How hard is optometry school in Canada?

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tynkerbell

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Hi everyone,

I am currently an IT engineer, having studied at Canada's most prestigious and hardest engineering school. By the end of my university career I swear my lifespan had shortened by 5 years from the stress/lack of sleep/eating granola bars for breakfast/lunch/dinner (seriously!!). I have been deeply traumatized and I swore I would never do it again.

However, now that I have graduated, I hate my job. I get a respectable salary, but I hate how my goal at work is nothing other than to make rich companies become even richer. I want to help people, but I cannot stand med/dentistry or even pharmacy. I have started to look at going into Optometry at either UofWaterloo or UdMontreal (I am fluent bilingual).

So assuming I even get accepted, how hard is optometry school in Canada? Does it involve many sleepless nights, high failure rate, huge stress, etc? I will be at least 27 when I start optometry school, maybe married by then, and unfortunately I will not be able to afford a hardcore studying lifestyle anymore :(

Thanks for all the help!

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I can not answer your question about optometry school in Canada but I assume it would be the same as the other 19 schools in the United States. Not easy. Alot of hard work, reading understanding facts and concepts as well as memorizing alot of material. Certainly not a walk in the park. Yes, late night studying, yes stressful by all means. High failure rate? Don't think so. If they accept you, then they put their trust and confidence in you that you will graduate. Assuming you are qualified in first place. Good Luck!
 
You think becoming a eye doctor would be easy? of course not/ I just don't get it, people will never question how hard medical or dental school will be but for some reason hey optometry school might be easy.
 
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You think becoming a eye doctor would be easy? of course not/ I just don't get it, people will never question how hard medical or dental school will be but for some reason hey optometry school might be easy.

I never said it would be easy.
The problem is, I've known people from accounting to psychology to English who all believe their program is hard... even though they party every Friday and manage to have two part time jobs. Really, I don't know many people who think their own program is a piece of cake; it's all relative. So telling someone that your program is "hard" doesn't help much.

What I should have asked is, how is the lifestyle as an optometry student? Of course you would have late night studying, of course it is stressful, but is it manageable enough for people to have a family? Have you known any optometry student who have babies, part-time jobs, side business/projects, etc? Have you known anyone who was in engineering for their bachelors, and if so, what did they say about optom? Is it "hard" in that many study until 3am and wake up at 7am everyday, or stay in labs for 48+ hours straight without showering (which was how it was for my engineering program)?

It'd be great if someone could tell me some optometry student stories (hardcore studying??), how much study time it requires, how many hours in labs, how many sleepless nights on average, how many assignments/lab reports expected, etc. etc. so I, or any other prospective optometry student, have a better idea of what to expect.

And, do you often hear about optometry students who are so overworked they want to drop out?

Thanks!
 
You think becoming a eye doctor would be easy? of course not/ I just don't get it, people will never question how hard medical or dental school will be but for some reason hey optometry school might be easy.

I agree. Seems like so many people think we are the last resort for all the biology majors who got rejected by every other profession.


How hard is optometry school?

Hard enough to cause some people to quit, others to drink, and some to get divorced.
 
I don't know how it is in Canada but here at SUNY three people already dropped out and we have two repeats from class of 2014 in our 2015 class. In undergrad I always crammed and never really bought textbooks. This is the first time in my life I study more than just the night before. I study hours for a 20 minute quiz for example. Its pretty damn serious and some people in your class WILL fail. Especially since optometry schools are pushing up their standards to make students repeat because more $$$ and just to propel the profession forward. Also, what other profession can you bill Medicare on the same rate as an MD without doing a residency? Exactly.

I agree, a lot of people don't understand the rigors of an optometric education. The word "optometry" has a pretty frail connotation. I much rather we just be called oculists because those are the MDs that we replaced anyway but I guess optometric physician is more suitable for now.
 
Chiropractic, podiatry, physical therapy, nursing....all easier to get into than optometry school. PA is about the same level maybe slightly easier.
 
Chiropractic, podiatry, physical therapy, nursing....all easier to get into than optometry school. PA is about the same level maybe slightly easier.

Agreed. Some PA schools have a RIDICULOUS amount of shadowing hours they expect you to have done.
 
Hi everyone,

I am currently an IT engineer, having studied at Canada's most prestigious and hardest engineering school. By the end of my university career I swear my lifespan had shortened by 5 years from the stress/lack of sleep/eating granola bars for breakfast/lunch/dinner (seriously!!). I have been deeply traumatized and I swore I would never do it again.

However, now that I have graduated, I hate my job. I get a respectable salary, but I hate how my goal at work is nothing other than to make rich companies become even richer. I want to help people, but I cannot stand med/dentistry or even pharmacy. I have started to look at going into Optometry at either UofWaterloo or UdMontreal (I am fluent bilingual).

So assuming I even get accepted, how hard is optometry school in Canada? Does it involve many sleepless nights, high failure rate, huge stress, etc? I will be at least 27 when I start optometry school, maybe married by then, and unfortunately I will not be able to afford a hardcore studying lifestyle anymore :(

Thanks for all the help!
I am a second year student at the University of Waterloo, and no the program is not 'easy' per say. I still find myself studying long hours and working very hard to keep up with the huge volumes of material that they require you to have at thorough understanding of. Getting into Waterloo however, is the hard part. If you can get in (and marks and OAT scores isn't all they look at) you can get through, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of stress, and a lot of dedication. This is goes for all schools not just Waterloo
 
I am a second year student at the University of Waterloo, and no the program is not 'easy' per say. I still find myself studying long hours and working very hard to keep up with the huge volumes of material that they require you to have at thorough understanding of. Getting into Waterloo however, is the hard part. If you can get in (and marks and OAT scores isn't all they look at) you can get through, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of stress, and a lot of dedication. This is goes for all schools not just Waterloo
But Waterloo does have a 100% success rate.... your in because they want you... and they want to keep you.
 
I'm sorry, but I am quite disappointed with the answers I have received.

I've started by explaining that I've been to an elite school and gone through hell for it. I've actually graduated from the program with the highest entering average for Waterloo engineering, which is labeled the "MIT of Canada" (which, admittedly, may be an exaggeration, but just to give an idea). Most of my classmates have won national awards for math/science and were the cream of the crop, and despite this over 50% of the class either repeat years or drop out. I'm not trying to boast, I'm just saying that I actually know what "hard" means and can back it up.

I even went all the way to explain that I currently earn a respectable salary (90k+ for my first year out of uni actually), so I'm not choosing optometry for the money.

All this to explain that I'm not just a typical biology major graduate who partied her way through undergrad and is now looking for an easy path for good cash or going into optometry just because I can't get into med/dentistry/pharm. I am genuinely interested in the profession, but I worry that I will be so stressed that I will be miserable and regret my decision should I get into optom school. Wanting to start a family adds to my worries.

But instead of getting a clearer idea of what optom school involves, I am getting all these snide comments about people who have probably not even gone past my original post's title. This does not help at all and only shows how snobby or how much of a superiority complex optom students have. That's a real turn-off.





I am a second year student at the University of Waterloo, and no the program is not 'easy' per say. I still find myself studying long hours and working very hard to keep up with the huge volumes of material that they require you to have at thorough understanding of. Getting into Waterloo however, is the hard part. If you can get in (and marks and OAT scores isn't all they look at) you can get through, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of stress, and a lot of dedication. This is goes for all schools not just Waterloo


THANK YOU!!! And also, thank you for the other few who actually gave constructive responses! Yes, I wanted to know if optom school can cause divorces. Yes, I wanted to know if people drink themselves ballistic from stress. I just didn't think it would be that hard to get some information about the program...

Tynk
 
I've started by explaining that I've been to an elite school and gone through hell for it. I've actually graduated from the program with the highest entering average for Waterloo engineering, which is labeled the "MIT of Canada" (which, admittedly, may be an exaggeration, but just to give an idea). Most of my classmates have won national awards for math/science and were the cream of the crop, and despite this over 50% of the class either repeat years or drop out. I'm not trying to boast, I'm just saying that I actually know what "hard" means and can back it up.


Tynk

Honestly, if you can get through an engineering/maths/physics degree at a good institution then you should have no problems with any theory in professional school - whether it be optometry/dentistry/medicine/pharmacy/law or whatever. You've proven that you're capable of abstract and analytic thought processes. The only thing I would (maybe) worry about is the clinical side of school...you won't really know if you're going to struggle with that until you try it.

You will have to spend plenty of time memorizing (anatomy/physiology, disease, pharmacology etc.) and practicing the clinical aspects of optometry but when they start talking about psychophysics and Fourier analysis in class, you'll be miles ahead. :D
 
Honestly, if you can get through an engineering/maths/physics degree at a good institution then you should have no problems with any theory in professional school - whether it be optometry/dentistry/medicine/pharmacy/law or whatever. You've proven that you're capable of abstract and analytic thought processes. The only thing I would (maybe) worry about is the clinical side of school...you won't really know if you're going to struggle with that until you try it.

You will have to spend plenty of time memorizing (anatomy/physiology, disease, pharmacology etc.) and practicing the clinical aspects of optometry but when they start talking about psychophysics and Fourier analysis in class, you'll be miles ahead. :D

Agree.

Dealing with patients is very different than other types of problem solving. You need to be good at both.
 
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