- Joined
- Mar 15, 2003
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi! Is anyone attending the optometry program for U of Waterloo this coming fall? And are there students out there already in their program?
University of Waterloo
- Thread starter jananya
- Start date
- Joined
- May 5, 2002
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 0
I've actually just graduated from UW and I'm off to start praticing once the board results come in.
Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try the help the best I can.
Here's an interesting link for you or anyone else to look at. They are last years results of the Canadian Boards ....
2002 Canadian Board Results
Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try the help the best I can.
Here's an interesting link for you or anyone else to look at. They are last years results of the Canadian Boards ....
2002 Canadian Board Results
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2003
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi,
Canada has two optometry schools. One is an english-speaking school (waterloo) and the other is a french-speaking school located in Quebec. I heard rumors that they were considering building another optometry school within one of the universities in the Western provinces of Canada. But most of the present Universities do not have the facilities needed for an optometry school at the present moment. (& perhaps they are reluctant to spend so much $$ on building a school fr scratch?) They also considered the supply & demand for optometrists in Canada & thought that with another school, there would be too many optometrists in Canada. Again, I heard these rumors from some ppl in my pre-opt club so I'm not too sure.
As for tuition, I will be attending Waterloo next year and tuition for my entire year is just a little less than $10,000 CDN a year.
Canada has two optometry schools. One is an english-speaking school (waterloo) and the other is a french-speaking school located in Quebec. I heard rumors that they were considering building another optometry school within one of the universities in the Western provinces of Canada. But most of the present Universities do not have the facilities needed for an optometry school at the present moment. (& perhaps they are reluctant to spend so much $$ on building a school fr scratch?) They also considered the supply & demand for optometrists in Canada & thought that with another school, there would be too many optometrists in Canada. Again, I heard these rumors from some ppl in my pre-opt club so I'm not too sure.
As for tuition, I will be attending Waterloo next year and tuition for my entire year is just a little less than $10,000 CDN a year.
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2002
- Messages
- 3,767
- Reaction score
- 7
A little off-topic, but how does the Canadian educational system work? Do you have grades 1-12, get graded on a 4-point scale, etc. like the U.S.? Or is your system more like the British?
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2003
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
There are grades K-12 in all the provinces & Ontario originally had Grade 13 as well. But now, they are getting rid of that. Maybe it differs with diff highschools/universities (?) but I was always graded with percentages. The average grade the schools look at was always a percentage, so no...we weren't graded with the 4.0 system. This varies with the schools though.
To CANUCK OD: Thanks for that link! Can you tell me a bit about the first year of optometry at UW? And how did you find your overall clinical experience at UW?
To CANUCK OD: Thanks for that link! Can you tell me a bit about the first year of optometry at UW? And how did you find your overall clinical experience at UW?
- Joined
- May 5, 2002
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 0
To clarify things a bit, no there will not likely ever be a "third" optometry school opening in Canada. The initial reason for a third school was to meet the demand, since there are so many canadians now that either can't get into UW/UM, or just decide to go the way of getting their training from the US. There have been many talks with other universities, most recently with McMaster. All have failed to produce anything. The new solution has been to expand the UW program, from it's past capacity of 60, by 5 place every year until a there will be a class size of 90. This has already started, with this years new class expected to be in the 65-70 range.
jananya,
First year optometry at UW is the hardest of all the years. You will be swamped with courses and labs. The course load actually exceeds the maximum couse load for an undergrad program, so my class had to sign a waiver accepting the course load before being accepted into the programme. Most of the people that failed out of optometry did so within the first year. Don't get me wrong, everyone lives through it .... just expect to be pushed in the programme ...
Clinical experience ... well that's where the americans have a distinct advantage. They are generally exposed to more patients/patient populations that you will get at UW. Recently one of the major externships (Ocular Disease Externship) was cancelled. This is because we used go to the US and get trained there ... with an emphasis on exposure to TPAs, which as you will know is severely more limited in Canada. But since 9/11 the americans have closed to boarder to UW optometry students. The school is busy trying to substitute this program with Canadian sites with OMDs, ODs in TPA provinces etc ... but it still needs work (since this summer term will only be the 2nd one not taking place in the US).
You'll find that the level of overall training you receive from UW is quite high, as shown in the Canadian Board results I provided you. And it's actually much more advantagous to be going to UW if you plan on practising in Canada. ... but then that's a double-edged sword too since it would be more advantagous clinically speaking to go to a US school if you wanted to practise there (even though no canadian from UW has failed the US boards) since the clinical training you get in disease management at a US school will be of so much value to you.
Sorry for the longwinded answers ... let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!
jananya,
First year optometry at UW is the hardest of all the years. You will be swamped with courses and labs. The course load actually exceeds the maximum couse load for an undergrad program, so my class had to sign a waiver accepting the course load before being accepted into the programme. Most of the people that failed out of optometry did so within the first year. Don't get me wrong, everyone lives through it .... just expect to be pushed in the programme ...
Clinical experience ... well that's where the americans have a distinct advantage. They are generally exposed to more patients/patient populations that you will get at UW. Recently one of the major externships (Ocular Disease Externship) was cancelled. This is because we used go to the US and get trained there ... with an emphasis on exposure to TPAs, which as you will know is severely more limited in Canada. But since 9/11 the americans have closed to boarder to UW optometry students. The school is busy trying to substitute this program with Canadian sites with OMDs, ODs in TPA provinces etc ... but it still needs work (since this summer term will only be the 2nd one not taking place in the US).
You'll find that the level of overall training you receive from UW is quite high, as shown in the Canadian Board results I provided you. And it's actually much more advantagous to be going to UW if you plan on practising in Canada. ... but then that's a double-edged sword too since it would be more advantagous clinically speaking to go to a US school if you wanted to practise there (even though no canadian from UW has failed the US boards) since the clinical training you get in disease management at a US school will be of so much value to you.
Sorry for the longwinded answers ... let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2002
- Messages
- 253
- Reaction score
- 0
