Help from ICO, PCO and IU students!

[tennisanyone]

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I am struggling to make a decision on where I want to go for optometry school and am debating among ICO, PCO and IU. I know I should go with my gut feeling but I don't really have one in this case. I liked all three schools when I went to visit and for all different reasons. I was hoping students at those schools can answer some questions I have...My questions are:

ICO: the sense of safety in the neighborhood. I know ICO is not in a great area and when I went there it was very calm (during the day) and I was wondering if it is usually like that or do things happen occasionally/often. I am a very paranoid person and it is a huge drawback for me for ICO. I do think the secruity system looks great but I don't want to go somewhere where I feel as if I have to constantly look behind my shoulders or have a buddy to travel with. I am also from a small town and went to a private school in a very rural/small town so city life and bad neighborhoods are very new to me...

PCO: I've heard the students there are very competitive/cutthroat (from another optometry student at another school) and I personally don't want to be in an atmosphere like that. Do you agree with this comment or is it completely opposite. In addition, do you feel as if your professors are supportive and there for you and they are good teachers? I didn't get that feeling from my tour guides but others who interviewed at other times didn't get that impresion...

IU: I didn't get to see the facilities at all (the tour time got messed up) and I was wondering how you felt about your facilities. In addition, if you truly feel as if you get to see a diverse patient population.

Sorry for all the questions but I would really appreciate any feedback! I need to make a decision soon and don't know who to ask with these questions. I hate asking the admissions office because I feel as if they try to sugar coat things because they want you to go there...I want complete honesty and opinions about the schools. Thanks!

 

[mencantatodo]

i'd also like to hear any answers back to this post....especially for PCO!

 

[IndianaOD]

I am struggling to make a decision on where I want to go for optometry school and am debating among ICO, PCO and IU. I know I should go with my gut feeling but I don't really have one in this case. I liked all three schools when I went to visit and for all different reasons. I was hoping students at those schools can answer some questions I have...My questions are:

ICO: the sense of safety in the neighborhood. I know ICO is not in a great area and when I went there it was very calm (during the day) and I was wondering if it is usually like that or do things happen occasionally/often. I am a very paranoid person and it is a huge drawback for me for ICO. I do think the secruity system looks great but I don't want to go somewhere where I feel as if I have to constantly look behind my shoulders or have a buddy to travel with. I am also from a small town and went to a private school in a very rural/small town so city life and bad neighborhoods are very new to me...

PCO: I've heard the students there are very competitive/cutthroat (from another optometry student at another school) and I personally don't want to be in an atmosphere like that. Do you agree with this comment or is it completely opposite. In addition, do you feel as if your professors are supportive and there for you and they are good teachers? I didn't get that feeling from my tour guides but others who interviewed at other times didn't get that impresion...

IU: I didn't get to see the facilities at all (the tour time got messed up) and I was wondering how you felt about your facilities. In addition, if you truly feel as if you get to see a diverse patient population.

Sorry for all the questions but I would really appreciate any feedback! I need to make a decision soon and don't know who to ask with these questions. I hate asking the admissions office because I feel as if they try to sugar coat things because they want you to go there...I want complete honesty and opinions about the schools. Thanks!

IU all the way, but I am biased. I spent a lot of time with ICO students on my 4th year rotations. One student said her car was stripped and left on concrete blocks right accross the road from ICO.

IU has a multi-million dollar new clinic currently being built as we speak. I think out of state tuition is less than ICO. The research is very strong at IU if you are into it. The current IU clinic is already nice and I think it has a very good reputation. The cost of living in Bloomington, IN is also very affordable.

I am convinced that public schools are the way to go, but that's just me.
Bloomington is a nice city and IU is a beautiful campus.

My two deciding factors would be cost and local area. Keep the costs of your 4 years down as much as possible and like where you will be living for 4 years of your life.

 

[jefguth]

ICO: the sense of safety in the neighborhood. I know ICO is not in a great area and when I went there it was very calm (during the day) and I was wondering if it is usually like that or do things happen occasionally/often. I am a very paranoid person and it is a huge drawback for me for ICO. I do think the secruity system looks great but I don't want to go somewhere where I feel as if I have to constantly look behind my shoulders or have a buddy to travel with. I am also from a small town and went to a private school in a very rural/small town so city life and bad neighborhoods are very new to me...

The neighborhood is bad... things happen, cars get broken into on the street, I was mugged coming home to the RC by myself at night (could have avoided that though by walking through the school vs. the dark street alongside). That said, you don't have to live there, it's fine during the day, commute and you'll have no problem. There is nothing to do in the immediate vicinity anyways. Or you can be like most of the ppl in the RC that rarely leave alone, especially at night.

All that said, there is no reason to be fearful, just be smart, don't walk around outside alone at night and there shouldn't be any problems, and I am the only person I know of that encountered violence of any kind like that, again b/c I was a little naive despite being warned.

 

[Jay12]

From what I've heard, the area that ICO is located in (Bronzeville I believe) is getting better (a student told me when I went for an interview that the past year there was only 1 or 2 cases where a car was broken into)....in addition, he told me that the entire neighborhood(s) are getting renovated and cleaned up (which might have to do with Chicago making a bid for the Olympics)....so gentrification is happening and you can clearly see a change that is occurring...

 

[mencantatodo]

IndianaOD - do you think IU has a large enough exposure to pathology...? as a grad did you feel as though you had seen a lot of different patients? i've heard that PCO's clinic sees lots of patients with different diseases/pathologies, and that in Bloomington there are a lot of healthy people. just curious, i'd like to hear about it from someone who actually went there!

 

[eyestrain]

IndianaOD - do you think IU has a large enough exposure to pathology...? as a grad did you feel as though you had seen a lot of different patients? i've heard that PCO's clinic sees lots of patients with different diseases/pathologies, and that in Bloomington there are a lot of healthy people. just curious, i'd like to hear about it from someone who actually went there!

At the clinic on campus, you see a lot of red eyes, but not a LOT of other pathology. The school has another clinic in town where you'll see significantly more pathology and you wind up spending almost as much time there as you do at the campus clinic.

 

[IndianaOD]

IndianaOD - do you think IU has a large enough exposure to pathology...? as a grad did you feel as though you had seen a lot of different patients? i've heard that PCO's clinic sees lots of patients with different diseases/pathologies, and that in Bloomington there are a lot of healthy people. just curious, i'd like to hear about it from someone who actually went there!

Most clinic experience comes during your 4th year rotations. You can choose to go anywhere for those and get as much disease as you want. The main clinic doesn't see much pathology. The clinic on the other side of town sees quite a bit.

 

[daysend85]

I'm currently a first year student at PCO. I don't think that the class as a whole is very competitive. Yes, there may be a few exceptions but you'll get that anywhere, but nothing that seems obvious. In labs and whatever else, we usually help each other out. As far as the professors go, yes, most are supportive and are good teachers and very willing to help you out when you have problems or just have a question. Again, there are a couple exceptions but you'll get that anywhere as well. I do have my fav. profs and my not so favorite ones. Safety is also of concern, I also came from a rural town and was new to city live. One thing I will tell you now, be vigilant, espec. in the area around the clinic. That is the main drawback of the clinic is its location, otherwise its great because yes you do get to see plenty of pathology.

 

[KaBlamO]

imo, PCO is getting more and more competitive each year, but why not? they're trying to raise the gpa for accepting applicants. I'm glad that I'll be done in 3 more months! woohoo!

 

[shirazyterp]

I'm coming to PCO next year. Is there any advice you guys give or something you would do differently the first year or before you started? (from where you live to studying skills...anything)

 

[tennisanyone]

Thank you for all the comments and help! I am leaning towards ICO and think that will be where I end up. I look forward to meeting all my future classmates!

 

[IndianaOD]

Thank you for all the comments and help! I am leaning towards ICO and think that will be where I end up. I look forward to meeting all my future classmates!

So many students, so much money. Have fun in school!

 

[Jay12]

Thank you for all the comments and help! I am leaning towards ICO and think that will be where I end up. I look forward to meeting all my future classmates!

Congrats on choosing ICO tennisanyone 👍.......I'll see you there!

 

[jefguth]

Depending on the students state of residency, the in-state tuition at most public schools is really irrelevant if you're comparing tuition at a private school.

It is also possible for students from states that do provide funding to students studying at optometry schools in other states (ie WICHE states) to get funding at private schools such as ICO.

 

[tennisanyone]

ICO is actually only a few thousand (2-3) more than IU since I'm out of state (different story if I were an Indiana resident...). I was hoping to get the state contract with PCO but didn't (I was the 6th one from Maryland and they only give out 5 :-( ) so PCO ended up being similarly priced for me.

I chose ICO because of the overall sense of feeling I got when I was there. IU was great and I definitely have to say it was a tough decision but when I went to visit I barely got to meet anyone or see the school during my interview (the tour got messed up) so I walked away without any impression of the optometry school...it wasn't memorable I guess. But again, thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[shirazyterp]

I was hoping to get the state contract with PCO but didn't (I was the 6th one from Maryland and they only give out 5 :-( ) so PCO ended up being similarly priced for me.

I was # 6 for the MD contract. Someone dropped out and they gave it to me. You never know if someone drops out.

 

[blobs]

the cafeteria at ICO kicks ***

I got there early for my interview and got breakfast for around 4 dollars, included unlimited amounts of bacon, sausages, biscuits, grits, toast, all sorts of white-colored beverages, and and the ladies that work there are nice too.

I was sold instantly.

 

[MariaMaria]

If you stay at the RC you have to buy the meal plan which ends up being more expensive for meals...so keep that in mind. It's definitely cheap if you don't have to buy the meal plan so I agree to that!