School Priorities - Extracurriculars, Academics, etc

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contactspecs2020

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Hello!

I was hoping to discuss with other members on this forum, which schools you find heavily prioritize academics during their application process, and which look at the overall profile of the applicant.

For example, by reading the threads on the pre-optometry forum, I've noticed that SUNY places a huge importance on academic statistics and are most likely extend an invite if an applicants GPA is at least a 3.0 and an OAT score of 320 or higher, despite a vast array of extracurriculars and optometry-related experience.

I feel that PCO looks at the overall applicant opposed to statistics like SUNY, but I was just wondering what others feel. I've called schools that I'm interested in about this and they generally don't really talk about extracurriculars during their review process, but 'the average accepted applicant now has a x cGPA and a y OAT score'.

I know academic statistics are an essential part of applying to Optometry (as there are grade/score/prereq cut offs) but in undergrad I noticed some schools purely just based their acceptances based off academic statistics and some schools looked more deeply into their applicants overall profile and 'well rounded-ness' (ie: as long as the applicant made a grade threshold, all applicants were treated equally and experience/extracurriculars were evaluated)

I'm very much interested in the opinions of what people think NECO, ICO, and NOVA places a priority on during their admissions evaluation - academics or experience?

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I would imagine all schools would emphasize OAT scores and GPA because they are great predictors of aptitude and academic success. The interview itself would also be a big player, followed by pre-optometry extracurriculars.

I believe Berkeley places everyone equal at the interview stages during their large interview day, but of course their "thresholds" are the most stringent. I doubt any other school would have a similar policy unless they too had a very high threshold and are solely stratifying for other celebrity traits.
 
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I would imagine all schools would emphasize OAT scores and GPA because they are great predictors of aptitude and academic success. The interview itself would also be a big player, followed by pre-optometry extracurriculars.

I believe Berkeley places everyone equal at the interview stages during their large interview day, but of course their "thresholds" are the most stringent. I doubt any other school would have a similar policy unless they too had a very high threshold and are solely stratifying for other celebrity traits.

Thanks for the reply! I understand that the OAT and cGPA are important indicator for aptitude and academic success, but I was wondering about the evaluation process of some schools.

For example, I didn't do well in my first and second year of university, but did well in my final two years of school. Are there schools who weigh the final years of undergrad more so than the first two years? I believe that the increasing grades throughout my undergrad career should display that I am constantly improving and that I am capable of aptitude and academic success. I know the optometry program at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and many Canadian pharmacy/masters programs put double the weight on final year scores.

Aside from my personal example, I was wondering how schools evaluate extracurriculars and optometry related experiences.
 
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