advice for a ambitious(possibly overly-ambitious) applicant

[abjs1111]

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Hello,

So I am ready to apply for optometry school 2011-2012 cycle but I keep wavering on one aspect of my personal statement. First of all, I am VERY confident in my choice in perusing optometry, one of the main reasons being that it will allow me to combine my passions into one profession. In my statement I discuss for my future career goals my interest in a joint MS/OD program(specifically at SCCO), specializing in pediatrics, as well getting my masters in public health(MPH) following my optometrist education. I have shadowed most of the specialties in optometry and I absolutely fell in love with the pediatric setting and at the very least want to explore this option in optometry school. I have been actively involved in vision research (retinal detachment studies, including some of my own research) at UC Santa Barbara so I am very interested in continuing this passion in optometry school and I like that it would allow me the option to teach optometry in the future. And finally, public health is my second love, being apart of Public Health Brigades the past three years has changed my life and I now think of health in a holistic way and I would love to see myself exercising my passion for public health through pediatric optometry...(i know there are organizations like InfantSEE where I could find a happy place). I am aware that my knowledge of these fields is minimal seeing as I am not in any of them yet, but on the other hand, I am genuinely passionate about all of these interests with the research and experiences I have had thus far.

So, my question is, do i sound like a motivated, driven applicant, OR a over-achieving, naive applicant with perpetual student syndrome? I also dont want my specific interests to take away from the fact that OPTOMETRY is what I am pursuing, I dont want to sound distracted from the main purpose.

Any advice would be great! Thanks 🙂

 

[Rhodopsin]

You sound like an extremely motivated individual who is passionate about many different things, and has thought extremely hard about what you want out of your career. You don't seem like a perpetual student, you give the impression that you're just someone with tons of goals. For your admissions letter itself I'd focus mostly on the OD degree itself (and the combined MS) but I personally don't see anything wrong with mentioning the public health and other goals- just make sure you tie it in with your optometry-related dreams so they know you're serious about your OD. If you make the OD the "star" of your application and the other stuff goals that are complimentary to it, I really can't see you doing anything but impressing the committees.

Admissions committees can easily tell the difference between the applicants who are just going into optometry for the heck of it and are considering other career options, and the ones like you who truly want it. Best of luck to you 🙂