Extra curricular benefit optometry?

[Sabrinalovesnature]

Hello,
I am currently on my University track team which looks very good on resumes etc I've been told. On the other hand I am wondering if it is worth it because I have to practice 4 hours a day five days a week when I could instead be studying. Does anyone know if they even take into consideration extra curricular activities like this? Thanks so much in advance

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[SunA21]

They do consider it, but really what they'd rather see out of extracurricular activities is leadership and community involvement. Unless you're captain of the track team or you are involved in it doing volunteering stuff, it's not a huge impact. There is much, much, MUCH more emphasis on your GPA and OAT score. And you definitely have to shadow. If you can get good stats and decent shadowing experiences while also being on the track team, go for it. but definitely don't sacrifice those for your track team membership, if you're only considering the admissions benefits. Good luck!

 

[catsomgcats]

Agree with SunA21

 

[Sabrinalovesnature]

Okay we do a lot of volunteer for the track team but none is optometry related obviously. Thanks though. Also I am curious because I wanted to go into medicine before so I have about 50 hours of volunteer work at the hospital accumulated. Could I put this on my optometry resume?

 

[catsomgcats]

Yes you can definitely put your hospital volunteer towards your application for optometry. But it is a requirement to have a certain number of optometry shadowing hours so make sure you get that in!

 

[SunA21]

Yes you can definitely put your hospital volunteer towards your application for optometry. But it is a requirement to have a certain number of optometry shadowing hours so make sure you get that in!

Technically not many optometry schools actually require it, they just "highly recommend" it. but it means that if you don't have optometry shadowing you better have a good reason why, when explaining in the interview.
And yes, you can put your hospital volunteering on your application - no reason not to, since the OptomCAS doesn't limit how many activities you write, unlike the AAMCAS.