To those of you who are currently in opt school: What is it like? Is it more rigorous than undergrad, or is it more laid back? Is it like med school where you actually have to try to fail? I am especially interested in the last two years, where you guys get to deal with real patients.
What is optometry school like?
- Thread starter hye345
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UABSO is 10X more work than undergrad ever was for me, and I finished a double major in 3.5 years. The first quarter of optometry school was a real shock to my system, to say the least. At UAB the consensus from 99 percent of the people would be you do not have to try to fail. You have to stay on top of things. You have to work hard, but nothing good comes without hard work, right? Most of the course work is not that hard to understand, there is just a really high volume of material that you are expected to retain. You are in class from 8 in the morning until 5 at night everyday, and then you go home and study, or stay in the preclinic until late into the night to practice for your next practical. The first 2 years are much more academic, and basic science related. The third year is more of a mix between clinical and didactic, though there is much more didactic than I would like. For us the second year is probably the worst. That is not to say that 3rd year is that much easier, it is just that by that point people start getting burned out and just don't care quite as much. 4th year is 100 percent clinical.
In short school is much harder than I had imagined it would be. There have been times that I thought to myself "what have I gotten myself into." There were times that I thought what they wanted us to do was not humanly possible...
Me: you want me to do what? in 8 minutes!!!! but it takes me 22.
Prof: well you better practice
However, if you work hard, take it one day at a time, one test at a time, one practical at a time, and try not to get overwhelmed you will get through it just like most of the rest of your classmates. While we have had a few "casualties of war" the admissions committee would not have accepted you if they did not think you could handle it.
Maybe this was a little too exaggerated. What I meant was that med schools readily try to help students catch up if they are falling behind in their work. I wanted to know if opt school followed this pattern.
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there are lots of available tutoring opportunities. That being said, people have to work hard to not fail. Same as med school, or any doctoral health professions program.
I have several very intelligent friends who have flunked out of both.
Optometry school takes ten times the commitment of undergrad.
Edit: It appears someone already said that. But it's true.
I have several very intelligent friends who have flunked out of both.
Optometry school takes ten times the commitment of undergrad.
Edit: It appears someone already said that. But it's true.
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My experience here at SCCO as a first year is not so bad. It is definitely harder than undergrad, but there are some more laid back aspects as well. In other words, the material comes one after another, but the environment is very, very supportive. Competition is there, but it is not quite as cutthroat as my undergrad years where (1) many of my peers were going for med school and most siginificantly (2) there were curved exams. In SCCO, there are no curved exams and my peers are the most helpful people you'll ever meet.
So as hard as optometry school can be, it's always nice to know that the faculty and my peers are not there to hunt you down and make you fail - they are all there to help you out.
I really can't say much about the last two years - except here at SCCO, the first quarter of the third year is the hardest of all, then it tapers down and gets easier through the fourth year.
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ICO has notetaking service and attendance is only mandatory in labs
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I can give you insight on the last 2 years at SCCO. I was a living and breathing student that made it through the trenches of SCCO and I also TA'd a lot of those classes you're going through (i.e. lamotte and ridder)
I found that, while visiting all other programs during my tenure that SCCO tended to be more supportive than a lot of the other programs out there. I believe its just our way of banding together against the institution of "school" and we never like to see one of our fellow colleagues fall.
At SCCO, the first year is usually pretty much a review of your years at Undergraduate school with Biochem, some pharmacology, optics, physio, anatomy, and at the end of the 1st year you get some refractions and Binocular vision. You start seeing patients (not on your own but shadowing) in the NEW HUGE 10 million dollar state of the art clinic (the reason I mentioned the cost is because the admin keeps telling us how much it costs and then tells us thats why they work us to death to keep that place a float and they still run in the red. haha)
The second year is a slow transition into more clinical and optometry related stuff and at the middle of the second quarter of second year, things take a spike in intensity as proficiencies and practicals and etc come a long and you stay late nights to practice practice and practice. Second year into the first quarter of third year is the SPIKE of SCCO's optometry school. Huge proficiencies that tests how much you've actually learned. After that, it goes down hill in terms of intensity and then you prepare for rotations.
In my experience, and I"m sure almost all student interns, will say that you do most of your learning at the rotations than at school anyhow. For me, I learned almost everything at rotations and when I came back to school, no one questioned that I didn't know what I was doing.
Then you graduate and go on to residencies if you like (about 10-30% of the class per year). Good luck
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Optometry school is very much like Medical school but more applied to the eyes. We go intensely into systemic issues as almost everything has some sort of application to the eyes and we normally see systemic conditions first occurring in the eyes before anywhere else due to the small fragile vessels of the eye. Wow, that was one very long run on sentence. haha There are note-taking services. At SCCO (but I believe ICO is different when I asked their residents about it), you'd sign up for it then everyone who signs up take turns writing up an hour of lecture and distribute it to the entire group note taking group. That way you only have to do write up only 1 or 2 per quarter and get the whole quarter's worth. That fee for group notes is WELL WORTH THE MONEY!!! VERY USEFUL! You also get old test files that are very useful during the first 2 years of school.
When are you ever really force to go to lecture? Not even in my high school would I always go. haha However, there are some lectures that I believe are mandatory (such as special lecturers which occur a lot and class policy lectures or rotation lecturers). Labs are always required and don't be late. hope that was helpful
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optometry school
oh why why are you so hard?
it's also a lot of fun (if you like learning new things and meeting really great people - no really my class is AWESOME!!) and if you love vision/eyeballs it is really interesting. you learn dozens of new things every day - that's why it's so hard. and you can't do garbage in, garbage out because one day your patient might need you to recall a factiod. it's actually a really great experience except for those darn tests and practicals. i do love it, i just wish there were 5 more hours everyday to study.
but when i'm dean, there are sure going to be a lot of changes i make!
1. all classes except pre-clinic pass/not pass
2. visual perception right before the boards
3. first years working in eyewear clinic
someday...when i am dean
oh why why are you so hard?
it's also a lot of fun (if you like learning new things and meeting really great people - no really my class is AWESOME!!) and if you love vision/eyeballs it is really interesting. you learn dozens of new things every day - that's why it's so hard. and you can't do garbage in, garbage out because one day your patient might need you to recall a factiod. it's actually a really great experience except for those darn tests and practicals. i do love it, i just wish there were 5 more hours everyday to study.
but when i'm dean, there are sure going to be a lot of changes i make!
1. all classes except pre-clinic pass/not pass
2. visual perception right before the boards
3. first years working in eyewear clinic
someday...when i am dean
Ok...so I have read through many of the responses here and have looked into optometry quite a bit. I have been in the medical field for 10 years now, kidney dialysis for 3, pharmacy tech for 3 and the rest health information. I read that if you are looking to get into optometry you must have a long interest in science and math. Is this true? I am very interested in optometry but have never really studied math or science. Yes I know I work in a pharmacy but I know pharmacy math. Mg/Kg/Hr and so on. HELP?
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You have to have an interest in it because for 4 years your "job" is to learn as much science as possible. When you are done, your job-job is to put that science into practice.
To even be able to apply to Optometry School there are also plenty of science prereqs, Gen Bio, Gen Chem, Orgo, Microbiology, Anatomy/Physiology, Biochem, Physics (I listed the ones for the school I will be attending, while others might differ a little bit, for the most part, these are the prerequisites).
If you don't like the sciences, I don't think you will enjoy any health care professional school.
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Though, to be fair, if you hate all the sciences, and mathematics, what exactly about the health professions do you find appealing (other than the "promise" of stuffed pay-cheques)? Even if you manage to cheat and drag your way to the finish line, will you really be glad to live in a vocation to the basic nature of which you have no inclination? (Maybe this comment isn't so specific to Scoffman4, who says he or she has been in the health industry for a decade, but I feel it's certainly pertinent to many of the posts made in this forum, which ask, "Is optometry right for me?" "Can I make it?" "I hate everything; can I still get in to optometry school?")
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I think a lot of people believe their loosely-defined passion towards wanting to help people will get them through whatever obstacles may come their way in professional school. And for some people, maybe that is the case. However, after only going through less than a semester of optometry school, I can say without reservation or doubt that if I didn't love the sciences, I would have dropped out.
And to be fair to scoffman4, s/he stated s/he had never really STUDIED math or science, not that s/he studied it and knew s/he didn't like it. I definitely didn't see myself liking biology until I was actually sitting in a biotech class that was related to my first major. Also, while it makes it much easier to get through if you love ALL the related sciences, if you have an interest in certain aspects, it is often enough to get you through the rest. For example, many people love biology and excel in the biology related courses, but can't stand physics so optics isn't something they look forward to studying. However, what I have noticed is that since its all one related system, even if you don't love physics, it can still be really interesting to learn about how the optics works.
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Part of what you say interests me: Does the O.D. curriculum, overall, lean more toward biology, chemistry, or physics?
Thanks.
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I can only really comment on SUNY's first semester curriculum, but it is heavily weighted towards biology and biochemistry, in my opinion. Our courses this semester:
-Gross Anatomy (focused on the head region, but we started with the heart & spinal cord)
-Bioscience (general bio topics reviewed with A LOT of biochem)
-Ocular Anatomy, Biochemistry & Physiology (this class started after midterms and you can probably guess what it covers)
-Optics (this semester is geometrical, based on light traveling in a straight line)
-Optometry Theory and Procedures (understanding optical concepts is pretty crucial for this class... actually, understanding EVERYTHING inside and out is crucial for this class)
We also have another class called Integrated Seminar where we hear cases that are pertinent to what we're learning about (along with other various topics). It is pass/fail though, based on attendance of clinical observations.
From what I understand of the upcoming semesters is that the focus remains on biology, obviously with the emphasis on the visual system.
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ehhh Math not so much... it kicks my ***** but you can get by (at least so far) with a strong hatred twards math
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Thank you.
