anyone get in with less than a C for prerequisites?

Since we don't know your circumstances we really can't give you any worthwhile advice. Anything below a C you are going to need to re-take, they aren't just going to excuse a year of grades. Schools are going to make sure you can handle the pre-reqs before anything else... if you really need to know, call some schools and ask their opinions, but I'm going to tell you to retake those classes, study hard and retake the OAT as well. Good luck!

physicslover said:

In my first year, where I took the majority of my prerequisites, I was going through difficult situation and most of my grades are below a C for prequisites.
Thanks

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I think it would be good to retake all the classes you got below C's in especially if there pre-reqs. also keep in mind, that not only would your grade be higher, but if you took the OATs again you would probably do better.

Good luck! you can refer to opted website for statistics on average GPA and OATs for the schools your interested in applying to.

I got in NECO this year with a C- in Organic Chemistry.

Good luck

i got into PCO with a C- in physics 2 (ugh!! i hated that classsss!) anyhow, all the other schools are putting me on hold until i finish retaking that class.

physicslover said:

I was wondering whether opt schools make exceptions to extenuating circumstances. In my first year, where I took the majority of my prerequisites, I was going through difficult situation and most of my grades are below a C for prequisites. My science grades a have improved since then, but because of my first year, my prereq GPA is pretty low. I didn't do too well on the OAT's either, scoring 290 on QR, and Bio and 280 on orgo. Rest 300+. I am willing to repeat these courses, but will I even be given an interview based on this? Has anyone has any experience in which they were excused for grades in a particular year?

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It comes down to numbers. If someone else is trying to get into that school with a 3.5 and 350 OAT, they are going to take that person. Admissions keeps track of what students GPA and OATs were and how they do in Optom school and on boards. They weigh admissions criterea based off this. This is coming from a gentleman in admissions.

HAVING SAID THAT, you should absolutely not give up if you want to be an optometrist. If you explain what happened and do well on the retakes, some schools will understand and some probably wont, but you will get in if you have the numbers. Plus the easier prereq's like Bio/chem 1+2 should be easier for you now that you have had other sciences.

Bottom line is the ball is in your hands.

Goodluck!

physicslover said:

I was wondering whether opt schools make exceptions to extenuating circumstances. In my first year, where I took the majority of my prerequisites, I was going through difficult situation and most of my grades are below a C for prequisites. My science grades a have improved since then, but because of my first year, my prereq GPA is pretty low. I didn't do too well on the OAT's either, scoring 290 on QR, and Bio and 280 on orgo. Rest 300+. I am willing to repeat these courses, but will I even be given an interview based on this? Has anyone has any experience in which they were excused for grades in a particular year?

Thanks

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Echoing what everyone's already said, you just have to demonstrate that the circumstances were affecting your performance, and that when you repeat these courses without the circumstances, you should be able to do really well. Since we don't know your GPA, it's obviously hard to say if an interview is attainable. Try and contact admissions counselors, they are open to give suggestions

I agree with the above posts.

I think it depends on the schools you're thinking of applying to. Some schools ignore the +/- and will only look at the letter grade.. which explains why some of us got accepted with C- .. But keep in mind, there are schools that will have you retake a course even if you got a C-.. I'm sure a lot of people screwed up first year

I had a few c-s spattered across my transcript but SCO still granted me an interview. The other 5 schools on the west coast didn't, however. So if you have your heart set in a certain school, then I would def try to erase those C-s by retaking the class at JC or something. I'm retaking gchem I and calculus I right now. And having graduated with a BS in genetics, which is heavy in cell bio and chemistry, gchem is a freaking cake walk. The only part that sucks is that I tend to recall ochem in a lot of situations where the professor is just looking for a simple answer. And calculus... Well I've always sucked at math, but taking it at JC is 1000000% easier. Their teaching methods are generally different than at 4 yr universities.

So I def would start ASAP to correct those grades. I graduated in march 09 and pretty much refused to believe that I needed to go back to school until half way through the fall semester when I had to fill out supplementals with my C-s. But by the. It was too late to join any classes and I had essentially wasted 2 semesters wherein I could finished half the classes I needed to retake. So now I'm pushed back to not finishng until December 2010, maybe even June 2010 if the classes I need aren't offered when I need them. Which then means that my gpa won't be as boosted as I would like it to be by the time I have to apply again. So point and case, don't waste time trying to decide if you should or shouldn't. Just go for it. You wont regret it.

Did you apply this season or are you going to apply this summer?

I should also add that I had a couple Cs but got into all 3 schools that I interviewed at. None of these were during my last 2 years though

I had some c-'s.. some of the schools have said if i get accepted that It will be contingent on me finishing those classes with a C or better... some others dont seem to mention it at all....

If you've retaken those classes and did better, your gpa should be better and it wouldn't look so bad. My grades are all over the place, but overall 3.05 gpa and 310 oat. Got interviews from Western and Puerto Rico so far; still waiting on 6 more schools. Unfortunately, I got flat rejected from ICO. They even sent me a brochure to go with it. What gives?