Struggling with application process, can someone help?

[PreOptometryKid]

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Hi I am pretty disorganized with my application right now so I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice.

If I take the OAT in January and most deadlines are beginning March (am I correct on this?), would it be better to apply for Fall 2012? or should I try for both Fall 2011 and 2012?

I was wondering which schools accept applicants from MA. I know that a couple of schools in the Midwest only take applicants from certain states so I was wondering if anyone could tell me which schools are like that.

Also does anyone have a link to where the practice exam is located on the ASCO site?

And in terms of schools, which ones are middle of the pack and lower tier? I don't think I will be competitive with the higher end schools so I was looking for recommendations of where to apply to.

Thanks!

 

[JMU07]

As far as I know, the Oklahoma school is the only one that only accepts students from the states surrounding it.. I want to say only 9 states are accepted but I could be wrong.

There's no "ranking" of optometry schools. Apply to those schools that you are interested in, not the ones you think you have a shot at. You're going to hate your life if you end up somewhere that you don't enjoy.

If you have a strong app, apply for 2011! You can apply before taking the OAT, you know. good luck!

 

[kiwi5frog]

Here's the link to look at accepted student stats from 2009-10. You can isolate schools with lower averages if you are shooting for a less competitive program.

http://www.opted.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3344

Here's the practice from asco

https://www.ada.org/oat/oat_sample_test.pdf

 

[PreOptometryKid]

Ok cool thanks for those links kiwi5frog, that was really useful.

JMU07, do you know if all schools will let you apply before submitting your score? Also my app isn't as strong as I'd like, so a good OAT score will be important for me. Still need to write my essays too, I'm kind of cramming everything right now into the next three months...

Also are there supplemental apps/essays that go along with the optomcas app as well or is it just the optomcas electronic app?

 

[Mewcakes]

Some schools may wait to receive your OAT score before granting/denying you an interview. But some schools might look at your application (even without the OAT score) and if they decide that no OAT score would satisfy them, then they'll turn you down before the submission of your scores. So whether or not you think that can be used to your advantage is up to you.

Some of the schools have supplemental essays, some of them only have supplemental fees and a few multiple choice questions, some have nothing at all. I recommend opening up an optomCAS account and at least getting some of the preliminary stuff out of the way like grades and the few supplemental essays that are offered through optomCAS.

 

[PreOptometryKid]

Some schools may wait to receive your OAT score before granting/denying you an interview. But some schools might look at your application (even without the OAT score) and if they decide that no OAT score would satisfy them, then they'll turn you down before the submission of your scores. So whether or not you think that can be used to your advantage is up to you.

Some of the schools have supplemental essays, some of them only have supplemental fees and a few multiple choice questions, some have nothing at all. I recommend opening up an optomCAS account and at least getting some of the preliminary stuff out of the way like grades and the few supplemental essays that are offered through optomCAS.

OK so I started the optomcas account and filled out some basic stuff. So to enter the info for courses and gpa I need to send my transcript and they will do it for me right?

Also do all the supplemental essays show up as an option on the optomcas website only after you've submitted the app to the school?

Thanks so much guys, you've been a great help so far... kinda stressing out. Hopefully I will get my app in before the deadline but I do here that it's bad to submit close to the deadline...

 

[kiwi5frog]

OK so I started the optomcas account and filled out some basic stuff. So to enter the info for courses and gpa I need to send my transcript and they will do it for me right?

LOL. I am so sorry I had to laugh about that. I thought entering those courses were one of the biggest pain in the arse. No, they will not enter it. you enter it. have a transcript sent to optomcas, and after you finally hit "submit" they will "verify" your gpa and courses to make sure you entered it right.

Some schools have the supp essays in optomcas. some of them will email it to you after. some mail it to you. they are all different

 

[Mewcakes]

OK so I started the optomcas account and filled out some basic stuff. So to enter the info for courses and gpa I need to send my transcript and they will do it for me right?

Also do all the supplemental essays show up as an option on the optomcas website only after you've submitted the app to the school?

Thanks so much guys, you've been a great help so far... kinda stressing out. Hopefully I will get my app in before the deadline but I do here that it's bad to submit close to the deadline...

After you designate what schools you're interested in, IF they chose to receive their supplementals via OptomCAS, then they will appear under "essays". If not, then there is likely something on their (the school's) website that will explain what to do for the supplemental.

And yeah...go ahead and contact your school and have them send a transcript to OptomCAS and one to YOURSELF AS WELL. You will have to put in the classes yourself, but you will also have to match what it says on the transcript exactly. So even if you called in General Chemistry 2a and it says on the grades website of your school, if it says Gen Che 002a on your transcript, then that's exactly how you must write it.

As long as you get your apps in before February, I think you'll be fine. Just don't get lazy. ;-)