Honestly, what is the deal with all of these people bashing the profession of optometry for its future? I have looked at so many different websites for careers and all of them project that the profession is likely to grow faster than average compared to other professions, and that the median income is around $90,000...but why do we all see people telling us there's no future for this business and that the pay is not good?
Here's the problem - you're reading data that are all put out by organizations that benefit from you choosing optometry. The AOA is the main source of data for the BLS report and many career sites quote the BLS data. Will optometry "grow faster than average?" Absolutely. So does a cancerous tumor, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. The profession is growing, not because it needs to to satisfy a need for medical eye care, it's growing out of control because corporate entities like WM, Luxottica, America's Best, etc, all benefit from having thousands of excess ODs to offer low-quality jobs to. Right now, they need ODs to sell their products in the US, but that is not likely to be true forever.
As far as the median income, this is one of the main points where prospects get lied to and deceived the most. The median income accounts for all practicing ODs. There are some enormously successful ODs out there in practice right now. You cannot and should not base your future on what you see in their offices. They created those situations decades ago when conditions in eye care were vastly different than they are today. Starting pay for ODs hasn't risen much, if at all, in the last 15 years or so, and inflation has not had any sympathy. The profession is growing and growing and the problem is, there's not enough structure to support all the extra weight. As sure as the earth is round, you can bet on both starting pay and top pay for those entering the profession now, dropping over the next decade. There can be no other outcome. It's simple supply and demand. If you increase the supply of something drastically without increasing its need, the price will drop. To date, commercial entities have had to offer attractive salaries and benefits packages to lure new grads away from more respectable positions. The need for that is diminishing and many new grads are finding themselves "thankful" just to have that great job at America's Best seeing 8 patients an hour (yes, you really do see 8 patients an hour there). You're going to see pay for new ODs in commercial positions drop. Why? Because it can. There is nothing driving corporations to pay you more since they don't have to. When there's twice as many ODs in the country than are needed, you're going to see a lot of underemployed/unemployed ODs.
So, you can listen to a pharmacist who comes on here and carries on for miles about optometry, despite the fact that he knows very little of what he's talking about. If I want to ask someone about what it's like to be an airline pilot, I won't go to an accountant and ask him for his opinion. But this is America and any crazy pharmacist can come on OD forums and start throwing around information like he actually knows something. If an OD were to go onto the pharmacy forum, or the surgical residency forum, or an auto mechanics' forum, and start billowing hot air about topics that he poorly understands, then he should expect and deserve the same ridicule that our resident internet magazine pharmacist brings on himself.
This quite frankly doesn't make any sense to me...like educated people dealing with stats and careers are saying its a growing profession while only a few people on here are saying it's completely dying. If optometry was such a joke then why do you need 4 years of optometry school to become an OD - I don't feel that Walmart, Lenscrafters, etc. could replace ODs that can actually diagnose and treat complications/diseases of the eye.
The people who write those stats are government workers who are paid to sit in a cubicle and collect data for a 1000 page book on careers. Much of it, if you actually break it apart, is absolutely useless, although not all of it is. It's not written by people in the field. The information is fed to the BLS by the AOA and the numerous optometry schools - organizations that benefit tremendously from getting you to sign on the dotted line.
I'm sorry to be ranting, but honestly I think it is so difficult to get a consensus of this profession. I am going to be a junior in undergrad and have been going back and forth trying to decide on what I want to do with my career (in terms of opt, PA, DO, etc) and this lack of certainty of the profession is just frustrating me...
Go out and talk to as many ODs as you can, preferably newer ones. Don't be distracted by some guy in his 50s or 60s who drives a porsche. You're not buying the optometry that he bought into. It's a different profession entirely. It's great that medical eye care is emphasized so much more now in OD programs than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but the fact is, most grads won't be using the medical information they learn in school and residency. There are too many ODs to allow for all of them, or even a large portion of them to practice full scope optometry. What lay ahead for most grads now days and beyond, is commercial optometry. If you're ok with spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree that will allow you to essentially be a glorified refracting technician, then you'll probably be fine in optometry. There are worse jobs out there, for sure, but they don't cost as much in time or money.
All I'm saying is, if you choose optometry because of the image that's portrayed to you by the AOA and the schools, or what you see in some older OD's office, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Looks can be deceiving. I would recommend both meeting with ODs in person and calling them over the phone. You'd be surprised at the difference in opinions that you get from people who aren't standing in front of you. I've heard from quite a number of prospects that phone conversations with ODs they will never meet seem to be a lot more "realistic" than conversations that take place in person. Just something to keep in mind. Optometry loves to hide its dirty laundry from people who would jump into a very cold pool.