Well as far as questions go, surely you can do better than "how was school?". What do you want to know???
Why not post a list of a six questions you are thinking of asking and I'll give you a few that you should ask.
So, I sat down this afternoon and typed a response to this ( a lengthy one) only for it to freeze up and not post my response. So, with that being said, I'm not only going to try again, but I'm going to save it before I hit "submit". As far as questions I have, most of them are more "social" questions. I haven't made many posts on SDN, but what few I have seem to carry a common theme. "I'm married, we have a baby, how will Op school affect us?" Before I write out several questions that I would like to not only ask the OD I'm shadowing, but also to any OD's that view this forum, I'd like to ask you, KHE, for your personal opinion on a financial matter. (Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you what you make.) So, I run a tool and die (run, not own) and I do very well for myself to not have a degree. I only say that to emphasize that I'm not interested in this profession for the money, I truly am interested in the field. My concern is, how will I manage our money when I have to quit and move to another state. My plan was to, instead of selling our house, lease it out. We live in a college town, and houses in our subdivision actually rent for $300-$400 more than our mortgage payment. I thought I could keep a steady renter in it at all times, continue to build equity and we'd still have a house to come back to after 4 years without skipping a payment (and building a little cushion.) Where I run into a problem is my 401K. I've thought of several options, but most of them don't include rolling it over into an IRA. I thought I could cash it out and use it to pay off my undergrad. I considered using it to pay for our housing the four years we're away, and I also thought about sitting on it, just in case, and using it for emergencies (medical, car, etc.) I know that, despite it's expense, I want to purchase health insurance while we're away, and that's another option. My question is, what's your opinion? What would you do? Roll it over or cash it out and utilize it? Both of our vehicles will be paid for within the year, we don't have any credit cards, and if things in the market stay the way they are right now (bleak) then I'm looking at clearing somewhere around $45,000-$50,000 after taxes and penalties on my 401k. I want to live as comfortably as we possibly can without digging ourselves deep into debt. So, there's that. I guess the rest of my questions would be along the lines of .....
What did you expect going into op school, and how close was reality to that?
Were you married while you were in Op school, and if so, did it affect your relationship?
What was an average day like in each of the four years you were in school?
What would you have done differently having been through the process and knowing what you know now?
Why did you decide on Optometry, and did you consider any other professions?
Advice on opening a private practice? Do you think that one should work in a commercial setting before stepping out on their own?
What are the pro's and con's of working in a commercial setting? Private practice?
Why did you choose the school that you attended (what made it more appealing than the others?)
Has the career been as rewarding as you expected? How does the "real world" differ from what you envisioned during school?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
So, that's a few of them. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated, and thank you for taking the time out of your day to encourage those of us that aspire to be in your shoes one day....and for not sugar-coating it.
