old(er) student

[odforme]

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Hey
I am looking for some words of wisdom...I am an older student (34yo) and have a degree from a Big 10 university (gpa 3.1-psychology degree earned in 1994). I have taken all of the science pre-req's in the last year at a community college and have a 3.8 gpa. I took the OAT today and got a 330AA and 320TS. I have 10 years experience working as a regional manager in retail industry. I have shadowed an optometrist.

What are my chances in your opinion and do admissions reps value life/work experience?
I applied to:
ICO, NECO, PCO, Nova, MCO, UMSL, SCO.

 

[prettygreeneyes]

Hey
I am looking for some words of wisdom...I am an older student (34yo) and have a degree from a Big 10 university (gpa 3.1-psychology degree earned in 1994). I have taken all of the science pre-req's in the last year at a community college and have a 3.8 gpa. I took the OAT today and got a 330AA and 320TS. I have 10 years experience working as a regional manager in retail industry. I have shadowed an optometrist.

What are my chances in your opinion and do admissions reps value life/work experience?
I applied to:
ICO, NECO, PCO, Nova, MCO, UMSL, SCO.

Hey there,

I would say you stand an excellent chance of getting admitted provided you are a good interviewee (ie can carry on a semi-intelligent conversation, etc). At Pacific, we have at least 5 30-40 year olds in our class, and they seem to be some of the most focused students in our class. I would think that Adcoms would look very highly on work/life experience because they know this is REALLY what you want to do, if you were willing to give up a normal job and steady income to go back to prereqs, four more years of school, and student loans. Make sure you focus in your interview and essays about why you are leaving the normal life, and why you know optometry is the career for you.

Best of luck!

PGE

 

[cpw]

Hey there,

I would say you stand an excellent chance of getting admitted provided you are a good interviewee (ie can carry on a semi-intelligent conversation, etc). At Pacific, we have at least 5 30-40 year olds in our class, and they seem to be some of the most focused students in our class. I would think that Adcoms would look very highly on work/life experience because they know this is REALLY what you want to do, if you were willing to give up a normal job and steady income to go back to prereqs, four more years of school, and student loans. Make sure you focus in your interview and essays about why you are leaving the normal life, and why you know optometry is the career for you.

Best of luck!

PGE

I would ditto what PGE said. She's right on the money. You have a decent undergrad GPE and an excellent post bac GPA (even if it is at a CC). If you can show you pulled that GPA at the CC while working full time.. you show you can handle the optometry course load.

Interview well.. know EXACTLY why you want to go to OD school (and be eloquent about what brought you to this path) and you're good as in. UHCO had quite a few 30+ students.. and they were very focused on why they were there. My best friend in school was 31 when she started. 🙂

 

[DaveSch]

I don't have any words of wisdom for you.... just wanted to say that it's nice to see that I am not the only one in my mid thirties going back to school for an extended period of time!

 

[r_salis]

I'm a non-trad, too. I only applied to two schools -- PCO and SUNY -- and was accepted to both. At SUNY there are a handful of older students in each class, it is not that unusual -- but the average age of the incoming class is around the early 20s.

Good luck to you!

 

[odforme]

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement! It's nice to know I'm not the only one starting over! I'm sure I will do very well with the interview, after all that was a huge part of my former career; it's just getting the interviews that worries me. Best of luck to everyone!😉