Rising senior looking for advice

[austingg]

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Hi, I'm a rising senior in high school and this whole realm of college and graduate school is a total blur of confusion to me. I have managed to maintain a 4.0 gpa along with honors and AP courses aswell as major involvement in the community. So, I'm not really afraid of getting into college. I have been really interested in optometry and opthamology( given that I have a hideable case of duane syndrome) but I don't know exactly what i need to do to make my dream come true. As of right now I have planned on going to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech or Emory (if i get a really nice scholarship) and participating in the pre-optometry majors they have set up. But is that enough to get me into optometry school? Where are these optometry schools at, and are they expensive? As you may already tell I'm a chronic planner. Advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[JMU07]

I'm a chronic planner too. I know what you're going through! 😀


www.opted.org has all the information you'll need about the different schools and the process of getting into optometry school.

If you're not sure whether to do optometry or ophthalmology - take the time to shadow both so you can get a feel for both professions and how they differ. Good grades are important, but don't kill yourself in college to get straight A's. You're going to have to take the OAT which is a test similar to the MCAT that pre-meds have to take. Do well, participate in some extracurriculars and get some experience in the field. 👍

 

[jymezg]

Check out Opted.org for a list of the Opt School Websites. That site also has the list of reqs, average GPA's, ect. Read up on that then see what kinds of questions you still have.

 

[jymezg]

I'm a chronic planner too. I know what you're going through! 😀


www.opted.org has all the information you'll need about the different schools and the process of getting into optometry school.

If you're not sure whether to do optometry or ophthalmology - take the time to shadow both so you can get a feel for both professions and how they differ. Good grades are important, but don't kill yourself in college to get straight A's. You're going to have to take the OAT which is a test similar to the MCAT that pre-meds have to take. Do well, participate in some extracurriculars and get some experience in the field. 👍

haha simultaneous reply

 

[JMU07]

haha simultaneous reply

weird! Do we have a sticky up about opted? I feel like we should if we don't already.

 

[jymezg]

yea blysssful made one:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=610471

 

[sportsdude00]

1. As a former yellow jacket, I recommend GT for your pre-optometry needs 👍
2. As JMU and jymegz said, opted is the best source for all of your information. You can find the list of optometry schools there, browse their websites and find out what they are looking for specifically in an applicant. As a general rule, aside from the interest in optometry, you need: a competitive GPA (especially in science), good OAT scores (which you will take a few years later), good recommendations, and some shadowing experience. If you do well in your classes, I think its safe to say most other things will fall into place, because your professors will be more than willing to give you good recommendations and you will have understood the material and be able to master the OAT. Also make sure to get a lot of shadowing experience to make sure that optometry is what you want to do and get a feel for what you're getting yourself into. Good luck!

 

[austingg]

thank you so much everyone for the help

 

[KHE]

Hi, I'm a rising senior in high school and this whole realm of college and graduate school is a total blur of confusion to me. I have managed to maintain a 4.0 gpa along with honors and AP courses aswell as major involvement in the community. So, I'm not really afraid of getting into college. I have been really interested in optometry and opthamology( given that I have a hideable case of duane syndrome) but I don't know exactly what i need to do to make my dream come true. As of right now I have planned on going to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech or Emory (if i get a really nice scholarship) and participating in the pre-optometry majors they have set up. But is that enough to get me into optometry school? Where are these optometry schools at, and are they expensive? As you may already tell I'm a chronic planner. Advice would be very much appreciated.

Even though you're a chronic planner, try not to put the cart before the horse.

At this stage of the game, what you should be concentrating on is enjoying your senior year, working as hard as you can to get into a college that is the right fit for YOU (not some optometry or medical school) and then once you get settled into college life, you can start worrying about the next step. All of the schools you mentioned are fine enough schools which will all have the necessary pre-requisites for optometry and medical school. So don't lose too much sleep over that. Enjoy your senior year! 👍