Am I a competitive applicant?

[poptometry]

OAT Score: 380AA/400TS
Major: BA in Biology; Minor in Health & Wellbeing
GPA (Overall/Science): 3.348 Overall/not sure of where to find science GPA other than manually calculating, but it's likely that it's slightly lower than cumulative
Schools I am applying to: ICO, IUSO, AZCOPT, NECO, MCPHS, UC-Berkeley, SCCO, OSU, and UHCO
Experience: 8 hours shadowing an optometrist; 8.5 months working as an optometric tech/receptionist; approx. 1 month now as office manager

So as of right now, I have completed all of my applications but I'm waiting on my LORs to be completed so I can submit (I've already submitted to ICO since they don't need all letters to be in). I was not able to get any LORs from a science professor, since I'm not close to any of them. However, I was able to get two great LORs from optometrists that I work with as well LORs from two non-science professors. I'm also not sure if I have enough experience in the realm of optometry, although I have learned so much from my employment. I was also looking at average GPAs for entering classes, and mine is a bit lower than the average of the recently accepted class for a lot of the schools I am applying to. I did not do so well in my first two years of college, but there is an upward trend in grades. With that in mind, I knew I needed to absolutely crush the OAT. I think I did pretty well with that goal. Therefore, there are both high and lows in my application. Is it enough to be a competitive applicant?

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[Eyedontknowanymore]

I think as long as you show your dedication to the field and your want to improve the field with your presence in your personal statement you’ll be fine!

 

[poptometry]

I think as long as you show your dedication to the field and your want to improve the field with your presence in your personal statement you’ll be fine!

Thank you for the advice; I did just that in my personal statement! Would you happen to have any advice for interviews? I'm not a great conversationalist by any means.

 

[miranda_deaton]

I haven’t interviewed yet! I have an admissions day with IUSO in October! From what I’ve heard an interview is just to get to know you as a person because you’ve clearly wowed them enough on paper to be invited for an interview! Just be yourself and an advice I keep telling myself is to always take a deep breath and remember you’re deserving of an interview. That usually takes the anxiety away for me

when did you submit your app to IUSO and how long did it take for them to get back with you?

 

[2025eyedr]

OAT Score: 380AA/400TS
Major: BA in Biology; Minor in Health & Wellbeing
GPA (Overall/Science): 3.348 Overall/not sure of where to find science GPA other than manually calculating, but it's likely that it's slightly lower than cumulative
Schools I am applying to: ICO, IUSO, AZCOPT, NECO, MCPHS, UC-Berkeley, SCCO, OSU, and UHCO
Experience: 8 hours shadowing an optometrist; 8.5 months working as an optometric tech/receptionist; approx. 1 month now as office manager

So as of right now, I have completed all of my applications but I'm waiting on my LORs to be completed so I can submit (I've already submitted to ICO since they don't need all letters to be in). I was not able to get any LORs from a science professor, since I'm not close to any of them. However, I was able to get two great LORs from optometrists that I work with as well LORs from two non-science professors. I'm also not sure if I have enough experience in the realm of optometry, although I have learned so much from my employment. I was also looking at average GPAs for entering classes, and mine is a bit lower than the average of the recently accepted class for a lot of the schools I am applying to. I did not do so well in my first two years of college, but there is an upward trend in grades. With that in mind, I knew I needed to absolutely crush the OAT. I think I did pretty well with that goal. Therefore, there are both high and lows in my application. Is it enough to be a competitive applicant?

Your OAT scores are excellent !!! You don't have anything to worry about, period. Congrats on your future acceptance