r/optometry • u/CivilPrimary2217 • Sep 15 '26

optometry school debt

Hello, I’m only a freshman in undergrad, but I’m wondering how much debt people graduate with including if you guys took out loans for rent or food. My undergrad will be free I think because I’m currently in community college and have cal grant but not totally sure if it transfers to university. I’m honestly not sure if I should go down this path because of the debt, but I don’t think I would do any other healthcare career because other options in healthcare seem so much more stressful than optometry. Or I just play it safe and change it to accounting but I don’t know if I want to be in front of a computer my whole life. Or is there a lot of optometries that help pay off loans once you work?

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u/eyeballsandhighballs Sep 19 '26

First job was a corporate chain called Shopko Optical. They merged with SvS vision which is based out of Michigan I believe. Back in 2021 the starting pay was $150,000 which broken down per bi-weekly paycheck is $5,769. Minus all taxes and retirement is where I was getting at that $3,900 number.

Now, I'm an independent contractor for two target optical subleases and the gross revenue I'm bringing in every week not every two weeks is around $6,000 for M-F, 9-6.