Thoughts on ICO, SUNY, NECO, IU, UHCO?

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Hello! To everyone who have gone to these schools for interview, I wanted to ask for advice on what the pros and cons are for the schools. I live in Chicago area, and have heard good things about ICO. However, I have never gone to New York, Boston, Indiana, and Houston. I have been invited for interview for SUNY, NECO, ICO, and IU. I will be going to New York for the SUNY interview, but I don't know if it's worth traveling to other places because I want to consider the pros and cons before spending money to visit.

ANY comment will be helpful!

I have already done some research for SUNY, ICO, and NECO, and the general thoughts were this:
SUNY: High board pass rate, clinical is okay but get to experience many different types of patients, people are less friendly because more reserved, cost of living is expensive
ICO: People are very willing to help, housing and clinical is right next to each other, renovated clinic, variety of externships offered
NECO: labs are outdated and small, bad reputation from scandal (?), classroom is small, people are nice, cost of living is expensive, old equipment, clinic is in another area

But yeah, any personal experience regarding any of these schools?

Seriously, anything will help me.
Thank you in advance. :)

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I have visited all of these schools. I think it's worth traveling to the NECO interview (or any school you have an interview offer for) because different things might matter to you once you see the school. Choosing schools is a big investment.

SUNY: indeed, high board pass rate, since in general the students they get have higher stats on average. I'm not really sure how to evaluate clinical programs. I didn't experience any of the "new york mean-ness," (I'm also from the midwest) and especially everyone at the school itself was very friendly. SUNY is in a very bustling part of town though (like 2 blocks from times square!). Cost of living is higher, but from what i can tell it's offset quite a bit by lower tuition (US citizens can get in-state tuition after the first year).

ICO: I don't like the school building very much, but everything else about ICO seems awesome.

NECO: I'm not aware of any scandal - what was it? I also couldn't tell if stuff was old. It did seem kind of inconvenient that the clinic is not attached to the school, and also there are many of them, not everyone goes to the same clinic. Cost of living is expensive, and unlike SUNY tuition isn't cheaper to help with that.
 
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If you get into SUNY or ICO, I'd say don't interview elsewhere unless you really want to. At that point, I'd just go based on the location (I'd go to ICO in your shoes because I'd personally want to not have to relocate if I lived there) or cost of tuition. I suppose Indiana is pretty close by to you as well.

I'd say SUNY, ICO, and IU are pretty solid. I wouldn't say NECO is a bad school but I tend to hear more vocal disappointment there from colleagues. Regarding the scandal, in 2012 there was proven handful of students and faculty involved in pooling and sharing of official NBEO questions.
 
If you get into SUNY or ICO, I'd say don't interview elsewhere unless you really want to.

Thank you! Yeah, I'm still debating... but have you heard anything about UHCO? That's the only school I haven't heard from at all, but I do want to visit to see what it's like there.
 
I've never met any faculty, alumni, or students from UHCO nor have I ever visited their campus. I've only practiced in the west coast, chicago, and east coast. I would imagine it to be a good school since I believe it is a public school, and public school's tend to be solid/more competitive in applicants.
 
I go to undergrad here at UH and I had my interview this past Friday. The staff and faculty were incredibly nice and the entire process was very stress-free. We went on an awesome tour of the facilities and even got to use the state-of-the-art Simulation Lab (which is the only lab of its kind at any optometry school and the largest in the world!). I definitely felt like I was at home and being from Texas, I will definitely be attending. Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to answer them as best as possible.
 
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