medicine to optometry

[nampa1]

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I'm having difficulty explaining why I want to do optometry and not medicine at interviews. I dont feel comfortable with the responsibility of medicine, but the optometrist interviewers dont want to hear this. What else can I say to express my desire? Thanks.

 

[mupreopt]

What are other reasons you chose optometry? What is it that you like about optometry? As opposed to dentistry, etc.?

I'm not having trouble finding reasons why I want to do optmetry. I'm just having trouble finding reasons for interview purposes. I'm afraid the admissions committee won't like my answers. And when I compare my reasons with other people's reasons on this boards, it's not as impressive. Other people have personal reasons such as family member with eye problems or they themselves had eye problems as a child and that what drove them into optometry. Or some says it's the interst in science. Mine are none of these reason. After high school, I just did reasearch online and optometry seemed the most interesting and fitted all the criteria that I wanted in a career and life. It wasn't passion or drive.

 

[heartshero2003]

I'm not the best to give advice here since I'm also in the same boat, but here it is anyway:

1) Love for the eyes and the visual system.
2) Running your own practice.
3) Less emotional challenge, less stress.
4) ???

I'm not sure about #3 because ODs still have to break bad news and show empathy for patients, but I guess not as much as MDs.

Hope this helps
I'd love to hear what everyone else is thinking.

 

[CarltonBanks]

I told my interviewers that medicine was never really my thing. I enjoyed the patient interaction part of it (which is limited to some), but I could not handle the exposure to blood, guts, and especially death. I would feel terrible if one of my patients died, especially on my watch. I told them that I didn't think I had the emotional strength to handle that aspect of the profession.

 

[mthwong]

The best way to really get an idea of why you want to do optometry is to probably talk with an optometrist, or shadow/observe one and especially during an exam.

I had a hard time thinking about why I wanted to do optometry until I shadowed at my optometrist. What I saw was the personal interaction between the optometrist and the patient, and the deductive reasoning behind prescribing corrective lenses for a patient. So aside from being a stable profession, and flexible hours, the what I saw fit what I wanted to do which was help people in my community as well as be challenged by the complexity of the eye and various ocular health conditions.

What stemmed my interest was the technology used to check our eyes, and something I have the pleasure of doing is take retinal photos of patients in our office, and actually SEEING results of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cataracts.

So, my reason for optometry isn't related to some eye disease I have or whatever. But I see it as a profession that will provide exciting challenges, while at the same time giving me an outlet to help others. So, as corny as it sounds, I don't think it matters what answers you give to the interviewers, as long as you do some soul searching and understand why you want to do optometry and present it to them honestly. Cause if there is any weakness in your answer. They will dig into it, at least that's what happened at SCCO, but I was still accepted.

 

[sharpshooter24]

I'm having difficulty explaining why I want to do optometry and not medicine at interviews. I dont feel comfortable with the responsibility of medicine, but the optometrist interviewers dont want to hear this. What else can I say to express my desire? Thanks.

it boils down to one thing: what do you enjoy doing?

for me at least with optometry i can
1) spend more time with my family and still have a professional career.
2) i dont have to walk out of the house at 2AM for an emergency call
3) i can spend more time with my patients, talking is important in optometry
4) optometrist have malpractice insurance, but not as great as med.

 

[IrishEyes86]

it boils down to one thing: what do you enjoy doing?

for me at least with optometry i can
1) spend more time with my family and still have a professional career.
2) i dont have to walk out of the house at 2AM for an emergency call
3) i can spend more time with my patients, talking is important in optometry
4) optometrist have malpractice insurance, but not as great as med.

PLUS
as an optometrist you will be seeing a lot of patients that you can help (immediately) therefore you can improve the quality of life for many versus high-risk operations of opthamologists.. which makes patients happy to visit and still extremely rewarding 🙂

 

[Monkey007]

What I told them is My dad and sister are doctors.
the lifestyle is to hectic, the hours can be veyr unrpedictable, the pateint doesn't always come out satisfied or content. Optometry allows you to have both a professional life and personal life w.out them impinching on each other. When clock out that it, no on-call or anything. Plus, md has residency, where they treat like crap and over work you! I would probably make that last part a little more flowery! 😍

 

[blysssful]

I haven't applied yet (I'm a junior), but when people ask me why I'm interested in optometry, I'll tell them something from this list (these are all my real reasons for wanting to go into opt.):

1. The way the visual system works, in general, fascinates me
2. It's an extremely respectable profession, and there's still plenty of opportunity for a great balance with a family life
3. There's a lot of interaction with patients
but most of all:
4. I'm also a photographer, and I think there's so much beauty in the world. To be without it would be more than a shame, and I want to help people never be without their sight.

Hope that helps!

 

[EyeBaller]

Remember that your "responsibility" for a patient is the same whether you are an optometrist or any other doctor providing care for that patient. In most states (maybe all?) optometrists are held to the same level of care an an ophthalmologist (without the same scope of practice). Which means, if you are going to treat you are responsible. If you aren't going to treat then the correct and timely referral is your responsibility.

The actual act of doing surgery is of course more risky, and that is what the optometrist doesn't have to deal with, not the responsibility.

 

[gochi]

I'm having difficulty explaining why I want to do optometry and not medicine at interviews. I dont feel comfortable with the responsibility of medicine, but the optometrist interviewers dont want to hear this. What else can I say to express my desire? Thanks.

Why would they even ask you why you want to be an MD over an OD or vice versa ? It's like there degrading the general status of an optometrist.

 

[mthwong]

Why would they even ask you why you want to be an MD over an OD or vice versa ? It's like there degrading the general status of an optometrist.

Well knowing why you're doing optometry over medicine is important because they may ask you "since both professions are health related, why optometry over medicine?" Both professions involve taking care and treating the patient, same goes with dentistry, and other professional schools because we're learning a skill that can be used to improve the quality of life for a person. So, it is important to know the difference because some people may elaborate on, why you spent so much time on medicine and then change your mind to optometry.

 

[CaribbeanEye]

The reason they ask this question is to find out if you really are dedicated to the idea of becoming an optometrist. It sounds like to me that you really need to figure out why, just for yourself if nothing else. Because you don't want to get stuck into something else you really don't want to do. Not only that when you know why, you will be able to answer this question easily. Or you may find out you don't want to be an OD.

 

[gochi]

Well knowing why you're doing optometry over medicine is important because they may ask you "since both professions are health related, why optometry over medicine?" Both professions involve taking care and treating the patient, same goes with dentistry, and other professional schools because we're learning a skill that can be used to improve the quality of life for a person. So, it is important to know the difference because some people may elaborate on, why you spent so much time on medicine and then change your mind to optometry.

The proper question should not be why od over md but why od over dmd, dds, audiologist, phys therap, ocu therap, pharm, podiatry, vet and so on and so forth....if you ultimately intend to "improve quality of life for a person."

 

[IndianaOD]

What I told them is My dad and sister are doctors.
the lifestyle is to hectic, the hours can be veyr unrpedictable, the pateint doesn't always come out satisfied or content. Optometry allows you to have both a professional life and personal life w.out them impinching on each other. When clock out that it, no on-call or anything. Plus, md has residency, where they treat like crap and over work you! I would probably make that last part a little more flowery! 😍

If you act like a real "Doctor" of Optometry and not a commercial doc you will probably provide on-call availability for your patients. I do.

 

[ODduck]

Why would they even ask you why you want to be an MD over an OD or vice versa ? It's like there degrading the general status of an optometrist.

They ask this because there are plenty of people who apply to optometry schools with the idea that you can make 100K a year without a residency and without digging around in people's mouths all day. It is in the best interest of optometry schools to screen out people like this.

 

[EyeballerOD]

You think if I graduate summa cum laude I can forego organic 1 and 2 and still get into med school?

 

[leaves84]

i had just told them that i didnt like the environment that doctors work in. i rather have a one-on-one close knit relationship....than be going crazy with 9-10 patients everyday!

 

[gochi]

i had just told them that i didnt like the environment that doctors work in. i rather have a one-on-one close knit relationship....than be going crazy with 9-10 patients everyday!

uhh I though that p.p OD's avg. about 25 patients/day while OD's working in corporate average a lot higher...

 

[anchan]

I'm having difficulty explaining why I want to do optometry and not medicine at interviews. I dont feel comfortable with the responsibility of medicine, but the optometrist interviewers dont want to hear this. What else can I say to express my desire? Thanks.

i think this is something you will have to find for yourself. if you don't honestly have a desire or passion for optometry i think the admissions interviewers will see that. this is probably one of the biggest criteria we look for at our admissions office, or else why do optometry at all then? if your desire is really for medicine then you should go for it.

 

[EyeBaller]

i had just told them that i didnt like the environment that doctors work in. i rather have a one-on-one close knit relationship....than be going crazy with 9-10 patients everyday!

You're not gonna make much money if you don't see at least 9-10 patients a day as an OD... Did you ever shadow an OD? I don't think that statement will help you in your interview too much... 😕

 

[dk2008]

I told my interviewers that I have never heard of an OD who has regretted his/her decision to become one. A few MD's I know end up saying that if they could do it all over again, they would have pursued another profession. Also, as mentioned before, the reward that optometrists get to see for their work is often immediate.