Waterloo Optometry 2012 Cycle

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Originally Posted by Caerulus

I am actually in almost the exact same situation as you. Except I applied to and got my scholarship at PUCO instead of NECO. Overall, however Waterloo is still much cheaper. Similarly, I would choose PUCO if the cost of attendance is the same because I enjoyed my visit at PUCO more....and I have heard that the clinical experience is better. Personally I am leaning towards PUCO over Waterloo but I am not 100% yet.

May I ask how you are deciding between the 2? I'm assuming our situation/criteria is about the same.



I thought board exams vary from province/state to province/state? I would guess that Waterloo students will get better scores on Canadian provinces' board exams while US students will do better on US states' exams since they gear their curriculum towards doing well on the boards and practicing afterwards?

Well, I found this for Canadian Board Exams which includes international and US Optoms. I couldn't find any American Board Stats though. http://docs.ceo-eco.org/dm/cache/doc...ary_Report.pdf

anyone else just waiting for 9?

yup!

Omg, this is killing me!

Is that normally when the decisions are posted?

reading the threads from last year, that's the impression that I got... good luck everyone!

Anyone? Mine still says application...

!!!!!

same...

Is anyone planning to call?

no I don't think I will, I mean after all they did say late march I just really thought it would be today given it's been the first firday in march for the past 3 years...

They said we would learn about the decision in early march and the mails would arrive in late march

Anyone?

Maybe it will be updated throughout the day :S

thats odd, I swear during my interview day (Saturday afternoon) they said late march! I hope you're right though, can't handle too many more restless nights!

Well, I guess I'll check a few times today to see if anyone else got accepted, but that makes me feel ALOT better that I'm not the only one! lol

Last year the first post was at 6:18 AM. So I'm waiting for another 5 min and stopping this obsessive compulsive checking thing.

I think I'll do the same, either way I think we'll get an e-mail a little while later

Yea same! I was really looking forward to knowing already! Oh well...

there are SO many people viewing this thread right now! everyone is just waiting for someone's status to change!

uggh I don't really get it. Why don't they just put an end to our misery earlier? I mean they are only dealing with 300 students (vs. 2000-4000 applicants to medical schools). Why why whyyyy?

I agree! I wish they gave us a date. I wouldn't even care if it was in late March as longs as I know when to expect it!

Maybe were all on the wait list! bahaha jokes! That's impossible!

ahhh I think im going to stop pressing refresh every 10 seconds! anyone else just going to check back later?

lol Agreed... that being said, I probably won't make it through the day without checking again... lol

lol i know what you mean. i am having trouble not checking every 1-2 hours..

yup, still says "application" for me as well.

I called the admissions office last week letting them know that Quest, under the transcript section, still listed "desired" under the status of my transcript. I was afraid they hadn't received my latest transcript. The lady on the phone told me "I don't think we use Quest...", and told me they had everything they needed from me.

I think it might be safe to say that we won't be finding out until next week... Unless anyone has heard of emails being sent over the weekend. Its going to be a long weekend though

i had such a restless sleep last night thinking today was the day!!! gahh!!! well atleast now we have no ideas of when we will know so we just have to wait it out...maybe next friday.. such a painful wait though.

This is brutal.

pleeasse not the last week of march.

Let's mass bother the admissions office!

lets!!! Then they'll feel pressured! Last couple years it has been released on quest the first Friday of March so this is weird!

Originally Posted by merciless3

Caerulus I believe you're asking me instead of Nensis. I'm the one who got a scholarship from NECO and can't decide between the two. I'm strongly leaning towards NECO. I feel like the extra ~50K will worth the education I will get even though as a downside, I won't be able to come home as often (flights are expensive). But again its still a big dilemma for me because at the end we will all have the same degree. I also think there might be more opportunities there in Boston because there are a lot of big universities (Harvard, MIT, Brown, Boston). Connections are always very important.

Yes, I know Waterloo students do well on the board exams but I don't know if its because they have heavy emphasis on theory. I was actually quite pleased with the facilities and the small town environment of Waterloo. Life is definitely less expensive in Waterloo than in Boston. I honestly have no clue how students get by in Boston. So my only concern about Waterloo is its clinical education. I was extremely lucky to have job shadowed 2 ODs in the same office. One was a NECO graduate and the other was a Waterloo graduate. The waterloo graduate told me that he was making less than $50 K a year !!!! I could not believe it! And he was working there part time while the NECO graduate actually owned the business and he was able to do an exam in 15 min while he had a good conversation with the patient (vs. the exam was about 30-40 min. by the Waterloo graduate).

Its a difficult decision.

Congrats on your acceptance into PUCO. I was very impressed by the faculty and the education. =)

My bad, I think I originally meant to direct that question at you.

Either way, thanks for the info. The OD's I shadowed were either from Waterloo or Pacific and they all had good things to say about their schools. I guess its always hard to choose between 2 good things

Originally Posted by limegreen18

I'm very anxious! I hope it's this friday! It seems (looking at old forums) that the past 4 years it's been the first friday in march, so if they keep up with the trend it should be this friday! But anything can change i suppose. I have a feeling when they say "late in march" they mean getting letters in the mail, whereas Quest will be up earlier.

Either way, the time is getting closer! I just can't wait to find out and put this suspension to rest! Has anyone else applied elsewhere and heard back from there? Anyone considering turning down waterloo if accepted?

I hope that that does mean getting the letters in the mail, because I'd also like to find out earlier on in March...

another restless nighttt

Yep! What are the chances they post tomorrow? lol I wonder if this is a friday phenomenon?

i guess tomorrow could be the day, but i have a weird feeling it is a "friday thing". Not sure why...but maybe i'm wrong! P.s im too nervous to check quest so i'm religiously reading this to wait for the first "ACCEPTED!" lol. and even then i probably will be too nervous to check. sigh..

Yup another restless night. =(

I tried calling them last Friday but it was automatically directed to answering machine.

I was wondering if a current student could update us by asking the admissions officers in person and telling us whether its gonna be in late March or soon. That would wonderful if someone could actually do this.

Originally Posted by merciless3

I tried calling them last Friday but it was automatically directed to answering machine.

I was wondering if a current student could update us by asking the admissions officers in person and telling us whether its gonna be in late March or soon. That would wonderful if someone could actually do this.

As students we have no exact idea on the timeline of the admissions process and with being in classes all day we rarely see any of the admissions officers, if at all. I know it is really hard to be patient to find out if you are admitted or not, but I am sure that no amount of phonecalls/emails will result in any other answer other than "late march". If they are following a similar timeline to previous years then it should be shortly that applicants start finding out via quest. I was a religious quest-checker around this time, but it made it that much sweeter when that applicant status changed to admit. Try your best to be patient, and when this feed does start to explode with excitement of the first admittances, congratulations to those of you who got in and see you next year!

looks like a friday thingg

Hopefully this Friday! Getting hard to maintain concentration on current classes with all this anticipation

Lol i joined this website just so i could be part of the hype when we find out~~~

the suspense is killing me!
just wondering if anyone else is in this situation.. So i go to school in Hamilton right now, and my landlord wants to know if I'll be signing the lease for next year. The deadline for signing and sending in post-dated cheques is mid-march but I don't know if I'll be staying in Hamilton next year because these results haven't come out yet!!!

anyone else here having trouble with housing?? any suggestions?

Hey! I am sort of in the same situation. I accepted NECO and I would like to start looking for a roommate, housing and LOANS but I have put that all on hold for waterloo. So far I missed out on 2 great appartments that I wanted. I guess all we can do is wait and hope they don't wait until end of march because that could mess some people up. It says online that all decision letters will be mailed by mid-march. Late march would be terrible. It would be right before exams and I would loose out on more good NECO deals for housing.
Lets hope decisions are made this friday!!

Originally Posted by Eyeloveeyes20

Hey! I am sort of in the same situation. I accepted NECO and I would like to start looking for a roommate, housing and LOANS but I have put that all on hold for waterloo. So far I missed out on 2 great appartments that I wanted. I guess all we can do is wait and hope they don't wait until end of march because that could mess some people up. It says online that all decision letters will be mailed by mid-march. Late march would be terrible. It would be right before exams and I would loose out on more good NECO deals for housing.
Lets hope decisions are made this friday!!

Did you have to place a deposit for the NECO acceptance?

yep, deposit is 500$ to secure your position. Boston is an amazing city and I really loved NECO. Going there would be a great experience and there are several other Canadians in the class. I'm just waiting on Waterloo and then I'll make my decision..or it will be made for me lol !
Either way, I'm excited to figure out what I am doing next year and to start getting ready for it

Originally Posted by Eyeloveeyes20

yep, deposit is 500$ to secure your position. Boston is an amazing city and I really loved NECO. Going there would be a great experience and there are several other Canadians in the class. I'm just waiting on Waterloo and then I'll make my decision..or it will be made for me lol !
Either way, I'm excited to figure out what I am doing next year and to start getting ready for it

Me too...I just want to know where I'll be in the fall. I believe neco said there were over 35% Canadians in the incoming class last year.

Originally Posted by arktl134

the suspense is killing me!
just wondering if anyone else is in this situation.. So i go to school in Hamilton right now, and my landlord wants to know if I'll be signing the lease for next year. The deadline for signing and sending in post-dated cheques is mid-march but I don't know if I'll be staying in Hamilton next year because these results haven't come out yet!!!

anyone else here having trouble with housing?? any suggestions?

I go to school in Hamilton too and am having the same problem! I has to let my landlord know on march 1st if id be moving out in may. If i'm coming back for the summer of another year I'l have to find a new place

yeah I know eh! It's hard to be excited for Boston when were still waiting on Waterloo.

Originally Posted by Eyeloveeyes20

yep, deposit is 500$ to secure your position. Boston is an amazing city and I really loved NECO. Going there would be a great experience and there are several other Canadians in the class. I'm just waiting on Waterloo and then I'll make my decision..or it will be made for me lol !
Either way, I'm excited to figure out what I am doing next year and to start getting ready for it

I'm in the exact same situation :S All the good apartments in Boston are being taken.