Seeking your advice!

[MCATism]

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Hey SDN! I'm a fourth year student from Canada and I have (after a long flirtation with the idea of medical school) decided to apply to Optometry - my mom is an optometrist and i've realized how awesome her job is. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

I'm hoping to apply to U.S. schools. UCB was my dream school for undergrad but I couldn't afford it, so I would love to be able to do my grad studies there.

My background is in psychology and computer science (GPA 3.7), and I'm at one of Canada's better schools but I'm running out of money because the cost of living in my city is crazy. I am hoping to move back in with my parents next year and commute to the local (significantly lower-ranked, 4-year) university to finish my prerequisites. Do you think that admissions committees will hold this against me?

Also, regarding prerequisites, I will still have a semester's worth of them left when I apply, if I decide to apply next year - in your experience, are schools comfortable with offering interviews to applicants who are missing 4 or 5 prerequisites still?

Finally, is it okay that my experience is in my mom's office? It's a pretty obvious path to work for her rather than a stranger (I worked there long before I realized how perfect optometry is for me), but I'm wondering if that's "too close to the family."

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[opto89]

Hey SDN! I'm a fourth year student from Canada and I have (after a long flirtation with the idea of medical school) decided to apply to Optometry - my mom is an optometrist and i've realized how awesome her job is. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

I'm hoping to apply to U.S. schools. UCB was my dream school for undergrad but I couldn't afford it, so I would love to be able to do my grad studies there.

My background is in psychology and computer science (GPA 3.7), and I'm at one of Canada's better schools but I'm running out of money because the cost of living in my city is crazy. I am hoping to move back in with my parents next year and commute to the local (significantly lower-ranked, 4-year) university to finish my prerequisites. Do you think that admissions committees will hold this against me?

Also, regarding prerequisites, I will still have a semester's worth of them left when I apply, if I decide to apply next year - in your experience, are schools comfortable with offering interviews to applicants who are missing 4 or 5 prerequisites still?

Finally, is it okay that my experience is in my mom's office? It's a pretty obvious path to work for her rather than a stranger (I worked there long before I realized how perfect optometry is for me), but I'm wondering if that's "too close to the family."

Thoughts? Thanks!

As far as the missing prerequisites go, I was accepted while still missing 3 prereqs. 4 or 5 however may be a little much and you may want to consider going to summer school to catch up a little bit.

Experience with your mom is great, however they really like varied experiences so maybe in additional to your opportunity try to shadow with a practice that is very different from your moms or maybe shadow an ophthalmologist and observe some cataract surgeries.

 

[MCATism]

Thanks for your advice! Looking into summer school is a good idea, and shadowing an ophthalmologist is something I never had considered before now.