Grand Teton,
My significant other of 6 years moved with me to Philly, but he still travels back & forth to NY for his his work. I think its a great idea. Although, she has to realize that you won't be giving her as much time, and she would need to preoccupy herself with something else while you study. Optometry school is hard, but doable, and its great to have a support system close by.
As cpw mentioned there are no formal rankings of Optometry school, though I am a tad biased, but this is true, that PCO has one of the best clinical programs. We will be seeing over 3,000 patients by the time we graduate.
Personally, I would hand-write my applications, but doing it online is fine as well. It certainly is faster. Its up to you.
Good Luck! 🙂