Just received my first interview

[Cookie_nibbler]

Hey guys!
So im a non-traditional student applying to optometry school. I graduated last year as a dental hygienist and found that the job is too demanding and very tiresome. Thats not including the pay that isnt up to par with the work that I do. I applied with my DAT scores and schools thought they were competitive enough for optometry school. I just want to get peoples feedback on the field and get a feel of how the optometry program is since its a 4 year graduate degree. I know i might get some hate but please be nice. Ive been researching for over a month about the field and im really into it. Some people say the field isnt what it used to be, others disagree.

please give me your input and i really do appreciate what all you guys have to say.

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[RNA582]

Why not dentistry? Its already what you do.. and dentist gets paid much more than optometrist. I would apply to dental school. Also, I would shadow different optometrists to actually see what they do. Reading online is not the same as literally shadowing someone and seeing what they are doing on a daily basis since optometry is very different than dentistry.

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

Why not dentistry? Its already what you do.. and dentist gets paid much more than optometrist. I would apply to dental school. Also, I would shadow different optometrists to actually see what they do. Reading online is not the same as literally shadowing someone and seeing what they are doing on a daily basis since optometry is very different than dentistry.

Dentistry has its pros and cons trust me. There are times i wanna rip my hair out because the doctors dont know what the heck they are talking about. They ask for the impossible at times when your busy and dont have time to think. Dentists do get paid well but the stress thats put on you isnt easy to deal with. Optometry is a cleaner, more etiquette type of profession that has such a better outlook in my opinion.

 

[RNA582]

Dentistry has its pros and cons trust me. There are times i wanna rip my hair out because the doctors dont know what the heck they are talking about. They ask for the impossible at times when your busy and dont have time to think. Dentists do get paid well but the stress thats put on you isnt easy to deal with. Optometry is a cleaner, more etiquette type of profession that has such a better outlook in my opinion.

If you want to get reliable answers to your questions, ask optometrists about it. So you should shadow several optometrists and ask them your questions

 

[eylodoc]

Agree, absolutely have to shadow. Much different than anything you can find online.

 

[RNA582]

Hey guys!
So im a non-traditional student applying to optometry school. I graduated last year as a dental hygienist and found that the job is too demanding and very tiresome. Thats not including the pay that isnt up to par with the work that I do. I applied with my DAT scores and schools thought they were competitive enough for optometry school. I just want to get peoples feedback on the field and get a feel of how the optometry program is since its a 4 year graduate degree. I know i might get some hate but please be nice. Ive been researching for over a month about the field and im really into it. Some people say the field isnt what it used to be, others disagree.

please give me your input and i really do appreciate what all you guys have to say.

congratulations on first interview. What school did you apply to?

 

[@pinnacle]

I am a 2020 optometry graduate . If you are passionate about optometry and always wanted to be an optometrist I woud say go for it. However, optometry faces a lot of internal and external issue atm . With the more and more people buying glasses and contact lens(cl) online and with the advent of online refractions all of this has heavily impacted the bread and butter of optometry i.e glasses/cl. The speciality cl wearer ( < 5 % of all cl wearers) are the only loyal subset of cl wearer that the online market hasn't impacted. The optometrist relying solely on glasses/contact lenses can't get by anymore and there has been a shift to a more medical side which doesn't pay as good . There is now even FDA approved AI technology that can be used by people outside of eyecare that does diabetic retinal exam. Patients with diabetes unless advanced have been historically managed by optometrist which may or maynot be the case in future time will tell....

There are new schools opening every year which have led to more and more graduates every year competing for the same limited jobs and it is almost a given now that gradautes have to relocate for a job after graduation, consider this if living close to family matters to you. Not to mention, it is easy to get into optometry school with the bar set low and once in the schools are willing to pull every last string to keep you in for the 4 years regardless of whether or not you you can pass the boards because for them you are their paycheck. I and all of my friends had to relocate for a good paying job. There are good paying jobs but most of them are rural. The 125k+ jobs are mostly rural. In the cities , most optometrist work multiple part time jobs. To survive as an independent private practice owner has become a real challenge because of chains and these practioners are going extinct. . Tution fees is all time high and the debt to income ratio is worst among all healthcare professional.

I realize you may or maynot have heard all of this already but these are imminent issues that you should consider before making a decision. Unfortunately, your school wont tell you any of this ,well not until you get in and start your ethics class. Also, ask the optometrist you shadow their two cents about this. Goodluck.

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

congratulations on first interview. What school did you apply to?

Midwestern

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

Agree, absolutely have to shadow. Much different than anything you can find online.

The problem is that because of covid, nobody will let anyone come in and shadow so im really limited

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

I am a 2020 optometry graduate . If you are passionate about optometry and always wanted to be an optometrist I woud say go for it. However, optometry faces a lot of internal and external issue atm . With the more and more people buying glasses and contact lens(cl) online and with the advent of online refractions all of this has heavily impacted the bread and butter of optometry i.e glasses/cl. The speciality cl wearer ( < 5 % of all cl wearers) are the only loyal subset of cl wearer that the online market hasn't impacted. The optometrist relying solely on glasses/contact lenses can't get by anymore and there has been a shift to a more medical side which doesn't pay as good . There is now even FDA approved AI technology that can be used by people outside of eyecare that does diabetic retinal exam. Patients with diabetes unless advanced have been historically managed by optometrist which may or maynot be the case in future time will tell....

There are new schools opening every year which have led to more and more graduates every year competing for the same limited jobs and it is almost a given now that gradautes have to relocate for a job after graduation, consider this if living close to family matters to you. Not to mention, it is easy to get into optometry school with the bar set low and once in the schools are willing to pull every last string to keep you in for the 4 years regardless of whether or not you you can pass the boards because for them you are their paycheck. I and all of my friends had to relocate for a good paying job. There are good paying jobs but most of them are rural. The 125k+ jobs are mostly rural. In the cities , most optometrist work multiple part time jobs. To survive as an independent private practice owner has become a real challenge because of chains and these practioners are going extinct. . Tution fees is all time high and the debt to income ratio is worst among all healthcare professional.

I realize you may or maynot have heard all of this already but these are imminent issues that you should consider before making a decision. Unfortunately, your school wont tell you any of this ,well not until you get in and start your ethics class. Also, ask the optometrist you shadow their two cents about this. Goodluck.

How about residency?

 

[@pinnacle]

How about residency?

I personally never wanted to do a residency as I started opto school late at 26 years and so didn't wanna add another year of being a student/ " resident doc " while living off 30 k salary. Also, simply because you can learn a lot while in the workforce from an older colleague in the practice and honestly I dont think it was not worth it for me .However , I must say some people swear by it and no doubt you can lear a lot from knowledgable people in the field, if you are interested. If you want to be an educator or work at the VA/hospital , they will most likely require you to do a residency.

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

I personally never wanted to do a residency as I started opto school late at 26 years and so didn't wanna add another year of being a student/ " resident doc " while living off 30 k salary. Also, simply because you can learn a lot while in the workforce from an older colleague in the practice and honestly I dont think it was not worth it for me .However , I must say some people swear by it and no doubt you can lear a lot from knowledgable people in the field, if you are interested. If you want to be an educator or work at the VA/hospital , they will most likely require you to do a residency.

Do you believe that the field still has potential and you can still live comfortably being an optometrist?

 

[callitjrue]

Do what makes you happy. Take whatever people say on forums and reddit with a grain of salt. Go shadow and work for an optometrist (preferably multiple so you can get different opinions) to see if you actually like it, you're investing a **** ton of money and frankly speaking 1 month of research isn't enough.

I have volunteered and worked for optometry, pharm and dental as well as shadowing in a completely different realm (software) during my undergrad. What I've realized is that there is no perfect job. Every job has their pros and cons. The grass is greener on the other side... until you go onto the other side and hear the same complaining. Go lurk onto pharmacy, dental, medicine, optometry etc. forums, there are a bunch of complaints people have in those respective fields.

All I can say is make a list of things you hold of most importance/want in your life and choose a career that can fulfill most/all of that.

Optometry isn't the golden ticket to the riches, even the biggest optimist will admit that. There are issues of insurance claims, online optical sales, rising tuition (then again, every professional program has that issue) etc. What it does offer is autonomy, a clean job, a decent salary, relatively flexible hours and is low-stress. In regards to saturation, there are 67 dental schools and 200,000 dentists in the USA. There are 141 pharmacy schools and 224,000 pharmacists. There are 237 law schools and 1.33 million lawyers. Compare all of that to 23 optometry schools and 37,500 optometrists in the USA. Again, optometry isn't perfect but saturation certainly is not a problem... yet.

All in all, please do extensive research into whatever you're interested in, picture yourself and see if you will enjoy the profession, figure what cons you are okay with and go on from there. Best of luck, I know how you feel because I was in that same situation a year ago.

 

[Cookie_nibbler]

Do what makes you happy. Take whatever people say on forums and reddit with a grain of salt. Go shadow and work for an optometrist (preferably multiple so you can get different opinions) to see if you actually like it, you're investing a **** ton of money and frankly speaking 1 month of research isn't enough.

I have volunteered and worked for optometry, pharm and dental as well as shadowing in a completely different realm (software) during my undergrad. What I've realized is that there is no perfect job. Every job has their pros and cons. The grass is greener on the other side... until you go onto the other side and hear the same complaining. Go lurk onto pharmacy, dental, medicine, optometry etc. forums, there are a bunch of complaints people have in those respective fields.

All I can say is make a list of things you hold of most importance/want in your life and choose a career that can fulfill most/all of that.

Optometry isn't the golden ticket to the riches, even the biggest optimist will admit that. There are issues of insurance claims, online optical sales, rising tuition (then again, every professional program has that issue) etc. What it does offer is autonomy, a clean job, a decent salary, relatively flexible hours and is low-stress. In regards to saturation, there are 67 dental schools and 200,000 dentists in the USA. There are 141 pharmacy schools and 224,000 pharmacists. There are 237 law schools and 1.33 million lawyers. Compare all of that to 23 optometry schools and 37,500 optometrists in the USA. Again, optometry isn't perfect but saturation certainly is not a problem... yet.

All in all, please do extensive research into whatever you're interested in, picture yourself and see if you will enjoy the profession, figure what cons you are okay with and go on from there. Best of luck, I know how you feel because I was in that same situation a year ago.

Thank you so much. I did shadow and pharmacist and wasn't comfortable with the job. I shadowed a dentist and agree 100% with you. Every field has its ups and downs. For optometry, I feel like the field is just starting to boom and don't want to regret not going forward with it in the future. Dental is amazing, don't get me wrong, but I feel like the tradeoff isn't worth it. You end up with so much pain in your wrists and neck and people don't realize how much damage this does to ones body. I go every other week for treatment so I don't end up with arthritis and neck pain in the future and that's not adding back pain. People are following where there is more money but I promise you if they realize what the physical damage this does to ones body, they would rethink what they wanna go into. Optometry is a cleaner, safer (needlestick, which I have had twice, thankfully nothing happened) and etc... I wanna thank you again for your input. It means a lot. Please if you have the time, I would love to talk to you and get more input from you if that's ok?


Thank you once more!