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I am faced with the daunting task of trying to choose the Optometry that is perfect for me and my desire to become an excellent clinician of Optometry. Feel free to add your own input or advice.
I just wanted to start by saying the things I am looking for in an Optometry school are: Clinical Experience, Cost, Safety (at the school and in the city in which I will be living), availability of externship sites, and lastly fun outdoor nature activities to do!
With that being said, I was accepted into Midwestern and SCO, while still awaiting an interview at NOVA on the 19th of December.
My heart tells me to go to SCO, it seems like the best clinical experience around because their students see so many patients, many with diabetes or ARMD etc. Also, Memphis is a really cheap area to live in. Of course it can never be that easy though - my brain is telling me to stray away from Memphis. I know for a fact Memphis has got a good heart to it with genuinely polite people, but to be brutally honest I did not feel safe at the school! It was like a mugging waiting to happen outside of those doors, good thing they've got a security guard at the school. Still though, that leaves me to wonder about things like: would I feel comfortable if my girlfriend went out in Memphis by herself - things of that nature. Great school, great clinic all around, but yikes I don't know about living in Memphis!
Arizona seems really nice. Although they are a newer school, I was really impressed with their clinic and campus in general. After speaking to a few of their students however, I am not so convinced. The students told me (both 3rd years) that they are sometimes "unhappy with patient encounters". They said that (sometimes) they feel like they do not get to see enough patients per week. In other words, these students felt like the school hadn't been giving them the proper patient numbers (with and or without disease) that they had wished to see. Scary because they are a newer school, might not provide as enhanced of a clinical setting when compared to SCO -who has been around for decades and everybody in Memphis knows about the Eye Center.
Florida is still undecided on my end. I haven't been to the interview yet and I only can go by what I have heard from other people. I have heard that it is a great school by some, while I have heard otherwise from some too. A few students at SCO have told me that their 4th year friends had externships with some NOVA students, and the NOVA students were really underprepared when it came to clinical skills. They said it seemed like everyday SCO students were training the NOVA students on what to do and how to do it. I have even heard that NOVA was unaccredited just a few years back - which really scares me! The thought of investing all that money and not even being clinically adept seems....like a waste of time to me. But then again, these were SCO students talking about NOVA students - could be a little rivalry going on here.
I basically told all of the information above to my mentor Optometrist. She told me to not worry about the clinical side as much, because thats what the externship sites are for. She said that no matter what I'd be a good doctor wherever I chose to go, and that the most important things were cost, and whether or not they have good externship sites to further your understanding in a real-world setting. Does everyone else agree with her, or do you guys think that you should really put an emphasis on the school who will train you the best clinically?
I just wanted to start by saying the things I am looking for in an Optometry school are: Clinical Experience, Cost, Safety (at the school and in the city in which I will be living), availability of externship sites, and lastly fun outdoor nature activities to do!
With that being said, I was accepted into Midwestern and SCO, while still awaiting an interview at NOVA on the 19th of December.
My heart tells me to go to SCO, it seems like the best clinical experience around because their students see so many patients, many with diabetes or ARMD etc. Also, Memphis is a really cheap area to live in. Of course it can never be that easy though - my brain is telling me to stray away from Memphis. I know for a fact Memphis has got a good heart to it with genuinely polite people, but to be brutally honest I did not feel safe at the school! It was like a mugging waiting to happen outside of those doors, good thing they've got a security guard at the school. Still though, that leaves me to wonder about things like: would I feel comfortable if my girlfriend went out in Memphis by herself - things of that nature. Great school, great clinic all around, but yikes I don't know about living in Memphis!
Arizona seems really nice. Although they are a newer school, I was really impressed with their clinic and campus in general. After speaking to a few of their students however, I am not so convinced. The students told me (both 3rd years) that they are sometimes "unhappy with patient encounters". They said that (sometimes) they feel like they do not get to see enough patients per week. In other words, these students felt like the school hadn't been giving them the proper patient numbers (with and or without disease) that they had wished to see. Scary because they are a newer school, might not provide as enhanced of a clinical setting when compared to SCO -who has been around for decades and everybody in Memphis knows about the Eye Center.
Florida is still undecided on my end. I haven't been to the interview yet and I only can go by what I have heard from other people. I have heard that it is a great school by some, while I have heard otherwise from some too. A few students at SCO have told me that their 4th year friends had externships with some NOVA students, and the NOVA students were really underprepared when it came to clinical skills. They said it seemed like everyday SCO students were training the NOVA students on what to do and how to do it. I have even heard that NOVA was unaccredited just a few years back - which really scares me! The thought of investing all that money and not even being clinically adept seems....like a waste of time to me. But then again, these were SCO students talking about NOVA students - could be a little rivalry going on here.
I basically told all of the information above to my mentor Optometrist. She told me to not worry about the clinical side as much, because thats what the externship sites are for. She said that no matter what I'd be a good doctor wherever I chose to go, and that the most important things were cost, and whether or not they have good externship sites to further your understanding in a real-world setting. Does everyone else agree with her, or do you guys think that you should really put an emphasis on the school who will train you the best clinically?
