I need advice

[AfterMath]

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I have wanted to become an optometrist for a little over a year now. I plan on going to pitt to get my pre opt classes in. I am afraid to go into optometry because i have heard a lot of negative stuff. I was wondering what the real salary is, how bad the debt is, and if there is an oversupply of optometrists. I was also wondering how hard optometry school is compared to pharmacy. thanks

 

[r_salis]

I have wanted to become an optometrist for a little over a year now. I plan on going to pitt to get my pre opt classes in. I am afraid to go into optometry because i have heard a lot of negative stuff. I was wondering what the real salary is, how bad the debt is, and if there is an oversupply of optometrists. I was also wondering how hard optometry school is compared to pharmacy. thanks

Try doing a search in the optometry forums for "debt", "oversupply", "salary", etc. -- these questions have been discussed a lot here! Good luck with your decision.

 

[Dr Gump]

I have wanted to become an optometrist for a little over a year now. I plan on going to pitt to get my pre opt classes in. I am afraid to go into optometry because i have heard a lot of negative stuff. I was wondering what the real salary is, how bad the debt is, and if there is an oversupply of optometrists. I was also wondering how hard optometry school is compared to pharmacy. thanks

I have PM'd you.

Dr. Gump

 

[asmaka19]

ok this will bea brief response. I shadow two optometrists right now and there's definately NOT an oversupply of optometrists and in lots of places there's a need, especially in louisiana (where i live). One optometrist who is an ICO grad got his first job at 90,000 and that was 11 years ago. I know that the targest optical here in baton rouge pays optometrists 150,000, in New Orleans they're paying even more than that.

I can't tell you very much about debt but non of the optometrists I'm seeing complains of it. In fact, one of them graduated two years ago from the one in alabama and she's about to invest in some real estate, so I'm sure it's not bad for her, but she did go to a state school and her tuitiion was subsidized since louisiana doesn't have an optometry school

 

[JKaiser]

The west, except California, may still have a good turn out of optometrists.

 

[angeleyes86]

i have heard that because of baby boomer's there will be a high demand for optometrists because of low vision and eye diseases

take a look!: http://www.aoa.org/x5099.xml

 

[4Eyes]

Debt depends on where you go to school and how you manage your money....

Whether or not there's an oversupply depends on how picky you are about where you want to live. As asmaka pointed out, there are some goldmines for new ODs...I have a classmate who is going to start cold in an area where the OD to population ratio is about 1:20,000.

However, I'm pretty determined to live close to family since that is most important to me, and that area is pretty saturated. I'm going to have a much more challenging time of finding a job.