OAT score good enough?

[Tonlocer]

I am interested to know how my OAT score stacks up against others out there. For those of you who have an idea about what a good score is for the OAT please let me know what you think. Also, would you say I have a good, ok, or not so good chance of getting into Optometry School?

A little information about me ... I have undergraduate (Nutrition Science) and graduate (Biology) degrees. While achieving a 3.36 and 3.38, respectively. I'm 25 and a guy.

QR 310
RC 280
Bio 340
GC 340
OC 360
Phy 320
Total Science 350 ... which put me into the 84.6%
Academic Avg 330 ... which put me into the 76.4%

Well, I think that'll do it. I really don't know what to expect as far as a response, but anything is better than nothing. So thanks for any input. Have great day!

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[seminolefish]

My scores were the same for the AA and TS but I scored higher on organic and QR. You got the nice round up from a 325 to 330 so that is good. I got a 331 and I was rounded down. With your gpa you should be competitive; it depends on where you want to go. For SCO and Nova you are competitive. Any harder to get into schools I'm not so sure. You probably are I just don't know much about the other ones specifically.

 

[canadaoptnow]

seminolefish states, "For SCO and Nova you are competitive. Any harder to get into schools I'm not so sure."

I am wondering why you think he is competitive for SCO and Nova but not sure about "harder to get into schools"? In your opinion, which are the more difficult schools to get into and why?

 

[Tonlocer]

Hi, thanks for the comments. I am looking at IU as my number one. I went there for undergrad, so I love the school. Plus, it's in-state, which amounts to about 70 thousand less dollars that I will be needing to pay after I'm finished. I'm contacting the admissions tomorrow. I'll let ya know what I find out. I am going to apply to other schools. I just haven't seriously investigated any others as of now. Have either of you heard anything about IU as far as being a "harder-to-get-into-school"? Thanks again.

 

[seminolefish]

Look at the profile for the incoming class of 2007... It's on the opted.org site. The average accepted GPA and OAT are higher for certain schools granted that the averages do change every year but not drastically. Nova did go from about a 3.2 GPA and 320 OAT (2007) to a 3.4 GPA and 340 OAT (2008) being the average accepted this past year (2008). I would say that is somewhat drastic. The only school that REALLY stands out is Berkeley. The reason why I say Nova and SCO is because that's where I'm applying. You will be competitive at all colleges of optometry in reality; in my opinion though, the closer you are to the last year's average OAT and GPA the even more competitive and likely to get accepted you are.

 

[Tonlocer]

I was able to get a hold of the admissions rep from IU opt. My scores seem to be what they are looking for. So, I guess that's a relief. I also went to IU's website and obtained the past (at least) 5 classes GPAs and OAT averages. I fall just below last year's GPA and just above on the OAT. Here is last years stats (2010 incoming class):
[FONT=geneva, arial, sans-serif][SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]. [FONT=geneva, arial, sans-serif]A total of 75 students were selected from a pool of 371 for the class entering in August 2006. There are 36 Indiana residents and 39 nonresidents from 17 other states and 1 other country. There are 29 men and 46 women. The students range in age from 22 to 32 years with an average age of 23 years..

[FONT=geneva, arial, sans-serif]Academic Statistics: The cumulative undergraduate mean* GPA is 3.46/4.00 and the median GPA is 3.47/4.00. Ninety-three percent of the class earned a bachelor's degree prior to entering the School of Optometry..
[FONT=geneva, arial, sans-serif]OAT: Biology: 318, Physics: 320, General Chemistry: 327, Organic Chemistry: 327, Total Science: 325, Reading: 350, Quantitative: 316, Academic Average: 324.

 

[eyestrain]

FWIW, one of the profs on the admissions committee said they look very hard at the reading comprehension part of the OAT. I'd look at retaking it and getting that up to at least 320 or so.

 

[Tonlocer]

Hi, I'm not sure at all what/where FWIW stands for, so... yeah, but I can say that I talked to an admissions rep at IU. The rep specifically asked me what was my academic average, my total science, and if I had received a score below 300 in any section. My gave my scores, including the 280 on the RC, and the rep responded by saying that my scores were very good. Also, that it will be unnecessary for me to retake my OAT in order to raise my score in RC. Therefore, I'm not retaking the OAT. Thanks for everyones input. I really appreciate every bit of advice I've received over the past week.