Does selectivity matter?

[preoptstudent3]

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I was wondering if the selectivity or difficulty of your undergraduate university matters when applying to opto school?
For example, I go to the University of Houston, but I wonder if a student who goes to the University of Texas would be preferred or selected before me?

 

[poptometry]

As far as I know, some schools care in terms of the comparison between applicants, because it is a decent predictor of not only the difficulty of a school's curriculum but also your degree of preparation for graduate school. The school that you went to is also definitely taken into account when looking at your GPA.

I recall seeing in a OD applicant advice video that explicitly stated that their admissions team uses Barron's Guide to gauge the competitiveness of a school, but they didn't go into further detail other than mentioning the quality of education. Hope this helps! I

Edit: As a side note, try not to care too much about other people and focus on working hard on your own application and stats. For example, since the OAT is standardized, admissions teams can't compare between schools. Your OAT performance is a great way to help you stand out from other applicants.

 

[preoptstudent3]

As far as I know, some schools care in terms of the comparison between applicants, because it is a decent predictor of not only the difficulty of a school's curriculum but also your degree of preparation for graduate school. The school that you went to is also definitely taken into account when looking at your GPA.

I recall seeing in a OD applicant advice video that explicitly stated that their admissions team uses Barron's Guide to gauge the competitiveness of a school, but they didn't go into further detail other than mentioning the quality of education. Hope this helps! I

Edit: As a side note, try not to care too much about other people and focus on working hard on your own application and stats. For example, since the OAT is standardized, admissions teams can't compare between schools. Your OAT performance is a great way to help you stand out from other applicants.

Thank you! I will keep this in mind...