Midwestern Arizona College of Optometry?

[q1we3]

Any thoughts on this school? Their minimum GPA requirement is 2.75 which is quite concerning. Their standards are that low?

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[319671]

Any thoughts on this school? Their minimum GPA requirement is 2.75 which is quite concerning. Their standards are that low?

PCO's is 2.5

 

[KHE]

PCO's is 2.5

Is it really? That's horrible.

 

[DrDre2001]

I think you may be reading too much into that number.

That is just their bare minimum.

So, even if a person has 99th percentile OAT scores, 3,000 hours of working in an optometry office, and other great stuff, he has no chance of getting into that school if he has a 2.74.

 

[nicmc]

I agree. Absolutely ridiculous that the GPA minimum is that low. It is quite alarming that Optometry schools would seriously consider such a poor GPA applicant no matter what the application looks like otherwise.

 

[HPDV6000]

Erm... PCO's entering class GPA last year was 3.2... I don't know where you got 2.5 from.

No one is desperate enough to accept a student into the medical field below 3.0 GPA... unless he has excellent ECs...

 

[HPDV6000]

Also, I don't think Midwestern is accredited everywhere and it is a recently opened Optometry school and is held inferior to students of another college.

 

[0ptometrist]

While I think you should be wary of new schools, I am giving Midwestern a fighting chance. That is their minimum GPA, but their average acceptances are a bit more comparable to the other schools. The 2010 average GPA was 3.23 and the OAT avg was 318. Obviously they aren't very impressive relative to the established schools, but that is no surprise for a new school. Students going in understand that there will be some kinks to work out... that means that many lower-end students will end up going there for the first few years. Thats not to say that some very great students can go there too... and the hope for those going there is that eventually that trend will shift.

Midwestern has the funding to take care of the kinks pretty quick, and they have their good name on the line. I believe that eventually it will be a very high quality optometry school... There is some risk involved right now. The other new schools I do not have the same feelings about.

That's just my opinion as of right now. I have ulterior motives that are pushing me to look into Midwestern seriously (my wife). There are a lot of other great optometry programs out there that make it a tough choice. Good luck.