Advice Needed Please

[OptoHopeful90]

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Hey everybody,
I am currently a first year optometry school student, however I am not currently happy at my school. I am considering transferring to another school because I feel as that school is a better fit for myself and that the other school will much better expose me to the various fields in optometry that I am interested in. However I am still hesitate about transferring as that would mean I would have to restart as a first year student again, losing a year, and the other school is also more expensive than the current school I attend. Does anyone have any advice as to whether the transfer would be worth it or should I just remain at my current school? Thank you very much, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[eyeguy4life]

What fields of optometry do you feel you would better get exposure to? As far as I know all schools have to teach as if you are going to practice anywhere in the United States, so regardless of state-to-state regulations they are supposed to prepare you for anything.

 

[OptoHopeful90]

Although my current school is considered a top optometry school and I do know that all school's curriculums teach about the same stuff, I believe that the school I want to transfer to offers a lot more extracurricular programs that I can get involved in around the community. I ultimately want to be really involved in clubs that help out the community and underprivileged areas such as SVOSH and Lions Club. Im also really interested in vision therapy and sports rehabilitation. I also like the externship locations that the school offers, it is much more diverse which would give me greater exposure to more patients.

 

[eyeguy4life]

I can understand that for sure. If you stayed at current school here's some things to consider. If your school doesn't have and SVOSH organization, could you start one? You can always do an external rotation in sports medicine or at a practice that offers it your fourth year. May even be able to start a club at your current school for students interested in it. My school has a few students wanting to do that. If you decide to move, sure you may get access to some clubs and whatnot, but in the end you're in school to become a doctor, and as long as that part of the school isn't ailing you the rest can be secondary perks. You will get most of your patient exposure on external rotations fourth year and residency (should you choose to do one), which are all over the place so you can get a nice variety of exposure especially in a VA hospital rotation. Personally I would find out what you/anyone can do about getting those organizations going. My school is in the process of getting them approved, as I am the president of one of those waiting for approval. All the extra stuff is nice, but in the end all that matters is graduating and passing boards.

 

[Loptometriste]

I thought pretty much every school had a VOSH student chapter? http://www.vosh.org/home/school-chapters This is one of the clubs I for sure want to be involved with in school.

 

[KHE]

Although my current school is considered a top optometry school and I do know that all school's curriculums teach about the same stuff, I believe that the school I want to transfer to offers a lot more extracurricular programs that I can get involved in around the community. I ultimately want to be really involved in clubs that help out the community and underprivileged areas such as SVOSH and Lions Club. Im also really interested in vision therapy and sports rehabilitation. I also like the externship locations that the school offers, it is much more diverse which would give me greater exposure to more patients.

I would not transfer schools based on that.

If you want to participate in VOSH, participate in VOSH. You don't need a chapter at your school to be part of the organization but if your school doesn't have a chapter, start one. Or participate through the other school without transferring.

As far as externship sites go....if there's one you want to go to that your current school doesn't "offer" contact the site and ask if they would be billing to take you as well. If they will, go to your school and say "hey....I want to go to this site for these reasons" and if the site is already credentialled by another the school, it is highly likely that your own school will allow you to go.

Tranferring schools is usually an enormous hassle and in most cases you will have to repeat year which means an extra year of tuition and living expenses AND an extra year of lost exam at the start of you career. At the end of the day, you could easily be talking about over $100,000 in expenses to do what you are talking about.

So ask yourself....is there a better way to get where I want to go?

 

[OptoHopeful90]

Another reason I want to transfer is that I feel that I am not learning the material in a manner that I retain the information. Most of the material I learn is taught to me my upperclassmen as opposed to learning during class time by teachers. As I completing agree that it is a lot of money and I am hoping to be accepted soon so that I only paid for one semesters tuition, would anyone agree that it is beneficial to transfEr if I know I am going to like the other place better? I agree the end goal is to graduate from optometry school and pass boards but isn't it also about giving myself the greatest experience I can and enjoying the journey to achieving my goal as well?

 

[CL Doc]

Another reason I want to transfer is that I feel that I am not learning the material in a manner that I retain the information. Most of the material I learn is taught to me my upperclassmen as opposed to learning during class time by teachers. As I completing agree that it is a lot of money and I am hoping to be accepted soon so that I only paid for one semesters tuition, would anyone agree that it is beneficial to transfEr if I know I am going to like the other place better? I agree the end goal is to graduate from optometry school and pass boards but isn't it also about giving myself the greatest experience I can and enjoying the journey to achieving my goal as well?

Why do you think the educational process will be different at another school?

 

[nicmc]

Another reason I want to transfer is that I feel that I am not learning the material in a manner that I retain the information. Most of the material I learn is taught to me my upperclassmen as opposed to learning during class time by teachers. As I completing agree that it is a lot of money and I am hoping to be accepted soon so that I only paid for one semesters tuition, would anyone agree that it is beneficial to transfEr if I know I am going to like the other place better? I agree the end goal is to graduate from optometry school and pass boards but isn't it also about giving myself the greatest experience I can and enjoying the journey to achieving my goal as well?

I agree with KHE that none of the previously listed reasons is good enough to lose a year of income and a lot of money to change schools. Ultimately, the educational process does not matter. Also, along with CL doc, why do you think things will be different at another school? I would ask why do you feel that you are not learning things in class? Also, how do you know you would like the other school better? Or that externships will be better? They may have a better list, but you don't get to just choose the ones you want. Schools base them on criteria like GPA, so just because you see a couple of good ones does not mean you will get to do those. I think that the extra debt and lost income is not worth it for a bunch of unknowns. Additionally, why did you choose the school that you did instead of the one you are wanting to transfer to? I would just keep in mind that the grass is not always greener. As someone who is not a first year, I can guarantee you that you do NOT want to purposely draw out this process for another year unnecessarily.

 

[Commando303]

Although my current school is considered a top optometry school and I do know that all school's curriculums teach about the same stuff, I believe that the school I want to transfer to offers a lot more extracurricular programs that I can get involved in around the community. I ultimately want to be really involved in clubs that help out the community and underprivileged areas such as SVOSH and Lions Club. Im also really interested in vision therapy and sports rehabilitation. I also like the externship locations that the school offers, it is much more diverse which would give me greater exposure to more patients.

Another reason I want to transfer is that I feel that I am not learning the material in a manner that I retain the information. Most of the material I learn is taught to me my upperclassmen as opposed to learning during class time by teachers. As I completing agree that it is a lot of money and I am hoping to be accepted soon so that I only paid for one semesters tuition, would anyone agree that it is beneficial to transfEr if I know I am going to like the other place better? I agree the end goal is to graduate from optometry school and pass boards but isn't it also about giving myself the greatest experience I can and enjoying the journey to achieving my goal as well?

First, they're all "top optometry schools," and they're all "bottom optometry schools" — on the surface, they're all the same. I'm not sure where you're attending, or to where you'd like to transfer, but I don't believe clubs and "specialty" optometry are reasons to waste a year's tuition (plus cost of living, and interest). If you want to help in your community, do so; if you want to go on a mission trip, do so (get in touch with V.O.S.H., OneSight, private practitioners, etc.); if you want to learn about vision therapy, complete a residency in the area.

Second, I understand if you don't like the program-design at your current institution, but how in the world can you be sure you'll appreciate it at the school to which you're considering transferring?

In my opinion, changing schools for the reasons you've given would be a mistake. Deciding how to proceed in your life from the advice shared by some strangers in an on-line forum, plainly would be stupid.