My coming pre-opt course schedule: Need Suggestions

[samwY]

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I've decided to go the pre-optometry route after 3 years of soul-searching and regretfully messing around in college. I'm determined to become an optometrist, and for the summer I have found some volunteer work at a clinic.

What I have in question is the pre-optometry work load I need to finish.
Hopefully, some of you can help me adjust the classes if need be to have time to set up for the OAT and admissions and such. I figure, since many of you guys already are in pre-optometry or have ODs, you can give me advice and such for my schedule and timing to catch the OAT and start optometry school in time (if I get into one).

I will need an extra year to fulfill these requirements. I go to OSU and have tri-semesters. Three classes per quarter is full-time. I've decided to set my schedule as part time with two courses per quarter. The classes and schedule I've made up is as follows.

Fall 04 - Biology 113, Physics 111
Winter 05 - Biology 114, Physics 112
Spring 05 - Chemistry 121, Physics 113
Summer 05 - Chemistry 122, Microbiology
Fall 05 - Chemistry 123, Statistics
Winter 06 - Organic Chemistry
Spring 06 - Organic Chemistry

Would you guys recommend me doing full-time so I can finish a little earlier?
I'm afraid full-time might be stacking up a lot of course workload which may affect my science GPA.

Any suggestions would be nice.
Forgive the length of this thread.

Sammy

 

[r_salis]

Congrats on deciding to go back to school! There are a couple of us here that did the same thing.

Are you planning to work full-time while you're taking these classes?

 

[samwY]

Oh, I haven't taken off school at all. I been in college for 3 years and next year will be my 4th, but I'm taking an extra year to finish the pre-opt requirements.

I think I'll be working part-time.

 

[TPMOH]

I would suggest taking Chem 121 starting this fall so that you will take your 1st O-chem in the fall of 2005 so you can take the OAT in Feb 2006. This way, you will have 1 1/2 qtrs of Ochem before you take the OAT. I was in Chem 252 when I took the OAT in Feb 1997 & I got a 370 in the Ochem section. It was very helpful being in the class when I took the OAT.

 

[samwY]

Hey Tim thanks for the suggestion.
I've decided to get a head start and take summer courses so I changed the my schedule to:

Summer 04
Biology 113
Physics 111
Fall 04
Biology 114
Physics 112
Winter 06
Chemistry 121
Physics 113
Spring 06
Chemistry 122
Microbiology
Summer 06
Chemistry 123
Statistics
Fall 06
Organic Chemistry 251
Calculus?
Winter 07
Organic Chemistry 252

Spring 07 Febuary = OAT

What do you think? Your advice will be taken seriously since you've gone through the classes and tests. If possible, please give suggestions to optimize my class schedule in preperation and boost-factor for the OAT.

I'm also debating whether to do full-time, but my roommate who will be in medical school, says seperating Chemistry from biology and physics would be a better workload. Did you guys pile bio physics and chemistry in one term? I'm worried because my GPA is quite low and I want to boost it as much as I can with the pre-opt requisites.

Advice will be taken seriously and appreciated. I hope I get some. I sign up for classes on Thursday.

Thanks

 

[r_salis]

Hey sam -- I don't know what the rest of your courseload looks like, but you can probably swing 3 science classes per quarter (except summer) if you don't have anything else to take. Could you take bio, phys, *and* chem in the fall? You could always register for all of them, and decide around the drop date if you want to go back to your original "2 classes per quarter" plan. With your new-found goal of optometry school, you might find you can handle more classes at a time.

I took 3 science classes per semester, and got all my pre-reqs done in a 1-1/2 years (including a summer). Labs were a killer. I didn't have a job while I was in school.

Good luck!

 

[jd4me]

You might want to check with the optometry schools that you're applying to if they care whether you do full-time or part-time studies. If they don't, then definitely go for the part-time.

 

[Tony.]

i'll just put in my 2 cents worth:

couple of summers ago I tried taking Chemistry II in 6 weeks, i ended up dropping the class....(its my only drop on my transcript). From then on I only took courses in a regular semester, never in the summertime...
my advice i guess, is not to bite more than you can chew...you know?
only you know what course load you can handle. And keep in mind that after you finish your pre-requs, it doesnt end there, you REALLY HAVE TO UNDERSTAND the material later on for the OAT........

Also: just a side note: Before I took physics, I sat down with the professor and told him "listen, I've never freaggin' had physics and im scared "
he told me to chill out and gave me A SYLLABUS of his class and told me to just go online and surf the web about all the topics he'll cover....
That helped me a lot b/c I knew what he'd be talking about in class....
You have a fine schedule if you really work hard and decicated.. the journey is long, (but at the end, its only with yourself)...
🙂