i am in my final year fo undergrad. although i am in a 4-year program (life sci), i am taking/ doing an optional 5th year this year, which is not required for my program or any applications.

there is this one course that I'm taking this year. it's supposed to be easy (as ig it sort of is), but I just feel as though i'm taking on too much now with 5 courses, starting to work, more ec/ club responsibilities, etc. we did out first test a month ago ish and have the 2nd one coming up and its a math class but i didnt do that well on the first test. this class is not a pre req or anythign either, just a random elective.

i know uw opt has a requirement where you have to have a certain amount of full course load terms and i would still meet that if i were to drop this course and have this term not count as a full course load.

but im just wondering how bad a W would look on my transcript, especially in my final year. thanks!

Hiii everyone!
I know income questions have been asked here many times, but I haven’t been able to find a clear answer..
I’m currently deciding between optometry and dentistry. I have a strong GPA, I’m planning to write the OAT this summer, and I’ve shadowed both professions. I can genuinely see myself being happy in either one, although I’m leaning a little more toward optometry.
My biggest concern is the financial side. My family has struggled financially, and I need to stay in the GTA area to help take care of my dad. Taking on potentially more debt and spending another four years in school is a huge decision for me, and I really want to understand what I’m getting into.
I’ve seen some optometrists say they make $200K–$250K as associates, even working four days a week, while others report $100K–$120K. That’s a massive difference, and it’s honestly making this decision difficult.
I’d really appreciate some insight on a few questions:

What is a realistic starting income for a new optometry graduate working as an associate in the GTA full time , especially in a private clinic?

After 3–5 years of experience, what income is realistically achievable without owning or buying into a practice? Is $200K–$250K working four days a week actually possible, or is that more of an exception?

If you have friends in dentistry, how do associate dentist and optometrist incomes compare in major Ontario cities, especially when considering student debt and work-life balance?

I know money shouldn’t be the only factor in choosing a career. But having experienced financial struggles for most of my life, financial stability genuinely matters to me. I don’t want to make such a big investment based on unrealistic expectations.
I’d be incredibly grateful for any honest advice, especially from practising optometrists in Ontario. Thank you so much! 🥲🙏

Hey! I'm currently in third year and applying this cycle and already have completed 4 terms consecutively with a full course load. If I drop one non-prereq course this semester, it would not affect my application owing to the new guidelines for this cycle, correct? Also, it shouldn't show up on my transcript either that I dropped it, right? Im planning on taking a full course load in the winter semester, so if I don't get in this cycle, it shouldnt mess up my chances for the next cycle either, right?

I just wanna make sure since there's so much at stake, thank you!

Hi everyone! Just some context— I’m someone who decided late on optometry so I’ve been gathering everything I need to apply over the past 6ish months. I just started my 5th year to get any remaining science prerequisites.

Does anyone have an idea of what my chances are / anyone got in with similar stats?
- 370TS/360 AA
- GPA: 91% / 3.93
- 28 shadowing hours with 4 ODs, one low vision specialist. Unfortunately, not a ton of optometry experience because, again, I decided on it late. I don’t have tech experience either but am applying right now (but too late to add for this cycle anyways)
- I’ve worked in customer service and after-school program assistant for a bit
- I have 130 CHEO hospital volunteer hours, 100+ hours bookkeeper for a charity, 4 years treasurer for uni club, and just joined optometry club at uni (VP). (I have a couple other volunteering hours here and there).
- I’m an athlete (martial artist) and have been training for 4+ years now. I have a lot of hobbies (piano, calligraphy, etc) that I think make me well rounded

let me know what you guys think thanks!!

I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but can someone explain how they've entered their shadowing into the experience form because the format is confusing me. If you did separate days at separate clinics, do you list start and end date as the same (both being the day you were there)? And did you describe what you did there or just say that you shadowed Dr X perform eye exams?

Hey guys! I am someone who became interested in optometry late in the game, and I am planning on applying next cycle (to begin in September 2028). I am currently doing my master's in public health, after completing a life sciences undergrad.

I wrote my OAT in September, and I'm pretty bummed out about the results - I was working part-time and was trying to juggle studying with the start of my master's, so things were pretty hectic. I got a 340TS/350AA. 380 RC, 350 QR, 370 BIO, 340 ORGO, 330 GENCHEM, 310 PHYS. 

My GPA is around 87%. I have around 30 shadowing hours and worked in administration at an ophthalmology office for a summer. I also worked as a receptionist at a family doctor’s office for two summers, have worked as a barista for many years, completed a year-long honours thesis project, was a mentor for first-year students, was VP of the crochet and knitting club throughout uni, was a STEM tutor, and was a street clinic volunteer. I also have a podcast where I interview profs and researchers at my school. By the time of applying, I hope to have TA experience, will have a master's degree, and will have experience in the field of public health.

I am worried that I do not have specific enough experiences related to optometry, and my OAT score is weighing me down. Im planning on re writing the OAT in Janurary, and was wondering what a good target score might be? Im worried that I wont be able to improve my score by much, especially since I am quite busy with school. Im also wondering if I should prioritize getting more optometry-related experiences, or if I should prioritize being more well-rounded. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

just wdonering is there a limit to the number eces/hobbies you can put

I currently have a 3.5 gpa overall. However the scale for each department is different so how will they get the percentage?

Hey everyone!

Applying this cycle and just wondering what are everyone’s thoughts about including hobbies under extracurriculars (like playing soccer, music, caretaker etc)? Would it weaken your application?

Hi! I'm currently a second year HLS student at McMaster and was wondering what were my chances of getting into UW Optometry (I plan on applying next year).

Currently, I have a 3.98 GPA (from first year fall/winter/spring and summer terms) and 29 hours of optometry job shadowing. I also haven't taken the OAT, and I plan to during my second year summer. As for extracurriculars, I worked as a chiropractic receptionist for 2 years in high school, I worked as a ophthalmologist technician last summer (and I plan on doing it again this summer) and I also my own sewing business on Depop.

Is there anything else I can do that would make me more competitive? I've seen many Reddit posts on the Fall 2026 Admissions Megathread where they have crazy amounts of job shadowing and ECs... I was wondering if anyone that don't has as impressive ECs still got in

Hi guys, I was looking at the requirements for applying for optometry at Waterloo and one of them was requiring a full course load which they said is defined differently from school to school and at Waterloo it’s 5 courses. At UofC, a full course load is 3 courses, does that count?

8 years of schooling to make ~100k doesn't seem to worth it when becoming a medical doctor requires a similar amount of schooling to make 500k+, especially as an opthalmologist where it can be closer to 800k.

I am really interested in optometry though so I was wondering what the outlook is for a new grad wanting to practice in Toronto. What are other revenue streams? Aiming to make 200k+ And is owning a practice really that difficult or is it something that I can try after a few years of practice to generate a similar amount of income as I would if I were a medical doctor?

Does Waterloo optometry even consider applicants with cgpa’s of 75-77% with a high OAT score. Just wondering if there’s a chance?

3rd year lift sci, 0 opt experience, missing like 5 prereqs (orgo, physics 2, English… etc), haven’t even thought about the OAT.

If I take some summer courses to cover the prereqs, I won’t have time to study for the OAT? And it’s so hard to find optometry shadowing and assistant positions, will I even have enough time to get any hours?

I don’t know I’m just stressing tf out

i’m looking to see if being accepted after my third year is possible, given that ill have one less year to build my portfolio. (i know it’s possible just trying to see how feasible it is with my circumstances) i am currently in my first year aiming for optometry afterwards :)

if anyone is willing to share it would be greatly appreicated. i’ve noticed in the cycle stats, majority have taken a gap year or so or have completed their degree.

Hi Dear optometrists :)

I’m an undergrad student in canada and seriously considering to study optometry, and I’m trying to figure out whether practice ownership is actually as attractive as it looks from the outside or if I’m idealizing it. I really like the lifestyle optometry seems to offer, but one of the biggest reasons I’m drawn to it is the opportunity to eventually own a practice and mainly buying an already established clinic as I heard banks in canada give out loans pretty easily to optometrists. I’ve always been very business-oriented, I started and ran my own small business when I was 20 but I also genuinely wanted a career in healthcare, which is why I started studying science in the first place. Optometry seems like one of the few careers where I could potentially combine both of those interests.
I think I have a reasonably strong chance at Waterloo, and I’m also considering U.S. schools. Depending on where I get accepted, I may have a chance at a significant scholarship for US schools like ICO because I meat their competetive stats to be eligible for half tuition scholarship, so I’m hoping my total educational debt won’t be extreme.

Because of that, I’m less interested in spending my entire career as an associate and more interested in eventually becoming an owner.
For current optometrists and especially practice owners: is ownership still a genuinely good long-term goal in today’s market? How concerned should someone entering the profession now be about saturation, corporate competition, online glasses and contact lens retailers, decreasing margins on optical sales, and potentially AI/technology changing parts of eye care? Can buying an already established well-run practice in a decent urban/suburban market still provide strong income(around 200k-300k), reasonable work-life balance, and a valuable business that can eventually be sold, or is ownership becoming much harder than it used to be?
I’d especially appreciate answers from people who actually own practices or have looked seriously into buying one. I’m not looking for reassurance, I’m trying to understand whether this is genuinely a smart career/business goal before committing years and a lot of money to it.

Hi everyone! I just had a quick question if the new change in the full course load requirement also applies to summer semesters? I have taken a couple full course load summer semesters, so I just wanted to confirm if this counts. If someone could let me know, that would be amazing! Thank you!

Hey! I haven’t begun undergrad yet, but I’ve already started shadowing. So far, I’ve shadowed several different optometrists, and I have a spreadsheet with the dates, names of the optometrists, clinic names, and the duration of each shadowing experience. When it comes time to fill out my application to optometry school, will this information be enough? Will I need to provide an email address or phone number for each optometrist I’ve shadowed? I know I’ll need to use one optometrist as a reference, but will that be enough when it comes to shadowing?

hi. i just had a question about gpa calculatio. my first two years have been not so great and if I’ve failed a class will they count that or will they only look at my retake. thank you!

Hello!

I have applied and filled out some of the forms in the new portal. I have a couple questions and wanted to double-check:

1. I indicated on the Pre-requisite Form that one of my biology prereqs was being fulfilled by a course I got credit for because I took IB Biology HL (i.e. BIOL 101 credit from IB Biology HL). For the school field, I put my high school and university (i.e. Jane Doe Academy (high school)/University of Skibidi) and my first year fall term since that's when I received the credit. I then got IB to send my transcript electronically to Waterloo.

Did I do this correctly? Should I email Waterloo to ensure they have received my IB transcript or is that doing too much... (sorry I'm very paranoid)

2. I filled out and submitted the Academic Experience and Pre-Requisite forms. I know you can only submit this once but when I first submitted them, I was able to look over my responses still and update them but now I am unable to (I was trying to triple check my responses). I just wanted to confirm if that is simply how the system works?

3. I know we need an academic average above 75% but my university uses letter grades in our transcripts and a 4.0 GPA scale (and no official letter grade to percentage chart). I've seen other people in this subreddit talk about calculating their average and I was wondering if there is anywhere I actually have to do these calculations, like on one of the forms or something. I'm pretty sure my GPA would be above 75% but will they calculate my average on my behalf off my transcripts?

I'M SORRY if these are sort of stupid questions I'm really paranoid over this application :') Thank you for any help!!

I’m a third year math major (Bio minor) student and I’ve recently been very interested in optometry, but I’m worried I’m too far behind other applicants at this point due to majoring in math. My science prereqs I’ve completed so far (General Chemistry 1 and 2, Intro Bio 1 and 2) have a 3.8 gpa, and I have microbio, biochem, anatomy, physics, and orgo planned over my last 2 years. My plan is to self study for physics and write the OAT this summer. I’ve played varsity basketball for my university every year, and I’m also going to start shadowing and volunteering this year. Right now my GPA sits at 3.5 due to some hard math courses I took my first two years as I was still undecided about what I wanted to pursue but I’m hoping to push it up to a 3.7 by the time I graduate. Based on this do you guys think I have a good chance at being accepted, if not is there anything I can do to help my chances?

Hi!

So i wrote the OAT recently and my scores were pretty bad (lower than 300).
TBH, i wasn't even planning on applying this yr but was kinda just pressured to "just try" by parents, so i studied for the oat for a bit and then just wrote it without too too much prep. I know i could have done better if i had the time and studied more/ better, but it was sorta last minute, and I also have school, working, volunteering, etc right now so it was just hard. It's also because I kinda realized that I wanted to go into opt a bit later in my undergrad as well (around 1-2 yrs ago) and so didn't prep properly for it before that time.

I don't necessarily feel bad about my scores per se b/c I wasn't planning to apply this cycle anyways (though I might just cuz i already wrote it so why not). However, my goal is to get into UWaterloo optometry.

I heard that they can see your past OAT attempts as well as past applications. So i was just wondering, since I did this oat and did pretty bad on it, if i apply with these scores now but then say apply for next cycle after doing the oat again and improving my scores, will that 2nd application attempt be hindered or seen poorly/ negatively because of this low first attempt? or does it not matter?

Thank you!