Should I at least TRY for this cycle...?

[Healthnutty]

So... I graduate in May, and I have been going back and forth on whether or not to apply this cycle to NOVA (application deadline is April 1st...and YES it is the only school I plan to attend...for various reasons). I started my OptomCAS app during the summer, so much of it is complete. I still need to send in an updated transcript, and I need to complete my main essay. Two of my LORs are in, and I can get my other two soon (all very solid). The main issue....is that I still have not taken the OAT. THIS is honestly the reason there has been such a delay/hesitancy in my application! Should I at least go ahead and send out my application, and then I can try and study for the OAT as much as I can...then just take it?? Many of my professors are telling me that I am just freaking myself out and just need to DO IT! Please share any thoughts/advice..

My stats and other related info:
FL Resident
GPA: 3.4
Bio, Chem, and Phys GPA: 3.3
OAT: still need to take and have not studied yet

Opto Related:
Unite For Sight: 2 wk international trip, ALL opto/opht related
- collected ~2000 glasses & $1500
International Lions Club Member (~2 yrs)- help with free eye screenings
Worked as an Opt technician (1 1/2)
Undergrad Stud Research on Cls
- will be presenting a poster twice this semester
Shadowed optometrists (of course)

Leadership:
President of the Biology Honor Club, VP year before
TA Microbiology for Biology majors
Student Orientation Leader (summer after fresh yr): gave tours, helped with planning/setting up events for incoming students, and led small group activities

Community:
Mexico Health Professions trip- visited/observed hospitals during spring break
Tutored at an inner city public middle school (once a week for one semester)
Plus some various volunteer activities through school clubs

Awards:
Outstanding Freshman
Random Scholarship (1)
President's Honors List/Dean's List
Nominated for the University Regents Award

And I think that should be it...

So, of course, the more I think about it...the more time that is wasted. A decision just needs to be made! Any advice would be lovely. And yes, I realize that with my stats my chances would have increased if I applied earlier! Thanks so much in advance for any advice!!

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[DawgOD]

the time u spent writing this thread, you could have finished ur essay. lol.

Go for it.. U don't need our say so or opinion. You have experience. It's all up to you though if money is an issue.

 

[OD4eyes]

I would apply but I hate to say this ... first come first serve!
You are a very strong applicant but NOVA is based on rolling admissions. Register right away for the OAT and study now!!!!!
Your chances of getting in so late in the game are slim but not impossible if you have strong OAT scores.

I am not 100% but I think NOVA will only offer you an invite once you take your OAT. Good Luck!

 

[Mewcakes]

At this point in time, I would schedule the OAT for sometime in the next few weeks (don't wait for the last week of March...), crash study for the topics you're week in and just take it. Your Bio background will carry you through the bio part (as it did a 380 for me), so I wouldn't spend very much time there. The rest of what you study is going to depend on where your weaknesses are. For me they were Ochem/Physics, so I had to spend a lot of my time cramming on that and little time with Bio, QR, RC and gchem. Make a strategy and then stick with it. Keep really focused and just stay the course.

Don't psyche yourself out, it's generally not as bad as you think. Due to my lazy-ass-ness, I pretty much studied for like...2 weeks before each OAT because I kept being scared and found other things to do other than study. If I studied a bit harder, I could've gotten AWESOME scores, but I ended up with just good scores. So just focus your studies on your problem areas and your education will carry you the rest of the way. Don't wait another minute. Get to it!

 

[Healthnutty]

Thanks so much DawgOD, OD4eyes, and Mewcakes for your response. DawgOD, believe it or not, writing this thread took way less time to write than it would have if I tried to write a few sentences in my essay haha... surprising how hard it is to write "the essay."

About me needing to make a decision... Well, I think I have made up my mind. Although you all are encouraging me to try and apply, I have decided to wait. Yes, it has only been a few hours since I posted, but I have been debating on this for many months now. I also have been debating about starting a thread about my 'dilemma', so when I finally did hahah looks like it pushed/helped me make a decision. Please do not think it usually takes me this much time and energy to make a decision about everything in life because this is not true.

So... looks like I will be sending my app out ASAP this summer to apply for the next cycle. I will now also be able to properly plan out my OAT studying and feel confident about taking it.

Do you have any suggestions about what I should do during my year off (besides getting my app out ASAP)? Any suggestions on how to improve areas of weakness? I will obviously need to be getting a job...something opto related (and still make the most money-that i can) maybe in research, as an opt tech, or even optician. What do you think??

Thanks again so much for responding.... If i dont get too many responses, I will prob copy/paste my stats and new questions as a new thread. THANKS!

 

[lovelydisaster]

You could work at an opto related place for a little bit, and then you could even get a job non opto related if you'd like. You'll be doing optometry for the rest of your life so I think it's important to go ahead and do something you like before you can't anymore. Good luck and I'm glad you made a decision you're comfortable with!

 

[Mewcakes]

An opto related job is a must if you're serious. Because I promise you they will ask you (as they asked me) why the wait? Why didn't you apply last year? What have you been doing? I recommend trying a different mode of practice than what your shadow work was. Opticianry is kinda tricky sometimes but it's not hard to learn.

I started at private practice and was queen of my office and then I left for Lenscrafters. I'm labeled as an apprentice optician due to my lack of aboc, but I get along great without any help and I make commission.

Most places, even LC, will help train you of necessary. But ya. Really get out and see something different then what you have before. Including the optician side. Cuz I've def had doctors that can't adjust glasses if their life depended on it, so it's important to know for later too.

 

[Healthnutty]

An opto related job is a must if you're serious. Because I promise you they will ask you (as they asked me) why the wait? Why didn't you apply last year? What have you been doing? I recommend trying a different mode of practice than what your shadow work was. Opticianry is kinda tricky sometimes but it's not hard to learn.

I started at private practice and was queen of my office and then I left for Lenscrafters. I'm labeled as an apprentice optician due to my lack of aboc, but I get along great without any help and I make commission.

Most places, even LC, will help train you of necessary. But ya. Really get out and see something different then what you have before. Including the optician side. Cuz I've def had doctors that can't adjust glasses if their life depended on it, so it's important to know for later too.

Hopefully you dont mind me asking, but why did you take a year off?
Good point about trying a different mode of practice. What I like about being an opt tech (which i did in a private practice) is that I work right alongside the dr. I may not physically work next to the dr, but by performing all the pretests, additional tests, and seeing the results, I get an idea of how the they deal with the different patients and their cases.

I do think it would be neat to try something different though, like being an optician. I know you typically work on commission, but overall is the pay more or less than an opt tech? Also, do you enjoy being an optician?

One optometrist that I spoke to suggested that I work at the front desk that way I can learn about insurance and coding. She commented that insurance/billing was the one thing that she felt opt school didnt totally prepare her for, and she said that she wished they taught more about the topic. Now she graduated from optometry school probably 15 yrs ago, so things may be quite different now, and of course, that was only her opinion.

 

[Healthnutty]

You could work at an opto related place for a little bit, and then you could even get a job non opto related if you'd like. You'll be doing optometry for the rest of your life so I think it's important to go ahead and do something you like before you can't anymore. Good luck and I'm glad you made a decision you're comfortable with!

Thanks

 

[Mewcakes]

In order to attend OD school right after undergrad, I would have had to take the OAT in summer 2008 or earlier and then fill out apps summer/fall 2008. And quite honestly I was scared ****less about the OAT, I thought I was going to have to study 3 months solid without school/work in order to just get like...a 300. But summer 2008 is about when I started up an internship again (after 2 yrs focusing on school work) and got to talk with other pre-od students and they totally dispelled a lot of my fears about the OAT. So I signed up for the Kaplan class in Jan 2009, studied kinda lightly for the month of April and sat for my first OAT in May 2009.

OptomCAS was released July 2009 so I jumped on that and my apps went out October 2009. I decided to take the OAT a 2nd time in Nov 2009 and did quite a bit better than in May.

I was definitely not ready to take the OAT in 2008; I wasn't studied nor was I prepared to do applications at that time, I was still trying to finish my BS in Genetics alongside the OD prereqs. So I finished out my BS/prereqs first, studied for the OAT, felt like I could write good essays during the summer/fall since I was only working/OAT studying. In summer 2008, I also felt I couldn't put forward a strong application. My shadow work was only at about 200 hrs in 2 private practices and only a handful of extracurrics. Despite my low GPA and OK OAT, I think it's my shadow/optometry experience that makes my application truly competitive. So to have applied in 2008 would have driven me mad, I probably would have sacrificed grades due to the stress and i probably wouldn't have gotten in anywhere!

I spent the extra time learning a lot more about being an optician (and remembering why I don't want to be an optician forever...) and about being a doctor and was reminded of how much I want this. My extra year was spent ENTIRELY in optometry though, private practice and LC. So I feel that without this experience, I might not feel the same way or know as much about optometry as I do now. I matured a lot during this time and while I didn't feel I was ready a year ago, I'm definitely ready now. I think it's preferable to apply/go when you're ready as opposed to trying to do stuff ASAP. It's quite possible that I would have been very miserable if I went before I was ready. So sorry for the long post, but you asked me why and here it is!

 

[Healthnutty]

In order to attend OD school right after undergrad, I would have had to take the OAT in summer 2008 or earlier and then fill out apps summer/fall 2008. And quite honestly I was scared ****less about the OAT, I thought I was going to have to study 3 months solid without school/work in order to just get like...a 300. But summer 2008 is about when I started up an internship again (after 2 yrs focusing on school work) and got to talk with other pre-od students and they totally dispelled a lot of my fears about the OAT. So I signed up for the Kaplan class in Jan 2009, studied kinda lightly for the month of April and sat for my first OAT in May 2009.

OptomCAS was released July 2009 so I jumped on that and my apps went out October 2009. I decided to take the OAT a 2nd time in Nov 2009 and did quite a bit better than in May.

I was definitely not ready to take the OAT in 2008; I wasn't studied nor was I prepared to do applications at that time, I was still trying to finish my BS in Genetics alongside the OD prereqs. So I finished out my BS/prereqs first, studied for the OAT, felt like I could write good essays during the summer/fall since I was only working/OAT studying. In summer 2008, I also felt I couldn't put forward a strong application. My shadow work was only at about 200 hrs in 2 private practices and only a handful of extracurrics. Despite my low GPA and OK OAT, I think it's my shadow/optometry experience that makes my application truly competitive. So to have applied in 2008 would have driven me mad, I probably would have sacrificed grades due to the stress and i probably wouldn't have gotten in anywhere!

I spent the extra time learning a lot more about being an optician (and remembering why I don't want to be an optician forever...) and about being a doctor and was reminded of how much I want this. My extra year was spent ENTIRELY in optometry though, private practice and LC. So I feel that without this experience, I might not feel the same way or know as much about optometry as I do now. I matured a lot during this time and while I didn't feel I was ready a year ago, I'm definitely ready now. I think it's preferable to apply/go when you're ready as opposed to trying to do stuff ASAP. It's quite possible that I would have been very miserable if I went before I was ready. So sorry for the long post, but you asked me why and here it is!

Thanks for sharing! I kinda feel like you summed up how I am feeling, too. So, how did the application process go?? Did you get any interviews/acceptances to schools that you applied to? Glad it is all working out for you!

 

[lnh]

Hey Healthnutty, don't worry about the OAT. I was worried about it too until I saw the ASCO sample test. Not that bad at all. I did almost the exact same thing as Mewcakes. I freaked out and gave myself too much time to focus on it. Turns out I only got in maybe 2 good weeks, but I did just fine. Not stellar, but good enough (350TS/340AA). I didn't study for Bio (bio degree carried me), and just brushed up on my weak spots.

If you're set on getting an optican job, you might have trouble finding a private practice willing to take you without some experience. If that is the case (and only in this case would I do this), I recommend starting with LensCrafters. As much as I rag on LC, they were willing to train me from an entry level and they were more flexible with my student schedule. Try to find one of the larger stores with many opticians. Larger stores will be more flexible with scheduling, and unless you get lucky and find an "eyewear consultant" like Mewcakes, most of them will be useless for optical knowledge. I did not know about this when I started, so I was very fortunate that the location I chose had many experienced and certified opticians that helped train me. I learned a lot and was ABOC in no time. As soon as you feel comfortable, get out of there and try to find a PP to expand your experience. You definitely do not want to stick around there too long. It will drain your soul.

 

[Mewcakes]

Yeah, the stress to sell is really heavy and can be overwhelming if you're not confident in your ability/knowledge about lenses. I recommend trying to start in private practice just because there's not as much pressure to sell. When you get really confident you can move to LC and make some extra money in commission.