For optometry residencies

[gbrmh1212]

I'm currently a 2nd year in OD school. I haven't done any club activities or student council in my first year. I'm tutoring few classes at the moment and my GPA from the first year is 3.7. Lots of my classmates are interested in doing residencies after graduation, and they are involved in so many activities and officers for multiple clubs. I did lots of activities in my undergrad, but since studying has been so overwhelming, I have decided to just focus on studying and do only tutors.
I would like to be involved in volunteering, and I do really enjoy those works and love helping communities. But at the same time, I fear that I must be a good student and a doctor academically first before I try to help others. Recently I'm more interested in doing the residency and would like to learn more about it. Sometimes I see students that are involved in every single clubs and work as officers, however suffering academically and planning to apply to residency(I'm not talking about GPAs that are 3.0 and above-which I think is still great since being in OD school already makes you qualified academically to become a great doctor- but below GPAs 2.2). Sorry for all these long intro, but I had trouble finding information what else I should do to become a better candidate to apply for residency programs.
Should I be more involved in many clubs and student council? Can anyone who will or already applied for residency give an example or any great activities or experience they had? Thank you!

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[generallyspeaking]

Don't sweat the leadership/involvement extracurricular activities. Even GPA/Board scores aren't the biggest deciding factor in optometry residencies (unlike medical residencies). I would say the interview is the most important, followed by GPA, followed by Board scores (only if you do a residency in academia).

Most people who did clubs and student councils did do residencies. I've seen B and C students who weren't as involved do residencies. I've seen A students who didn't get accepted to a residency program (but then again, they only applied to one place).

If your chose is to do a residency, then again I wouldn't sweat the club stuff. When it came time for me to decide if residency was right for me in 2013, I didn't find it particularly useful, and to do this day I still think I made the right choice.

 

[percyeye]

As the other poster said the interview is the most important part.

And why do you want to do a residency? Because everyone else is talking about it?

If you want to go into Academia or work at the VA then you need to do a residency. If you are just interested in owning a practice and making decent money then really it is a waste of your time honestly.

 

[gbrmh1212]

Don't sweat the leadership/involvement extracurricular activities. Even GPA/Board scores aren't the biggest deciding factor in optometry residencies (unlike medical residencies). I would say the interview is the most important, followed by GPA, followed by Board scores (only if you do a residency in academia).

Most people who did clubs and student councils did do residencies. I've seen B and C students who weren't as involved do residencies. I've seen A students who didn't get accepted to a residency program (but then again, they only applied to one place).

If your chose is to do a residency, then again I wouldn't sweat the club stuff. When it came time for me to decide if residency was right for me in 2013, I didn't find it particularly useful, and to do this day I still think I made the right choice.

Thank you for sharing your experience! That was really helpful.

 

[gbrmh1212]

As the other poster said the interview is the most important part.

And why do you want to do a residency? Because everyone else is talking about it?

If you want to go into Academia or work at the VA then you need to do a residency. If you are just interested in owning a practice and making decent money then really it is a waste of your time honestly.

Thank you for your response. I would like to do a residency, because I really enjoy teaching, and would like to do research in ocular diseases focusing on pharmacology.

 

[percyeye]

Thank you for your response. I would like to do a residency, because I really enjoy teaching, and would like to do research in ocular diseases focusing on pharmacology.

If you want to teach it's the only route to go for sure.

If you are more interested in the research and pharmacology then a PhD would make more sense.

My class was the same way. When you first start they pump you up by really pushing residencies, and why wouldn't they all your professors did them. But by your 4th year you are kind of done with school. Something that is very important that I did not know was that after your residency even though you are paying the "minimum" payments on your loans you will likely be in more debt than you were before you started on your student loans. The "minimum/ income based payment" doesn't even cover the amount of interest you'll be churning up the second you graduate. So you better be sure a residency is going to farther your career or increase your earnings because you'll be owing more for loans afterwards.

 

[gbrmh1212]

If you want to teach it's the only route to go for sure.

If you are more interested in the research and pharmacology then a PhD would make more sense.

My class was the same way. When you first start they pump you up by really pushing residencies, and why wouldn't they all your professors did them. But by your 4th year you are kind of done with school. Something that is very important that I did not know was that after your residency even though you are paying the "minimum" payments on your loans you will likely be in more debt than you were before you started on your student loans. The "minimum/ income based payment" doesn't even cover the amount of interest you'll be churning up the second you graduate. So you better be sure a residency is going to farther your career or increase your earnings because you'll be owing more for loans afterwards.

Yes. Luckily I had a job before I started school as a technologist. And I worked for several years having two jobs in a big city, which helped me to raise the majority of tuition. So loans and minimum wage from the residency is not a huge problem since it's only a year and I do not have any loans from undergrad. But earning a PhD seems so long compared to one year of residency.

 

[percyeye]

Yes. Luckily I had a job before I started school as a technologist. And I worked for several years having two jobs in a big city, which helped me to raise the majority of tuition. So loans and minimum wage from the residency is not a huge problem since it's only a year and I do not have any loans from undergrad. But earning a PhD seems so long compared to one year of residency.

Well I'm not sure how much a residency is going to help you research-wise. The whole point of a residency is to get you more clinical experience.

You are still early in your Optometric schooling. I changed my mind about 10x during school on what I wanted to do, and by the end of my 4th year I was done wanting to do anymore slideshow presentations and research papers.

 

[20DOC20]

I did apply for residencies 20 years ago and I did get one. I ended up turning it down because I was literally down to my last 500 dollars when I graduated and had to move back in with my parents after school for a short time. The residency was in Santa Clara or something like that and the residency stipend was too low to even afford and apartment there. Anyway, they all used the matching system. My grades weren't all that great, less than a 3.7. I was closer to a 3.3. However, my board scores were in the 97th percentile nationwide and they put the board scores over and above grades, surprisingly! I didn't even have to show up for an interview. Another program interviewed me over the phone, a group of ODs, and the diagnosis was Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. I ended up saying I didn't know the diagnosis without doing further research. I was asked stuff like what tests I'd order. Then they'd give the results if that was the proper route. That sort of thing. They did assure me over the phone that I did very well and that they were impressed, and I don't know why, but I put them at the bottom of my matching list. Had I put them at the top, I might have gotten it. So, you need to gauge how much they like you when you do your matching. They didn't even bring up extracurricular activities. I can't say that's not important, now, but maybe some younger OD's can give advice on that. I would recommend the VA system, as you can make a very, very nice living as a VA optometrist and those who complete VA residencies are at the top of the list.

 

[gbrmh1212]

Thank you for sharing your experience. That's impressive how you did on the board exam!

I did apply for residencies 20 years ago and I did get one. I ended up turning it down because I was literally down to my last 500 dollars when I graduated and had to move back in with my parents after school for a short time. The residency was in Santa Clara or something like that and the residency stipend was too low to even afford and apartment there. Anyway, they all used the matching system. My grades weren't all that great, less than a 3.7. I was closer to a 3.3. However, my board scores were in the 97th percentile nationwide and they put the board scores over and above grades, surprisingly! I didn't even have to show up for an interview. Another program interviewed me over the phone, a group of ODs, and the diagnosis was Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. I ended up saying I didn't know the diagnosis without doing further research. I was asked stuff like what tests I'd order. Then they'd give the results if that was the proper route. That sort of thing. They did assure me over the phone that I did very well and that they were impressed, and I don't know why, but I put them at the bottom of my matching list. Had I put them at the top, I might have gotten it. So, you need to gauge how much they like you when you do your matching. They didn't even bring up extracurricular activities. I can't say that's not important, now, but maybe some younger OD's can give advice on that. I would recommend the VA system, as you can make a very, very nice living as a VA optometrist and those who complete VA residencies are at the top of the list.