Confused and Needs Guidance

[Crazy K]

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I have just completed my first year at NYU Dental school and realized I HATED IT..i was part of a 7 year dental program that kinda locked me into this field...recently, i've been doing reserach on optometry as a new career and I'm greatly interested. My undergrad gpa is a 3.5 and I had a great deal of extracurricular activities...I want to intern at a Optometry office and get a better idea if this is what I really want. I was wondering what a good OAT score is and if its difficult to get into SUNY NY since I'm from the tri state area...any suggestions for me? I'm really stressed out and I'm not planning on returning to dental school in fall...someone please advise me!

 

[stompy]

Maybe a 360 OAT...or above...OAT score isn't everything...

 

[TAL]

Were you one of those "pre-accepted" high school students to dental school? A friend of mine did this route.

 

[cpw]

you really don't need a 360 OAT, that's a great score don't get me wrong.. but you can get into most schools with a 320 to 340 average.

 

[stompy]

Really? What if I have a low GPA like 3.0 or something

 

[jd4me]

If you think that a part of your application is weak, make sure other areas of it are pretty strong, such as interview, references, extra-curriculars. Don't try for a specific OAT score, just do your best and I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[Crazy K]

Thanks for all the info...how difficult exactly is the OAT? I was looking at it and I saw the differences between it and the DAT...I saw that the physics portion replaces the perceptual ability section. I was also wondering how hard it is to get into the SUNY NY school-since there are only a few optometry schools isn't the competition great? And, I'm also just curious-now that laser eye correction surgery is becoming more common and more people are doing it, is this going to cause set backs for optometrists? Is the career going to be less in demand? I'm jsut curious and ignorant about this field if someone could educate me..Thanks!

 

[Crazy K]

YEs, I was in the FDU/NYU-CD 7 year accelerated program. Its a big committment to make at a young age...the program has its strenghts and weaknesses, though I don't recommend it to most who are confused, as I was.

 

[cpw]

the OAT is a straight forward exam. study and you should be fine.

The career is in no danger from LASIK. Many people cannot afford the surgery, everyone getting lasik now will still need reading glasses in the future (and they'll still need eye exams for diabetes, glaucoma, armd, retinal detachment, etc) There will be no shortage of appointments since ODs do more than just dispense glasses.

Competition to get into state funded OD school is more than the private ones. But, it's still do-able.

 

[jd4me]

If anything, refractive surgery will create more 'business' for optometry practices. This is because optometrists are the ones who provide the majority or pre- and post-surgery care of the patients.

 

[lemonhead43]

thats true.. most post op work from lasik eye surgury do come back for reading glasses.. its great.. like the saying "theres no money behind the cure"

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Competition to get into state funded OD school is more than the private ones. But, it's still do-able.

Does anyone have a link to a website that states the statistics for the number of applicants who apply to optometry school each year, e.g., number of applicants per number of spots?

 

[Rosanna]

For the 2003 entering class:

http://www.opted.org/pdf/Profile03b.pdf

I can't find in the archives the stats from previous years.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

For the 2003 entering class:

http://www.opted.org/pdf/Profile03b.pdf

I can't find in the archives the stats from previous years.

Thanks for the prompt response! I knew about this page already. Do you know the total number of applicants for the 2003 year? The stats above are for individual schools and because people apply to several schools, it's difficult to determine how many applicants apply each year.

For instance, there's about 35,000 - 40,000 applicants applying for ~16,000 medical school spots yearly distributed across ~120 medical schools. At Johns Hopkins, they receive over 5000 applications for 120 spots. The applicant/position ratio is higher when looking at the stats at Hopkins because the average premed will apply to dozens of programs.

 

[Rosanna]

Dr. Doan:

I could not find any information for the total number of applicants. The closest source I could think of is the ASCO Annual Student Data Report published each year (copies are $100). I've never seen a copy before so I'm not sure what exactly is included in the report besides what the ASCO website describes (http://www.opted.org/publications_studentdate.cfm).

Best wishes,

Rosanna

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Dr. Doan:

I could not find any information for the total number of applicants. The closest source I could think of is the ASCO Annual Student Data Report published each year (copies are $100). I've never seen a copy before so I'm not sure what exactly is included in the report besides what the ASCO website describes (http://www.opted.org/publications_studentdate.cfm).

Best wishes,

Rosanna

Thanks for your help! 👍

 

[NYCDentGrl]

Crazy K -

Read this forum and I got chills - I'm kind of in the exact position as you. I just finished my first year at NYU College of Dentistry. I wasn't happy at all (the whole year, in the back of my mind I was thinking "maybe I should have gone to optometry school?"). I'm thinking maybe it is just dental school and not dentistry that I don't like - because I did some shadowing this summer which was a lot more fun than school. However, there are still some things about the dental profession that make me queasy (I'm kind of squeamish). Yet my parents would not approve of me becoming an optometrist (or in their words, "lens grinder") at all, so I am stuck at NYUCD, still feeling kind of confused. I know it's tough, but hang in there!

 

[Energon]

Crazy K and NYCDentGrl:

As a senior in D school now, I can tell you that it is the Dental School portion that sucks. Crazy K, I know a lot of people from the FDU program and am sorry to say, I dont think that school prepares you too well for the rigors of dental school... that maybe one of the reasons you may feel turned off.
Dentistry as a profession is not bad once you get into the groove. Remember, the opportunity in terms of money, specialty options, lifestyle etc that dentistry provides are far greater than any other medical field including medicine.
I recomend you do a little soul searching and be honest with yourself as you make a list of detailed factors about dentistry that you dont like, then get together with a few other people (preferably dental students) and discuss each point in detail.
In the end if you still feel that you will be happy as an optometrist, go for it.

If you have any other questions/concerns pm me if you like.

 

[EyeDr2008]

Does anyone have a link to a website that states the statistics for the number of applicants who apply to optometry school each year, e.g., number of applicants per number of spots?

According to the ASCO website:

Applicants

For academic year 2002-2003, approximately 2,037 individuals applied for admission to the seventeen schools and colleges of optometry in the United States (including Puerto Rico).


However, a total number of 5,056 applications were processed by the seventeen schools and colleges of optometry in the United States (including Puerto Rico) for the academic year 2002-2003 since many students apply to more than one institution.

Unfortunately it didn't state how many of these were admitted.

 

[rpames]

I was just talking to a friend who worked in admissions this summer and she said for the class of 2008, about 600 applied and about 200 were accepted. That is obviously 33.33%. That same day, a speaker talked to the incomming class and said, "Usually, 20 to 25% of applicants to OD school are accepted, but this year the number was a bit lower." I think he may have been refering to OD school nation wide, and my friend was refering to just ICO.

This was just what I was told, so I have no proof these numbers are correct of false. I think the speaker's numbers are low, but from what I have heard in the past, the ICO numbers sound about right.