international student in optometry school?

[odyssey031985]

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Hello,
I am an international student who graduated from a decent US school in MA. I have a 3.37 GPA and did my major in biology. As some of you might know, getting into med school if you are an int. student is very hard. I was curious if the same situation prevails with optometry schools? do they accept international students?

and the other question is:
I have research experience and was planing to do a master program in biotechnology to boast up my gpa (original goal was to get into med school and if that does not work, continue to work in the industry or continue with a PhD). Do you think getting a masters is still a good idea in terms of getting into opt schools ( considering that I am international...). would that increase my chances to get in? or would that be very irrelevant considering biotech and optometry are not very related?

thank you for your help
-Eri

 

[jaguilar]

I am from Canada and the american schools also consider me an international student. For the public school, they have quotas on how many international students they take, so it is a bit harder to get in. The private school, like Pacific were really friendly and welcoming of international students. So I would say do some research into which school you want to apply to. Also go into optometry because you want to, not just because you didn't get into med. If you really want to go to med still, do a masters or a phD or whatever, get your marks up and apply for med.

 

[odyssey031985]

Thank you for the reply.
To be honest I never knew there was an optometry school! I recently found that out and got really excited. I still will do a masters to boast up the grades and then apply for optometry. You are right, one should do optometry because they like it not b/c they did not get accepted to med schools that's why I will shadow a doctor to see if that is what i want to do. but I believe it is something that I can really enjoy doing

 

[goomba29]

Hello,
I am an international student who graduated from a decent US school in MA. I have a 3.37 GPA and did my major in biology. As some of you might know, getting into med school if you are an int. student is very hard. I was curious if the same situation prevails with optometry schools? do they accept international students?

and the other question is:
I have research experience and was planing to do a master program in biotechnology to boast up my gpa (original goal was to get into med school and if that does not work, continue to work in the industry or continue with a PhD). Do you think getting a masters is still a good idea in terms of getting into opt schools ( considering that I am international...). would that increase my chances to get in? or would that be very irrelevant considering biotech and optometry are not very related?

thank you for your help
-Eri

1.) If you're prerequisite GPA is similar to your overall GPA your grades are good enough to get into optometry school. Don't waste your time taking more classes. Spend your time and energy on taking the OAT and getting a 320 or better on every single section. I hope you have leadership experience in extracurriculars and volunteer experience. And as you already know you need to shadow a few doctors, even better get a job or volunteer in the field.

2.) I totally agree with jaguilar about going to med school if that's what you really want. Optometry, like every other field, has it's cons for sure so make sure you know what you're getting into.

Good Luck!