Did anyone get accepted in low GPA?

[nicnicinc]

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I have my own business need to manage. And I go to school at the same time. Therefore, I am not doing very well in college. My plan was to graduate in biology, but now I decided to go further, optometry as my ultimate goal. Does anyone can give me some advice?

 

[jehu]

yes, i had lower then a 3.0 but i killed the oat...as well, i had an extensive resume of extracurricular activities and volunteer work. try to get the gpa up though, it is tougher with a low gpa but also involve yourself in your community, it helps your application. and do well on the oat, if u get more then 340 with the extracurricular stuff and good reference letters you should be fine. to add with that, people with low entering gpa's dont really suffer in first year OD skool. im actually doing better then i ever have in my undergrad days. in fact a lot of people who had no problems gettin the high 3's for gpa are having a bit harder time. so no sweat, schools dont base everything on gpa, but it does help.
good luck

I have my own business need to manage. And I go to school at the same time. Therefore, I am not doing very well in college. My plan was to graduate in biology, but now I decided to go further, optometry as my ultimate goal. Does anyone can give me some advice?

 

[nicnicinc]

yes, i had lower then a 3.0 but i killed the oat...as well, i had an extensive resume of extracurricular activities and volunteer work. try to get the gpa up though, it is tougher with a low gpa but also involve yourself in your community, it helps your application. and do well on the oat, if u get more then 340 with the extracurricular stuff and good reference letters you should be fine. to add with that, people with low entering gpa's dont really suffer in first year OD skool. im actually doing better then i ever have in my undergrad days. in fact a lot of people who had no problems gettin the high 3's for gpa are having a bit harder time. so no sweat, schools dont base everything on gpa, but it does help.
good luck

Wow. You are so cool. What is the perfect score in OCT?

 

[prettygreeneyes]

Wow. You are so cool. What is the perfect score in OCT?

The perfect score on the OAT is a 400.

 

[myus-cgy]

I have my own business need to manage. And I go to school at the same time. Therefore, I am not doing very well in college. My plan was to graduate in biology, but now I decided to go further, optometry as my ultimate goal. Does anyone can give me some advice?

My GPA was at about a 3.12 when I applied, and was accepted by ICO. It dropped after a terrible fall semester. So I'm standing at a 3.0. I did well on the OAT with a 390 Total Science score. I have extensive experience shadowing optometrists and opthalmologists and some hands-on experience conducting pre-testing. Also volunteer experience and my extra-curricular activities helped too.

 

[swiftiii]

For those with a low GPA, there is definitely hope for admissions to optometry. I graduated with a 2.84 in zoology. I was a bit nervous about this, so I applied to five schools and was accepted to four. Needless to say I was shocked! I mean, what about the fifth? Just kidding. I blew the interview at that one.... Seriously, though, I figured I didn't have much chance. I applied late (March). My OATs were stong, though apparently not that exceptional as I am reading lots of you received much better than I (I had a 330). I also had limited optometry viewing experience. I have thought about it, and I can make an educated guess about why things turned out better than I expected. First, I was in ROTC (though I am not doing optom for the military.) I know they liked this because one of the interviewers said so. I also played sports in college. These may be two things most people can't change about their apps. However, I also volunteered like crazy. I even worked in a opthalmologist's research lab, though I was never questioned about it and couldn't really tell you any more what we studied....

The two most important things I did (have), though, were this: One, I am extremely well spoken. When I got to the interview, it was easy to convince the admissions committees that I was more than just grades. And second, I was realistic about which programs would accept me. I come from a state that doesn't have any afffiliations to an optometry program (note that I had to compete for a smaller number of non-resident slots afforded to most schools) so I didn't have the residence factor. Yes, it would be nice to go in state, or close to where you live, but if you really want to do optometry, you should be open to more schools. Eventually, you may work your stats to a level where you might compete with those applying with a 3.6+, 370+ GPA/OAT, but it is not a guarantee and you could spend a long time doing so. Anyway, I guess it just depends on what your timeline is and what your school preferences and professional aspirations are. Maybe I am naive and there is certain training lacking at the school I have chosen, but I don't think so. Plus there are always residencies.

SO, where there is a will, there is a way, as my experience clearly shows. Grades and test scores are important, but other things will set you apart (such as owning your own business) and make you an attractive candidate. I will agree, though, there are certain levels you need to achieve (such as a 2.75, 300 GPA/OAT) to get into any school (a high score in one may allow for lenience in the other.) Anyway, I hope this helps some of you that might be in similar situations. Good luck to all!

 

[nicnicinc]

For those with a low GPA, there is definitely hope for admissions to optometry. I graduated with a 2.84 in zoology. I was a bit nervous about this, so I applied to five schools and was accepted to four. Needless to say I was shocked! I mean, what about the fifth? Just kidding. I blew the interview at that one.... Seriously, though, I figured I didn't have much chance. I applied late (March). My OATs were stong, though apparently not that exceptional as I am reading lots of you received much better than I (I had a 330). I also had limited optometry viewing experience. I have thought about it, and I can make an educated guess about why things turned out better than I expected. First, I was in ROTC (though I am not doing optom for the military.) I know they liked this because one of the interviewers said so. I also played sports in college. These may be two things most people can't change about their apps. However, I also volunteered like crazy. I even worked in a opthalmologist's research lab, though I was never questioned about it and couldn't really tell you any more what we studied....

The two most important things I did (have), though, were this: One, I am extremely well spoken. When I got to the interview, it was easy to convince the admissions committees that I was more than just grades. And second, I was realistic about which programs would accept me. I come from a state that doesn't have any afffiliations to an optometry program (note that I had to compete for a smaller number of non-resident slots afforded to most schools) so I didn't have the residence factor. Yes, it would be nice to go in state, or close to where you live, but if you really want to do optometry, you should be open to more schools. Eventually, you may work your stats to a level where you might compete with those applying with a 3.6+, 370+ GPA/OAT, but it is not a guarantee and you could spend a long time doing so. Anyway, I guess it just depends on what your timeline is and what your school preferences and professional aspirations are. Maybe I am naive and there is certain training lacking at the school I have chosen, but I don't think so. Plus there are always residencies.

SO, where there is a will, there is a way, as my experience clearly shows. Grades and test scores are important, but other things will set you apart (such as owning your own business) and make you an attractive candidate. I will agree, though, there are certain levels you need to achieve (such as a 2.75, 300 GPA/OAT) to get into any school (a high score in one may allow for lenience in the other.) Anyway, I hope this helps some of you that might be in similar situations. Good luck to all!

Thans for sharing your success story. It is a bigggest encouragement to me. By the way, what is ROTC stand for? Would you mind to tell me which five schools you had applied for? Can you tell me how did you prepare for your OAT? What books did you used? Thanks again.

 

[swiftiii]

Thans for sharing your success story. It is a bigggest encouragement to me. By the way, what is ROTC stand for? Would you mind to tell me which five schools you had applied for? Can you tell me how did you prepare for your OAT? What books did you used? Thanks again.

ROTC is Reserve Officer Training Corp. It's one of the three training methods the US Military uses to produce officers in the various branches and is done concurrently with your undergraduate courses.

I applied to Nova, UMSL, Pacific, ICO and NECO. Some people may say that these aren't the best of the best, but I counter the argument with the fact that they are all accredited and they have always produced fine, highly qualified optometrists. It might be different if you wanted to do research, but as I did not, it was of no concern to me.

Hmm, for the OAT.... I took it in 2001, so it was a while ago. I did buy one of the few books on the market at that time, "Complete Preparation for the OAT". From that, I relied on the test questions to identify areas in which my knowledge was lacking as well as using the outlines to identify areas I either did not cover or did not remember. I probably could have utilized it better, but I am more of the "crammer" type of student and derived the most benefit by just being able to identify what type of test questions I could look forward to on the actual exam. I probably have a lot more hidden factual knowledge than I give myself credit for, but as there are many students on here that surpassed my scores you might get better ideas on how to prepare from them 🙂

 

[nicnicinc]

ROTC is Reserve Officer Training Corp. It's one of the three training methods the US Military uses to produce officers in the various branches and is done concurrently with your undergraduate courses.

I applied to Nova, UMSL, Pacific, ICO and NECO. Some people may say that these aren't the best of the best, but I counter the argument with the fact that they are all accredited and they have always produced fine, highly qualified optometrists. It might be different if you wanted to do research, but as I did not, it was of no concern to me.

Hmm, for the OAT.... I took it in 2001, so it was a while ago. I did buy one of the few books on the market at that time, "Complete Preparation for the OAT". From that, I relied on the test questions to identify areas in which my knowledge was lacking as well as using the outlines to identify areas I either did not cover or did not remember. I probably could have utilized it better, but I am more of the "crammer" type of student and derived the most benefit by just being able to identify what type of test questions I could look forward to on the actual exam. I probably have a lot more hidden factual knowledge than I give myself credit for, but as there are many students on here that surpassed my scores you might get better ideas on how to prepare from them 🙂

It is good to get in any optometry schools in USA. At least........better than hanging 😳

 

[diva15]

ROTC is Reserve Officer Training Corp. It's one of the three training methods the US Military uses to produce officers in the various branches and is done concurrently with your undergraduate courses.

I applied to Nova, UMSL, Pacific, ICO and NECO. Some people may say that these aren't the best of the best, but I counter the argument with the fact that they are all accredited and they have always produced fine, highly qualified optometrists. It might be different if you wanted to do research, but as I did not, it was of no concern to me.

Hmm, for the OAT.... I took it in 2001, so it was a while ago. I did buy one of the few books on the market at that time, "Complete Preparation for the OAT". From that, I relied on the test questions to identify areas in which my knowledge was lacking as well as using the outlines to identify areas I either did not cover or did not remember. I probably could have utilized it better, but I am more of the "crammer" type of student and derived the most benefit by just being able to identify what type of test questions I could look forward to on the actual exam. I probably have a lot more hidden factual knowledge than I give myself credit for, but as there are many students on here that surpassed my scores you might get better ideas on how to prepare from them 🙂

great post! thank you!!!

 

[reba]

i got a 2.9 and still got in, and didn't completely rock the oat, either. only one perfect score (reading comp, i had the same excerpts on previous and practice tests so it was like cheating =o) and others were low. i just stressed my interest in optometry and had some experience working for an optometrist.