just had my suny interview.....

[JG777]

i just had my suny interview with dr. johnston. i am having mixed feelings about it for 2 reasons: 1) he asked my about my research and basically, he seemed unclear whether i wnated to get into research or being a clinician. i don't know if i kept digging myself in a deeper hole, but i dont' know if i made it clear to him about my reasons for research. i did mention that i wnated to continue research within the next 10 years, but was unsure of what type of rearch adn that eventually, i would like to own a private practice. my friend told me when i write my thank you letter, i should probably re-state my intentions of doing research. 2) he told me that the committee is going to wait for my october oat scores. bad news: i dont' feel prepared!!!

however, he was impressed wtih my community work. =) it was a really short interview ~30 minutes with questions i had for him.
overall, it was a comfortable environment except for that whole research issue. he did ask about my classes that i had to retake and i think the discrepancies of my gpa and current oat scores make them a little iffy on my acceptance, thus they will wait for my scores to see if i have improved. basically, i dont' feel too great about it. =(

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[Reality check]

consider yourself lucky. So what if you don't get into SUNY Optometry? ICO PCO and NEWENCO offer far superior curriculums than suny and you'll become a very good clinician if you were to attend these private schools. Don't get caught up in the hype of New York. New Yorkers are nasty individuals and that is a testament of what you might have experienced at SUNY Optometry when you interviewed there.
Ask Dr.Johnson is he a clinician or a researcher?
When was the last time he picked up an ophthalmoscope and retinoscope to examine any patients? You can ask Alden that too.


Good Luck to you.
SUNY can be a nasty place to be in.
Trust me!

 

[optcom]

Bad experience with one particular interviewer is actually a universal experience. Ask SUNY graduates, but not students. RC is right on the money.

 

[r_salis]

JG -- I wouldn't feel too discouraged about your interview. It's very common for an interviewer to latch on to something he feels is somewhat "controversial" (like your interest in research) and then ask you to defend yourself. Also, there are plenty of OD students who also pursue MS (or a fewer who pursue PhDs) while they're at SUNY. I think he just wanted to see what you had to say about it.

Good luck on the OATs!

 

[yOyOYoo]

I just had my interview with Dr. Johnston as well.

I felt that the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. I think I did okay.

He said that I should hear from SUNY in 2-3 weeks.

Does SUNY send out rejection letters??

 

[JG777]

hey yo (for short), do u go to ucla? kudos to you for not having a stipulation on your acceptance....dunno if they send out a rejection letter....but if i do get one, i'll post it....

anyway, i still have scco to go so *hopefully* that will go better than suny's and an acceptance will arrive shortly after. =)

and thanks to all who replied to this thread...

 

[Rosanna]

Hi JG:

I received my acceptance letter after 2 weeks from my SUNY interview. My friend who interviewed at SUNY later in the application period (December) received her acceptance letter about 1 1/2 months later.

For SCCO, I received my acceptance letter less than a week after the interview. My other friends who interviewed later (during February and March) received their letters no more than a week afterwards.

I don't know anyone who has ever received a rejection letter from SUNY or SCCO. I think if you do go to their interview, those two schools would at least put you on their waitlist if you are not accepted first.

Best wishes,

Rosanna

 

[yOyOYoo]

JG, actually I go to UC IRvine.

Do you have your SCCO interview on this Saturday? If you're part of the 12pm interview, i'll see you there!

As for not having a stipulation on my acceptance, actually I do have a pretty big one (imo).

My grades in some of my core courses included a lot of Cs and B-s especially in O-Chem and Physics. On the other hand, My OAT scores for Ochem and Physics were 350, 380 respectively, so Dr. Johnston did bring it up at our interview and allowed me to explain my situation. - and why there was such a huge discrepency between the scores/grades.

In the end he pretty much told me that it was a very positive interview, but that he did have to take my application back to be reviewed by a commitee before they made any final decisions. He said the only thing that might hold me back would be my gpa (3.1) which includes those poor Ochem and Physics grades. =(

Rosanna, I sent you a PM a while ago!

 

[JG777]

thanks rosanna....a breath of assurance for a chance =)

hey yo, i won't be at the saturday one, since i have to take the oats...again. but good luck with that! my friend will be there as well. we are on the same boat...i scored pretty well on the ochem portion of hte oats, but because of 2 d's in ochem pre-reqs, i need to show that "i am the jennifer who did well on the oats", quoted by dr. johnston. =)

ya which in a way, doesn't that kind of displace their credibility in you? as if they think we got lucky and we scored high. well maybe, the oat is actually easier than our hard science courses that are taught at the uc level??? i understand that they want to be certain i can stay at their school and ensure an income through my tuition...ok on a lighter comment, they want me to be a successful optometry student. i'm grateful for a second chance to redeem myself, once again, but it seems as if our oat scores, which were supposed to redeem our failed course grades, are not good enough. am i making sense? if not, totally disregard this as i am studying for both my microbiology midterm and oats....

it's gonna be a long week for me!

 

[yOyOYoo]

I know exactly what you mean JG . 😕 I'm just glad PCO and SCCO don't have open file interviews! 😛

Well goodluck on your Microbio and OAT examinations!