anybody else having trouble picking a school?

[Chrispyswt]

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So far I've been accepted to ICO, NECO, UIWSO, and SCO. With my stats I thought it would be really difficult to get into a program so I decided to apply to as many schools I could afford thinking that I'll get in some where or maybe two if I were lucky. Now that I have a choice its really difficult. Ultimately the decision will be mine but I was hoping if i could get some feed back from students who have chosen to attend any of the schools I've been accepted to: why you chose them, what did you like about them, and truthfully what you didnt like about them. I'm from a small town so i'm not sure if i could acclimate myself to a big city: did anyone have this problem also. Any feedback would be really appreciated. thank you

 

[Eyed]

What are your stats?, if you dont mind me asking =)

 

[cde8]

I grew up in a relatively small town as well. I also have many friends here in Akron that grew up in farm towns and other rural areas. All in all, it's not tough for most people to readjust to big cities. It's definitely strange at first, but it's nothing that should keep you from going to a school that you really want to go to. Good Luck!

 

[blysssful]

Since you got into reputable schools, you should immediately stop considering UIWSO, unless there is some absolutely crucial reason why you would need to be in that city (ex. you are married and your spouse cannot relocate, or something to that extent). Don't gamble with your education by choosing a school that will use you as a guinea pig.

I don't know much about ICO, but SCO's board scores are consistently very high. The same cannot be said for NECO. I hear SCO's clinical program is great as well. Honestly if I were you, I'd go with SCO, especially since Memphis has much less of a major city feeling to it compared to Boston and Chicago.

 

[kayy]

Actually, SCO's board rates were in the 70s last year....significantly lower than usual. But it can be attributed to the change in the exam, and they have changed their approach since then so I guess it was just a hiccup.

 

[blysssful]

Actually, SCO's board rates were in the 70s last year....significantly lower than usual. But it can be attributed to the change in the exam, and they have changed their approach since then so I guess it was just a hiccup.

Oh okay, didn't know. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[JMU07]

I'm pretty sure Part I passing rate was 84% (first time rate), not sure where you got the 70's number... was that maybe for a different part? It was due to the fact that they changed up boards.. should be back up this year.

I agree, forget about UIWSO. If you've been accepted to reputable, accredited schools there is no reason to take a chance and be one of their guinea pigs.

I'm from a small town too and I love SCO. I don't live in Memphis, I hate city living, and Memphis is a small city at that, so I live in the suburbs. Mud Island is nice too but it's more expensive.

The reasons why I picked SCO are because a) it's the most affordable school with one of the lowest costs of living, b) we have an excellent program, and c) there is a LOT of diversity in the clinic so you see a lot of different things. Board rates are very good too, except we had an issue last year with the new boards but I think that's been taken care of.. we'll see what happens when the next class takes Part I. We also have a 0% default rate with student loans which means none of our graduate have had an issue paying back their loans.

 

[mshea413]

NECO's pass rates have really been on the rise for the past few years, they were in the 90's last year and in the high 80's the two years before that. Also i grew up in a small town as well and I moved to Boston to go to college and find that even though it is a large city it fells like a small town.

 

[Chrispyswt]

My overall gpa was 3.3 and science gpa was roughly the same. I didn't have any leadership positions or research roles. I did have a small amount of volunteer hours but I have worked in the field for two years. While applying I felt the writing prompts were my weakest areas cause I feel like I write at a 9nth grade level. I just didn't feel like I was at a competitive level. I think my oat was slightly competitive. Aa was 340 and ts was 360. I did have some really good LOR's though. The reason I applied to uiwso was cause I lived down the road to the school. I'm not sure if I should just go to Ico or neco to try some thing different. But thanks for all the responses. More would also be appreciated.

 

[blysssful]

NECO's pass rates have really been on the rise for the past few years, they were in the 90's last year and in the high 80's the two years before that. Also i grew up in a small town as well and I moved to Boston to go to college and find that even though it is a large city it fells like a small town.

Sorry, but where did you hear that NECO's board rates were in the 90% range? Was this Part I? Was it their first time passing rate? I was specifically told by a student at NECO (then later clarified with the person who was interviewing me) that they were below the national average, which is traditionally around 75%. And to clarify, my interview was last year in October.

 

[mshea413]

http://www.neco.edu/admissions/class_profile.html

It doesn't say if it is first time pass rates or overall. I was assuming that it was first time but I could be wrong. When I interviewed there last month they said that their first time rates had been increasing a lot in the past few years but the student I asked didn't have any specific numbers. They told me something about how the subject material had changed to become more clinical and this seemed to help the students at NECO.

 

[cloud99]

This is why opted needs to publish every schools pass rates, and specifically, the first time pass rates for each section. The optometry schools really need to own their students scores and stop hiding behind "our scores are generally above the national average" blah blah blah... Schools can spin those numbers any way they want if they are vague enough.

I'm really surprised about SCO's pass rate. I was under the impression that the new part I was actually easier to pass than the old part I.

 

[sugarhype10]

I agree--I really wish they would let us know what their pass rates are. I remember my interviewer at SCO told me that he tried to drop his students hints (because he was part of the committee that reviewed the questions for the Boards or something like that) and the pass rates still came out to be around 84%. Still, that is above average so it's not that bad. Before that, SCO's pass rate were consistently around 94%, which is really good. I'm having a really hard time deciding between schools myself, but out of the schools that you've been accepted to, I would choose SCO. Memphis isn't crazy like some of the other big cities, and there seems to be a great comaraderie between students and faculty/staff at the school, which is something I'm sure you would love coming from a small town.

 

[JMU07]

This is why opted needs to publish every schools pass rates, and specifically, the first time pass rates for each section. The optometry schools really need to own their students scores and stop hiding behind "our scores are generally above the national average" blah blah blah... Schools can spin those numbers any way they want if they are vague enough.

I'm really surprised about SCO's pass rate. I was under the impression that the new part I was actually easier to pass than the old part I.

I don't know if easier is the right word, but it's just different. I'm not sure that the prep was as good as it could have been... it's much more clinical now, which is good because it's more relevant than asking a ton of straight science questions.

Also, sugarhype, you're right.. the professors here love getting to know the students and we all have a lot of fun with each other. It's much better than undergrad where you have thousands of students and don't really get to know your professors!

 

[cloud99]

JMU07-
Did SCO have a review course for the boards? I know some other schools actually hired outside companies to come in and provide the review.

 

[Commando303]

It makes one think: almost every optometry college claims to have "above average" pass-rates, doesn't it? Well, mathematically, shouldn't most schools be "average"? (This is what makes average "average," after all.) As there are only twenty colleges of optometry in the U.S., one wonders how almost every one can boast being "above average"...

 

[blysssful]

It makes one think: almost every optometry college claims to have "above average" pass-rates, doesn't it? Well, mathematically, shouldn't most schools be "average"? (This is what makes average "average," after all.) As there are only twenty colleges of optometry in the U.S., one wonders how almost every one can boast being "above average"...

Yeah, it is fishy... but there are also the schools like Puerto Rico that have remarkably LOW passing rates that will bring the whole average down.

And mshea, I'm willing to bet those are overall pass rates, not the first attempt.

 

[Arctic]

First of all, they can spin the stats in whatever way will make them look the best, and this alone is a significant factor. Also, it is mathematically possible (and this IS the case because of Puerto Rico) to have ONE school have atrocious rates that lower the national average below that of most of the other schools. Average refers to mean, not to median.

 

[JMU07]

JMU07-
Did SCO have a review course for the boards? I know some other schools actually hired outside companies to come in and provide the review.

As far as I know, we did NOT hire an outside company for review, our own professors ran the review sessions for boards. I'll check on this and get back with you!

 

[Commando303]

All right, but, really, how bad are the Puerto Rico college's pass-rates?

 

[JMU07]

All right, but, really, how bad are the Puerto Rico college's pass-rates?

They're pretty awful. This is a quote from a former student there - he hasn't posted here in a while so I'm not sure where he is these days, but he was a student at PR and said (this was a couple years ago so not totally updated):


"Our class of 2009 just recieved their board scores. 2 people out of 48 passed."

 

[OD4eyes]

Where do you get these figures??? I have searching for PCO # of passing and have been unsuccessful but I am sure they are decent.

 

[JMU07]

Where do you get these figures??? I have searching for PCO # of passing and have been unsuccessful but I am sure they are decent.

None of the schools post them online, you pretty much have to call or e-mail to get it out of them.

 

[sugarhype10]

*edit* nevermind, i found out.

 

[Phys]

Chrispyswt, when I was deciding which schools to apply to, I just typed in the city name followed by "community profile" in google (ie. Memphis community profile) and found a website called city-data.com or something of that sort. Since I'm from a small town, it was really helpful to see the exact population of each city, as well as a bunch of helpful statistics. I'm not saying you should choose a university based on this website, as all cities have their good neighbourhoods and bad neighbourhoods, but it might help!