I'm sort of in the same boat as you! I graduated with a BA in international relations. Worked at a community health center administration for a year and decided to get into the healthcare field and picked optometry. When I decided, I immediately started to take pre-req classes at a local university. Luckily, I had taken some basic science and calc, and I was able to fulfill rest of the pre-req classes over 3 semesters of full time school.
I would recommend checking the schools you're interested in applying for the specific pre-reqs that they need. I applied to five schools in March, (4, I never finished the supplemental for western U, after my interview at SCCO, I realized socal's not for me🙂 got conditionally accepted into 2 on the conditions that I finish biochemistry, physics and physics lab, which I am currently taking. I've declined both schools, and now I have a dilemma picking between IAUPR (my original top choice for their spanish component) and NECO (the school is gorgeous and opportunities are limitless!).
I was a bit of a procrastinator. I went and traveled around asia last summer instead of studying for the OAT. Last semester (fall), I took organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and those I feel really helped prepare me for the OAT (especially O'Chem, take that before your OAT!). Over winter break, I started to study for OAT. I used Kaplan On Demand. I had planned to take OAT end of Jan, but when Jan came around, I realized I didn't put in all the time I planned, so I postponed my test to end of Feb, so from end of Jan to Feb I was putting 4 to 6 hours a day to review the materials. I got a pretty good score on the OAT. Right after the OAT I started on my OptomCas app. It was then I realized had I started earlier I could have applied to a few more interesting schools whose deadline had past on March 1. Anyway, I spent the next two weeks cranking out my app, used my schools writing center every other day and wrote up a pretty strong personal statement. I was also lucky that my profs and manager were flexible and submitted LOR super fast to meet the 3/15 deadline😛 I also shadowed a local optometrist the weekend before 3/15 and got his LOR on 3/14!
The moral of this story is, start early so you can have more options and can rely less on luck like I did. (If I had failed my OAT the first time I took it on March 1, I wouldn't have time to retake and would have to apply for 2012 school year!) But I also knew if I just took it without putting any time/effort into the study, it would have been a total waste of money. Another tip, start thinking where you can get your LORs and start shadowing optometrists early and really ask them questions like what they like and what they don't like, it's great way to prepare for school interviews later. Also important, start working on your personal statement, a little at a time, jot down your inspirations, come up with a unique anecdote that will show your personality. Don't write anything negative about yourself/app, and turn around to justify it, it's waste of character count. Just play up your strengths and address your weaknesses during your interview if they ask!
Good Luck!
