So I was wondering would I have a chance of getting into SCCO or UCB with my stats of....
If I were applying to optometry school again, I'd be looking for the cheapest school around. If that means living in another state for 6 months to a year to gain in-state status, then I'd do it in a heart beat. As I write this comment, my student loan balance is sitting right around 207K and climbing, after starting with a balance of 175K. (Do a residency and you'll watch your balance climb about 1200 dollars per month due to interest since you will almost certainly be deferring.) I have OD friends who owe much less than half of what I do, and yet they can do exactly the same thing that I can, it just cost me a lot more. Underestimation of how daunting student loan debt is trapping a lot of folks these days, myself included. It's largely a product of misconception of what your income will be upon graduation. I can remember listening to the welcome speech given by my school's president in which he said, and I quote "You all are entering the profession at the most exciting time! In just 3 years and 10 months, you'll be making the big bucks!" Notice, he didn't state a figure, and that's because he probably didn't want to be caught in a lie. When you graduate, you will probably struggle no matter how much you have in loan debt, but if you've got as much as I do, it will really, really hurt. Do whatever you can to keep your cost down.
Also, I say this any chance I can get, make sure you know what you're getting into! Optometry is largely commercial/retail now and will continue to be so in the future. Don't go into optometry with plans of graduating, opening cold or buying out someone's successful office, and living happily ever after. It just doesn't happen these days for many, many reasons. If you're basing your entry into the profession on what you've seen other successful ODs do in their offices, look out, you may be in for a sore surprise when you find out that era is over and will likely never return. If you're willing to move a few hours outside of a city, then you may be fine since corporate optometry has yet to invade some more rural areas. You almost certainly have to be willing to uproot and move out of state when you finish school, where ever you end up going. If you are planning on staying within a few hours of an optometry school when you finish, you may be very, very disappointed with your options.
