Essay Stage at Interviews

[twelvesixteen]

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Hello everyone,

I was actually ignorantly and completely unaware of this until maybe a few days ago, but I have heard that there is an essay stage at optometry school interviews? (ie. for UCBSO, it is posted on the interview feedback page that two years ago they were required to write about whether they would change the US legislature or whether hate speech should be banned) I feel completely unprepared for this, and have no idea how to prepare for it! I am not really a news-watcher, and I am also from Canada so I don't know much about the US government (the last time I was taught about its structure was grade 9) or US health care.

Do you know if this exists at all interviews, how to prepare for it, and in what realm the questions usually are?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[optoapp2012]

Hello everyone,

I was actually ignorantly and completely unaware of this until maybe a few days ago, but I have heard that there is an essay stage at optometry school interviews? (ie. for UCBSO, it is posted on the interview feedback page that two years ago they were required to write about whether they would change the US legislature or whether hate speech should be banned) I feel completely unprepared for this, and have no idea how to prepare for it! I am not really a news-watcher, and I am also from Canada so I don't know much about the US government (the last time I was taught about its structure was grade 9) or US health care.

Do you know if this exists at all interviews, how to prepare for it, and in what realm the questions usually are?

Thanks in advance!!

It's definitely not at all of the interviews - but some of them have it. I interviewed at SCCO and that's the first thing they have you do. That one wasn't news-based though - it was more a self-reflection related to optometry as a profession. They are really doing that to make sure that you can write rather than testing your knowledge of news (since theoretically, someone else could have written the essay you have in OptomCAS, plus others probably helped you edit it). I'm sure the UCBSO prompt will be different this year, but let's pretend you had that same one. You could probably start your essay by pointing out that you are from Canada, so you will be commenting on the Canadian system. I'm sure that's fine! I would definitely brush up on world current events and optometric law in the state where you are interviewing though. For the optometric laws, you can usually look up the optometric association for that state and check out their website for recent developments and information. Since it's a legislated profession, they want to know that you will be active on the political front.

For my SCCO essay, they just gave me 20 or 25 minutes and a paper and pencil and said go. I never heard anything back about my essay (wasn't mentioned in the interviews or anything), so I'm not even sure who checked that I can write =P

When you are scheduling an interview with a school, just ask them what to expect on interview day or what you will be doing. They aren't going to hide the fact that there's an essay - they will tell you if there is! I've gone to two other interviews that had no essay.

 

[eyegirl89]

I never heard of such questions being asked! ICO has a 10 minute essay. It was about what qualities you can bring to ICO and optometry profession. They just want to see if you can write proper sentences and organized paragraphs.

 

[shannon804]

Hello everyone,

I was actually ignorantly and completely unaware of this until maybe a few days ago, but I have heard that there is an essay stage at optometry school interviews? (ie. for UCBSO, it is posted on the interview feedback page that two years ago they were required to write about whether they would change the US legislature or whether hate speech should be banned) I feel completely unprepared for this, and have no idea how to prepare for it! I am not really a news-watcher, and I am also from Canada so I don't know much about the US government (the last time I was taught about its structure was grade 9) or US health care.

Do you know if this exists at all interviews, how to prepare for it, and in what realm the questions usually are?

Thanks in advance!!

They should let you know if there's an essay, but if I were you, I'd start watching the news or reading a newspaper. I had more than one interviewer ask about current events. The realm of question depends on the school, but I think they trying to see whether you can write an essay, rather than analyzing your opinions.

 

[jtlangel]

Don't worry too much about the essay. I definitely bombed the essay because I was so nervous and I don't even think I wrote a coherent essay. I just put all my thoughts down before the time limit. I wrote essays at SCCO and UCBSO. If they throw a legislative question to you just write your opinion about it and you will be fine even if you are not familiar with the legislation.