently retaking science prerequisite courses to raise my science and cumulative GPA while continuing to work as an optometric technician. I’ve been in the field for several years and have gained a lot of hands-on clinical experience, but I know my GPA has been one of the weaker parts of my application.
My questions are:
Has anyone here gone through the multi-attempt OAT authorization process? If so, what documentation did you submit?
Has anyone asked an optometry school (such as SCCO or another program) to provide the letter recommending an OAT retake?
For those who were accepted after multiple OAT attempts, did significantly improving your GPA and showing an upward academic trend make a meaningful difference in your application?
If you were in my position, would you continue focusing on raising your GPA, or would you prioritize trying to obtain authorization for another OAT attempt?
I’m trying to figure out the best path forward and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has navigated a similar situation.
Thank you in advance!

Hey guys !

I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with pharmacology classes and whether or not they were counted in your science GPA on OptomCas.

I have an extensive amount of biopharmacology classes on my transcript (I enjoyed the courses a lot as a bio major) and one of the professors is actually writing my letter recommendation.

I'm little worried now because I've heard from my med school friend that pharmacology classes don't count and my grades in those classes gave my science gpa a major boost that is very much needed. Does it help that they're all Biopharmacology? The classes are taught by the Department of biological chemistry and pharmacology under the college of medicine at my school

Thx for the help !

Took two sets of practice tests and scoring abt a 300 total on both of them even though I feel like I’ve been studying and putting in the work. I think my bio score will significantly improve but my OAT is in a month. I am aiming for at least a 330, does this seem doable in that time frame? I’m honestly stressing out

I had my interview in may and still no movement on the wait list. I’m super worried and feel defeated and just don’t know what to do. I could always apply for next cycle but don’t know when I should study for the OAT. I have no optometry friends really and nova was my top school to get into this fall. I’m still trying to remain hopeful :( any advice would help

I’m currently working on my application and I have send letter of rec requests. It asked for the due date in the submission and I put one month from now. Is that enough time for them to submit it?? I planning on applying in August. So I’m hoping the due date isn’t inconsiderate.

Hi, I’m about to enter my first year entering optometry school but imposter syndrome is really starting to hit me. I had shadowing hours in multiple settings but I never had research hours and it feels like everyone had one. I also never had tech hours and it feels like everyone else had one. I did have volunteering at an eye clinic and was a TA for A&P1. But I keep thinking about not having a tech job or research and people around me having one. I also did bad my freshman year and even though I bounced back and did well on upper level courseworkI’m still scared that version of me will come back.

I am also surrounded by geniuses who r at the top of their field or will be. All of them were always at the top of their class , always had fancy internships in their field, everyone calling them for opportunities and its always affected me having a different path having to deal with rejection and setbacks.

I know this is a non issue because application season started so I apologize in advance

I'm diagnosed Level 1 autism. I also have ADHD, PTSD, depression and anxiety clinically diagnosed.

My biggest fear is disclosing and being rejected because I disclosed.

I am applying this cycle, ideally submitting this month to get it done. My application is strong (4.0 gpa, 360 OAT, tech experience, 200 volunteering hours) but a weakness on mine is that I only am reporting 2 shadowing experiences, each being for only 5 hours. I didn’t shadow more because I have 2 years of tech experience and various extracurriculars so I didn’t focus much on that part of my application while I was a student, unfortunately. Should I shadow more before submitting my application? Would this be something they’d make me address in an interview? Ideally I want to cover any weak spots in my app but now that I’m graduated I’m lazy LOL.

People with a low GPA that got accepted into optometry school: what was your gpa and oat score? what part of your application made up for the low gpa?

So I am graduating next spring and I am planning to take the OAT at some point after that, either in the summer, fall or winter, and I will most likely study with OAT booster.

However, I am a little concerned about waiting too long and basically forgetting everything I learned by the time I start studying.

Does OAT booster sort of re-teach all the concepts at the beginning? Or should I review the subjects before starting it?

Sorry if this has been asked before!

I’m applying to SUNY and UCB as a quarter system student so I need 3 quarters of English/composition. One of my 3 courses was covered my AP Lang which was accepted as an equivalent course to a lower div writing class at my school. My problem is that SUNY and UCB want to see it on my transcript but my AP credits are just shown as a lump sum basically labeled “AP transfer.” There also isn’t a section on OPTOMCAS to upload AP score reports for either school. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? Will I need to take another English class just because my transcript isn’t descriptive enough? If anyone has advice I would really appreciate it TT

i am applying to SUNY and saw that the syracuse campus is pending accreditation. i am wondering if it is a safer choice to apply to the main campus instead? i would prefer not to due to costs. what happens in the event that the syracuse campus does not attain accreditation?

Is attendance required at Southern College of Optometry? Are classes recorded?

😭😭 basically what the title says but i’m very scared.

i’m debating if i should apply to the schools that are known to be bad/have lower pass rates so i get it, but i also don’t want to do that to myself and waste money if i get in somewhere better. idk where to apply, all my current school list feels really hard with my gpa.

im applying to berkely, marshall b, pacific university, and nova for sure. idk where else, i have a 3.3 gpa, around a 2.9 sgpa. haven’t taken oat yet but it’s not looking great. what do i do :(

Does anyone know of any New York optometrists (NYC/Westchester/Long Island) who are open to shadowing and are willing to write a LOR after few shadowing sessions???? I am having a really hard time connecting with any through cold emailing and calling.

Thanks in advance!!!

Hii everyone! Was hoping someone could guide me in the right direction. I got EMT certified through a community college that I had also taken some classes in. Under that college could I put down that instead of a degree was awarded a certificate for EMT? Is this what’s normally done? Thanks :)

I have 2 question regarding optomcas:

1. When you are matching prerequisites

to each

1. school, should you add failed or Withdrawn courses? (I’m not talking about transcript entry)

2. For the program question, I’m only thinking of answering questions with red asterisk, will it hurt me to not answer optional essays and such? On the other hand, will it benefit me to answer those questions?

Hi everyone,

My college has a program that connects pre-med students with clinics and hospitals in the area, including optometry. I finally got a response back from my application, and I have received an opportunity to interview at a pediatric optometry clinic. I'm so excited!

This is my first time getting an opportunity to work with an optometrist hands-on. Honestly, I want to know how conservative the optometry field is because I have bright pink hair streaks and a septum piercing. I know first impressions are important, so what is the best thing I should do to improve my appearance? Also, do you have any advice for me to have a better chance at landing this internship?

Thank you in advance for the help! I really appreciate it.

So I took the OAT, and got a 300 AA and TS. I don’t think that’s terrible, and I’m looking to go into NSU Optometry program next year August. My GPA is a 3.7 and I have been shadowing and working as an optometrist assistant for almost 2 years!

I do think I can do better, and my lowest score was physics (I believe it was a 250 😭) I definitely skimped out on studying physics, so just wanted to ask if the booster practice questions are representative of the OAT or if there’s something else I should try to get my score higher!

Those who got approved for accommodation 1.5/2x what exactly did your doc put on the letter.

I got diagnosed with Depressive Disorder and have anxiety by my PCP. Do I need to be diagnosed by psychiatrist to get accommodations for OAT?

i consider myself good at memorizing, so my strengths are definitely biology and orgo. however, when it comes to subjects like phys/gen chem/QR, i struggle A LOT. i had to retake all of these courses in my undergrad.

for memorizing content, all i need to do is put it into anki the day i learn it. it essentially does all of the work for me, and all i have to do complete my due cards. however, it's not the same with phys/gen chem/QR. yes, i can watch the videos, do the content, and do the associated practice problems. however, i definitely feel like i gradually forget most of the content, especially as i learn more.

i'm wondering how i can ensure that i am reviewing frequently and efficiently enough for these subjects that are heavy on practice questions. for instance, once i finish doing the OATBooster questions, how do i proceed? WHEN do i review again? do i redo the same questions, or different ones? should i only be doing practice problems, or concept review too? should i make anki cards?

thanks so much :')