Date OptomCAS submitted: 2/20/20
Date verified: 2/27/20
GRE Score: Verbal: 155 | Quantitative: 151 | Writing: 4.5
Major: Public Health
Undergrad GPA: 3.5 overall, 3.29 sGpa
Extracurricular Activities: President of Vietnamese Student Association, Optometric Assistant ~5 years, shadowing in ophthalmology clinic ~4 months, worked at a health-tech start-up during my "gap year" ~1 year, public health intern at different non-profits through my 2nd-4th year of undergraduate
Schools applied: UIW, Midwestern AZCOPT, SCCO, Western
Interviews extended/date: UIW, Midwestern AZCOPT, Western
Interviews accepted: UIW, Midwestern AZCOPT
Interviews declined: Western (received interview offer after both my deadlines to accept my offers at UIW and Midwestern.. I didn't want to take any chances in case I get rejected by Western lol)
Rejections/date: N/A
Acceptance/date: UIW, Midwestern AZCOPT
Will be attending AZCOPT this fall!
I was scheduled to take the OAT in March but it ended up getting cancelled due to COVID-19. I was scoring in the mid 300's so I was super bummed that my test ended up getting cancelled. Luckily the schools I applied to (minus SCCO) accepted the GRE in addition to the OAT so I submitted those scores instead. I decided to take the GRE a few years ago in case I wanted to pursue my MPH degree first lol. I was worried submitting my GRE scores would hurt my application as I was going against other applicants who most likely have taken the OAT. To my surprise, I ended up getting interview offers and got accepted to both UIW and AZCOPT. Both schools were really impressed with my experience (especially working at a start-up lol) and my dedication to improve my GPA. I showed major improvement in my GPA in my final two years of undergrad and also retook a few pre-requisites at a local community college. Keep staying positive if your science GPA's are low! Just make sure to show improvement and get some diverse experience
