Is it Possible to get into an Opt School w/ These Grades?

[kimcho]

Hey guys I need your expertise

I have taken a few courses over...does optometry school only look at the highest grades or do they include the previous attempts as well.?



Here is my situation:

I failed biology 1, biology 2, gen. chemistry 2 and organic chemistry 1 on my first attempt. As a result I got kicked out of my college. My overall GPA there was like a 1.1. (yes, a one point one)



Luckily I was admitted into another school and decided to retake these classes. On my second try I was able to earn a B in bio 1 and 2, an A in chem 2, and a C in orgo 1. Not what I wanted, but beats those F's.

I was able to pull of a B in chem 1, an A in orgo 2, C in physics 1, and B in physics 2 on my first try. My overall GPA in my second school is a 2.7 (I've gotten like 4 A's, a bunch of B's, 3 C's and an F). I'm taking biochemistry and microbiology... mid-semester I have an A in both classes and my hope is that I'll be able to hit the 3.0 mark by the end of this semester.



I have about another semester left in college before I'm eligible to graduate and mathematically speaking if I earn all A's, next semester, the best GPA I can earn is a 3.2. I plan on taking the OAT's in the summer. I'm really worried, however.


Does optometry school only look at the highest grades or do they include the previous attempts as well.? Is there any chance I can get into an optometry school?



Thanks for your input!

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[jymezg]

Conceivably if you can justify or have a valid excuse for the F's, show improvement in the courses (A's are necessary since you've already seen the material), and do well in upper division classes all while taking a heavy course load... you might have a chance. A blastin OAT score would also be a necessity.

Why the string of low grades? Doesn't look like it was just a semester of this trend...gen chem 2-orgo is a year. Finally, why opt school?

 

[blysssful]

Conceivably if you can justify or have a valid excuse for the F's, show improvement in the courses (A's are necessary since you've already seen the material), and do well in upper division classes all while taking a heavy course load... you might have a chance. A blastin OAT score would also be a necessity.

Why the string of low grades? Doesn't look like it was just a semester of this trend...gen chem 2-orgo is a year. Finally, why opt school?

Agreed with jymezg, and as KHE would surely point out, a profession in optometry, or healthcare in general, requires a GENUINE scientific curiosity. If your science courses are just a pain for you, and some sort of task that you feel you MUST accomplish, you might want to consider something else.

To answer your general question, they do look at trends.

 

[cloud99]

With the new OptomCAS, you must report all attempts at a class. OptomCAS then will calculate several different GPA's including bio, chem, physics, math, psych, eng, other science, other general and cumulative. Repeated attempts are NOT included in the GPA but they ARE on the report. Each school is then free to consider them or not. Historically, a few schools only factored in the second attempt, (pco is one of them) while others asked for both (suny, neco, etc...). No matter what, you have to send in your transcripts so they WILL see them.

 

[kimcho]

Why the string of low grades? Doesn't look like it was just a semester of this trend...gen chem 2-orgo is a year. Finally, why opt school?

I developed an unfortunate passion for television programming my freshman year. I've seen a good 35-40 different shows in the past three years. It started out as something to break for in between studying or those dumb 1 hour gaps in between classes, but its turned into a very time consuming hobby.

Most of my retakes have all been in the summer. I've done pretty decent in the accelerated pace for some reason and not so well in the long, eventful semester.

As for why opt? I was taking a perception class, most of which was focused on the eyes and felt it was really, really interesting.

If your science courses are just a pain for you, and some sort of task that you feel you MUST accomplish, you might want to consider something else.

To answer your general question, they do look at trends.

Some of it is interesting, but most of the time I think it is painful and irrelevant. A lot of the time I feel as if I will never really need to know this stuff. I mean, how many times have you walked into the optometrists office and found them to be carrying out a grignard reaction?

With the new OptomCAS, you must report all attempts at a class. OptomCAS then will calculate several different GPA's including bio, chem, physics, math, psych, eng, other science, other general and cumulative. Repeated attempts are NOT included in the GPA but they ARE on the report. Each school is then free to consider them or not. Historically, a few schools only factored in the second attempt, (pco is one of them) while others asked for both (suny, neco, etc...). No matter what, you have to send in your transcripts so they WILL see them.

They won't use the highest grade? Instead the first???


Thanks so much for your input so far everyone. I'm super worried about this so what you have to say is important to me.

 

[cloud99]

Sorry, I meant the LOWER attempt is not calculated into the gpa by optomCAS but is still reported.

 

[iVision]

I developed an unfortunate passion for television programming my freshman year. I've seen a good 35-40 different shows in the past three years. It started out as something to break for in between studying or those dumb 1 hour gaps in between classes, but its turned into a very time consuming hobby.

I'm not sure TV addiction would get you off the hook for low grades.

 

[gochi]

Agreed with jymezg, and as KHE would surely point out, a profession in optometry, or healthcare in general, requires a GENUINE scientific curiosity. If your science courses are just a pain for you, and some sort of task that you feel you MUST accomplish, you might want to consider something else.

To answer your general question, they do look at trends.

It's funny how people think KHE is god.

There are thousands of optometrist who hated science, and ended up graduating accordingly.

btw, failing courses does not imply that you lack a scientific curiosity.

 

[gochi]

I developed an unfortunate passion for television programming my freshman year. I've seen a good 35-40 different shows in the past three years. It started out as something to break for in between studying or those dumb 1 hour gaps in between classes, but its turned into a very time consuming hobby.

Most of my retakes have all been in the summer. I've done pretty decent in the accelerated pace for some reason and not so well in the long, eventful semester.

As for why opt? I was taking a perception class, most of which was focused on the eyes and felt it was really, really interesting.


Some of it is interesting, but most of the time I think it is painful and irrelevant. A lot of the time I feel as if I will never really need to know this stuff. I mean, how many times have you walked into the optometrists office and found them to be carrying out a grignard reaction?



They won't use the highest grade? Instead the first???


Thanks so much for your input so far everyone. I'm super worried about this so what you have to say is important to me.

Most of what you learn in undergrad is straight up bullsh*t. If someone tells you otherwise, slap them twice; except your parents.

But, wow, you find the grignard reaction hard? The most difficult classes i have encountered thus far, have been all biology classes instructed by female profs, since those classes require you to actually study.

I thought all schools use the better grade when calculating GPA's ?

 

[thanotoriousfob]

Most of what you learn in undergrad is straight up bullsh*t. If someone tells you otherwise, slap them twice; except your parents.

But, wow, you find the grignard reaction hard? The most difficult classes i have encountered thus far, have been all biology classes instructed by female profs, since those classes require you to actually study.

I thought all schools use the better grade when calculating GPA's ?

Why is it BS?

And schools vary in the way they calculate grades. For example, PUCO takes into consideration the original grade from the course you retook along with the new one.

 

[achirum]

Most of what you learn in undergrad is straight up bullsh*t. If someone tells you otherwise, slap them twice; except your parents.

But, wow, you find the grignard reaction hard? The most difficult classes i have encountered thus far, have been all biology classes instructed by female profs, since those classes require you to actually study.

I thought all schools use the better grade when calculating GPA's ?

I don't necessarily think he found the Grignard reaction to be very hard, he was just using it as an example to make a point.

 

[blysssful]

It's funny how people think KHE is god.

There are thousands of optometrist who hated science, and ended up graduating accordingly.

btw, failing courses does not imply that you lack a scientific curiosity.

No, failing courses definitely doesn't mean that, but personally I try a hell of a lot harder in the courses I find interesting. When there's a general TREND that someone does poorly in all their science courses, there's a good chance it might have something to do with them just not LIKING those courses, or not caring enough to understand them. And of course someone is capable of finishing optometry school without loving science, but maybe they'd be better off in a different field.

Most of what you learn in undergrad is straight up bullsh*t. If someone tells you otherwise, slap them twice; except your parents.

But, wow, you find the grignard reaction hard? The most difficult classes i have encountered thus far, have been all biology classes instructed by female profs, since those classes require you to actually study.

I thought all schools use the better grade when calculating GPA's ?

Maybe the details are BS, but you learn a lot about how to study and HOW you learn in undergrad.

And I 100% disagree with the female professor thing. It's a pretty even distribution, but the courses that I've had to study the most for were taught by men. I don't think there's a correlation.

Some of it is interesting, but most of the time I think it is painful and irrelevant. A lot of the time I feel as if I will never really need to know this stuff. I mean, how many times have you walked into the optometrists office and found them to be carrying out a grignard reaction?

Yeah, I know what you mean... kind of like "why should I learn this if it's not ever going to be important in my future?". That's how I feel about plants.

 

[thanotoriousfob]

Yeah, I know what you mean... kind of like "why should I learn this if it's not ever going to be important in my future?". That's how I feel about plants.

Hands down, plants are the most boring things to study. Don't get me started on bryophytes, tracheophytes and what not.

 

[blysssful]

Hands down, plants are the most boring things to study. Don't get me started on bryophytes, tracheophytes and what not.

Ugh, terrible flashbacks to intro bio...

 

[achirum]

I hate plants. Our professor was such a huge plant guy too. He made us know every single classification and sub classification of every single plant you could think of, and made us know scientific names as well as common names because he liked to use them interchangeably on the tests.

 

[jc812]

developing a "passion" for television programming, aka being "lazy" is hardly an excuse for failing every prereq before taking it again... seriously?

If you loved eyes so much from your perception class, there are other routes if the optometrist route doesn't work out for you. If you happen to get into school, great.. but if you don't- there are other fields within optometry. Opticians, Ophthalmic Technician, the list goes on.


I agree with Gochi that scientific curiosity isn't a necessity in order to become an OD, but a successful one should.

 

[gochi]

No, failing courses definitely doesn't mean that, but personally I try a hell of a lot harder in the courses I find interesting. When there's a general TREND that someone does poorly in all their science courses, there's a good chance it might have something to do with them just not LIKING those courses, or not caring enough to understand them. And of course someone is capable of finishing optometry school without loving science, but maybe they'd be better off in a different field.



Maybe the details are BS, but you learn a lot about how to study and HOW you learn in undergrad.

And I 100% disagree with the female professor thing. It's a pretty even distribution, but the courses that I've had to study the most for were taught by men. I don't think there's a correlation.



Yeah, I know what you mean... kind of like "why should I learn this if it's not ever going to be important in my future?". That's how I feel about plants.

Seriously, all of the biology teachers I have had were all stuck up grown women. Annoying as hell. I guess it depends on the school.

 

[gochi]

d.post

 

[gochi]

developing a "passion" for television programming, aka being "lazy" is hardly an excuse for failing every prereq before taking it again... seriously?

If you loved eyes so much from your perception class, there are other routes if the optometrist route doesn't work out for you. If you happen to get into school, great.. but if you don't- there are other fields within optometry. Opticians, Ophthalmic Technician, the list goes on.


I agree with Gochi that scientific curiosity isn't a necessity in order to become an OD, but a successful one should.

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being taught so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

 

[thanotoriousfob]

Your prof didnt make you do that. The curriculum clearly stated what you will be learning, yet you hate plants, and still took the course. Pretty much your fault.

What? How would you know? Maybe it was an intro bio course and it was required and there was no way around it. I had the same thing in my second semester of general biology. We had 3 professors teach that course, one for each exam then an accumulative final. One of the professors happened to teach nothing but plants and it was not like I could avoid. I HAD to take it. Don't try to make something out of nothing.

 

[thanotoriousfob]

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being thought so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

Alright, please explain how you would fix the problem.

 

[gochi]

What? How would you know? Maybe it was an intro bio course and it was required and there was no way around it. I had the same thing in my second semester of general biology. We had 3 professors teach that course, one for each exam then an accumulative final. One of the professors happened to teach nothing but plants and it was not like I could avoid. I HAD to take it. Don't try to make something out of nothing.

Woops, i thought the other poster strictly took a course about plants and was complaining about it.

 

[jymezg]

I developed an unfortunate passion for television programming my freshman year. I've seen a good 35-40 different shows in the past three years. It started out as something to break for in between studying or those dumb 1 hour gaps in between classes, but its turned into a very time consuming hobby.

Haha, TV addiction. Gotta admit thats a new one. At least it wasn't a hopeless addiction to booze.

Anyways. If you bring your gpa up apply and get a interview I'd try not to explictly use that as your excuse, mabey a "semester to find yourself"

If you are genuinly interested in opt school you might need to postpone your graduation/take more classes/get your gpa even higher to improve your chances, ya know, show admisions that you can handle hard classes and apply with a high GPA and OAT to offset those failing grades.

Woops, i thought the other poster strictly took a course about plants and was complaining about it.

I had to take a plant/fungi class to graduate on time (only thing open that filled my grad reqs) I contemplated death on a regular basis

 

[cloud99]

Seriously, all of the biology teachers I have had were all stuck up grown women. Annoying as hell. I guess it depends on the school.

Maybe they just didn't like you.

 

[NYOD]

Here's a question that's a little off-topic from this thread:

SUNY requirements say that you must have a C or better in all of the pre-requisites. Now my question, I have a C- for my Biology 1 class and I was wondering if would mean immediate rejection from SUNY. I really don't have the time to spend another semester taking the class over. Since all my other grades for the pre-requisites are well above a C, do you think they will simply let it go?

 

[blysssful]

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being thought so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

Maybe the undergrad you go to just sucks. Of course there are courses like that at my school, but for all my upper level bio courses, there is much more freedom in labs. They want you to learn how to do certain things of course, but after the first year of bio, I haven't had to buy a bio lab notebook that had all the procedures that we'd do, etc. For example with micro, we all had to do animal and environmental sampling then identify isolates. The means by which we reached that end goal were up to us though.

Also if you ever looked into independent research, you definitely would have more freedom to actually THINK about what you're doing and why.

 

[blysssful]

Here's a question that's a little off-topic from this thread:

SUNY requirements say that you must have a C or better in all of the pre-requisites. Now my question, I have a C- for my Biology 1 class and I was wondering if would mean immediate rejection from SUNY. I really don't have the time to spend another semester taking the class over. Since all my other grades for the pre-requisites are well above a C, do you think they will simply let it go?

Do you have other biology courses that you've done well in? I really don't know how strict SUNY is with that rule, but I would imagine if you had 5 biology courses and only one of which happens to be a C-, then it might be okay. But if you only have the bare minimum (one year's worth) of biology, and one of those semester grades is a C-, you might be hurting. I would call SUNY and ask directly.

 

[EyeWitness]

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being thought so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

I agree with this. It took a few months post graduation for me to start to revive my scientific curiosity and decide to continue on in the health care field. I just look at it as big game and you either have to play it or get out.

 

[gochi]

Alright, please explain how you would fix the problem.

The system should allow students to have more of an input on their learning.

Also, courses should be thought via the web, and if there are any labs with freakin procedures, they should be done online as well.

 

[NYOD]

Do you have other biology courses that you've done well in? I really don't know how strict SUNY is with that rule, but I would imagine if you had 5 biology courses and only one of which happens to be a C-, then it might be okay. But if you only have the bare minimum (one year's worth) of biology, and one of those semester grades is a C-, you might be hurting. I would call SUNY and ask directly.

Intro to biology 2 is the only other bio class i took. I did pretty decent in that class with a B+. I'm majoring in neuroscience so I should accumulate a few more biology courses. But thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely send SUNY an e-mail regarding my situation.

 

[thanotoriousfob]

The system should allow students to have more of an input on their learning.

Also, courses should be thought via the web, and if there are any labs with freakin procedures, they should be done online as well.

Okay I agree with the first part but how do you perform labs online? If I'm in o-chem lab, how am I going to perform these tests safely at home, and better yet why would I want to? I don't think I would want to perform any scientific lab at home. It would get messy, unsafe, and if I have questions or need help, who do I ask?

 

[OpticalBlackOut]

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being thought so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

Really? My upper division science courses often required self-planning. We had to write our own procedures and papers. For one organic chemistry class, we were given freedom with chemicals to yield the desired product.

I had my own research project with my specific interest outside of class.
Finally, my school gave us an option of designing our own major. As long as you take the pre-reqs and pick reasonable courses from different departments, the board approves it.

 

[KHE]

It's funny how people think KHE is god.

There are thousands of optometrist who hated science, and ended up graduating accordingly.

btw, failing courses does not imply that you lack a scientific curiosity.

Hey, I just noticed this! Someone things I'm a God?? Awesome!

 

[gochi]

Okay I agree with the first part but how do you perform labs online? If I'm in o-chem lab, how am I going to perform these tests safely at home, and better yet why would I want to? I don't think I would want to perform any scientific lab at home. It would get messy, unsafe, and if I have questions or need help, who do I ask?

Virtual Labs

I mean seriously, when are you ever going to do a titration after graduating...

 

[gochi]

Hey, I just noticed this! Someone things I'm a God?? Awesome!

but a God should be able to spell.

 

[Tizzle]

So you're saying pointing and clicking on a Flash game is equivalent to performing an actual lab?

And where'd you go to undergrad to receive such a crappy experience? DeVry University?

 

[thanotoriousfob]

So you're saying pointing and clicking on a Flash game is equivalent to performing an actual lab?

And where'd you go to undergrad to receive such a crappy experience? DeVry University?

Oh come on, it would be great! It will be like the real thing without having to get out of bed! That way you can eat your breakfast burrito w/ extra chunky salsa while simultaneously performing a saponification lab without the soap! This idea is sure to stimulate students' scientific curiosity!

 

[gochi]

So you're saying pointing and clicking on a Flash game is equivalent to performing an actual lab?

And where'd you go to undergrad to receive such a crappy experience? DeVry University?

Yea pretty much. At least for the introductory classes. Actually, some schools have begun to do this, like the University of Phoenix. They offer anat/physio online.

My university is much MUCH more worse than DeVry.

 

[KHE]

but a God should be able to spell.

Ah yes, the "typo flame." Certainly the limpest of all internet flames, it is almost always made by some bitter soul when they have no other coherent point to make so they just comfort themselves by taking a tiny drop of glee in jumping on a missed key stroke.

 

[canadaoptnow]

In my opinion, College/Uni ruins any scientific curiosity a student could possibly develop. The whole system is controlled by idiots, which hire other idiots to enforce the idiotic system.

You go to class, take down notes about a particular lecture, and go memorize that piece of information. The cycle repeats. Mind you, you are TOLD how to do labs. How the hell does that help your scientific curiosity?

Basically, you are being thought so much BS, that you have no time to develop interest in something you like.

??

 

[canadaoptnow]

The system should allow students to have more of an input on their learning.

Also, courses should be thought via the web, and if there are any labs with freakin procedures, they should be done online as well.

I think the word you are looking for is taught...both times.

 

[gochi]

??

Yea, you shouldn't have, because that is not a spelling mistake.

 

[xmattODx]

My university is much MUCH more worse than DeVry.

 

[gochi]

Ah yes, the "typo flame." Certainly the limpest of all internet flames, it is almost always made by some bitter soul when they have no other coherent point to make so they just comfort themselves by taking a tiny drop of glee in jumping on a missed key stroke.

LOL, way to contradict yourself.

 

[canadaoptnow]

Yea, you shouldn't have, because that is not a spelling mistake.

You are right not a spelling error...just completely wrong word usage.

 

[gochi]

opinion?

 

[xmattODx]

opinion?

Sorry. Just avoiding work. More worse is redundant. We all know the word you were looking for is "worser"

 

[blysssful]

 

[gochi]

Sorry. Just avoiding work. More worse is redundant. We all know the word you were looking for is "worser"

...there is a point to redundancy you know.