Starting Optometry School as a Back Up in September

[g1192]

I'm starting on my med school secondary applications, and some of them require me to report what I'll be doing from September 2011 to Summer 2012. I will be starting optometry school in September. Do you think this will affect my chances? I have been interested in medicine but I completed my optometry school prerequisites in undergrad to help me with a back up plan. Last year I applied to both optometry and medicine and I was waitlisted for medicine. This year I want to try again for medicine, but I would like to start on my back up plan. Would this be looked down upon?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

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[startswithb]

This is a terrible, terrible idea.

1. Yes it will look bad. It shows little to no committment to medicine.
2. You are actually required by most schools to complete whatever program you are currently in before starting at their school.
3. It is a huge waste of (loan) money. You do have to pay that back, you know.
4. You won't have time to take off for interviews most likely.
5. It really just looks bad and it won't logistically work.

Exhaust all options for med school if that's where you want to go. If you want to be an optometrist, go to optometry school.

 

[Geekchick921]

This seems like a terrible idea. I think I would toss your app out if I saw you had just started optometry school, but that's JM(non-adcom member)O. If you DO get accepted this cycle, you'll be incurring a lot of unnecessary debt and taking a spot from someone who DOES actually want to be an optometrist.

You're what? In your early 20s? What's the freakin' rush?

 

[flatearth22]

This is a brilliant idea OP. Even more brilliant than the guy who re-applied to MD schools during his first year of DO school. I think I'm going to follow your lead and start Chiropractic school in the fall and continue it as a backup if I don't get in anywhere else.

 

[Catalystik]

Maybe you could defer your optometry matriculation for a year as a new backup plan.

 

[Web MD]

It's pretty much like what everyone else has said, schools will want you to complete optometry school before applying, and it will raise a red flag about commitment. You pretty much need to decide whether you want to do optometry or medicine. Both are good options, good luck

 

[g1192]

Thanks for the replies! Got to do some thinking now.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Terrible idea for the reasons already stated.

But if I were you I would just go to optometry school and forget medicine. It's a perfectly respectable field, well paying, good hours, less overall debt, and you still get to work directly with patients and preventative health.

 

[FutureDr8429033]

This is a brilliant idea OP. Even more brilliant than the guy who re-applied to MD schools during his first year of DO school. I think I'm going to follow your lead and start Chiropractic school in the fall and continue it as a backup if I don't get in anywhere else.

Good luck getting into Chiro school if you're Asian. You'll probably have to settle for acupuncture school.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, relax.

 

[bassvp]

Go for it! OD=DO=MD

 

[patel2]

aside from the fact this is a terrible idea, optometry as a profession is getting dominated by walmart, lenscrafters, 1800-contacts, and every market is quite saturated unless you wanted to live in a rural place. So the days of 40 hour weeks and a solid 100K are very much over for them. It is increasingly hard to make money in the profession, and even harder to open up a succesful solo practice...just surf through the boards on sdn, it seems far worse than the problems medicine faces, both financially and in terms of job satisfaction