It depends on the school. I'm unfamiliar with SUNY's requirements but I know a lot of schools do require you to take those courses you listed as prerequisites and not 'optional prerequisites'. When it comes to shadowing I know a few schools have certain amount of hours required (UAB requires 60) and I know some schools want you to shadow more than one practice. I shadowed private practice, VA, ophthalmologist, etc with 100+ hours. Volunteering helps a lot too especially during interview questions.
When it comes down to whether or not you're competitive depends greatly on your GPA and OAT. When I was applying and researched all the schools it seemed like the average GPA for optometry acceptance was around ~3.4. For the OAT I would try and get no less than a 320 AA and 320 TS. Also for the OAT try and make sure you don't score below 300 in any of the sections. Some schools accept people with a 300 OAT and some schools won't give you an interview unless you retake it and improve your score. People do get in with scores less than what I posted but these scores I suggested will help you be competitive. Also, some schools look more at the OAT than the GPA and other schools are the opposite. I know SCO won't accept you with a 300 OAT (from what I've seen on this website) but a 3.2 GPA is fine. UAB will accept you with a 300 OAT but their average GPA is a 3.6.
I hope this helps!
