Thinking about Nova?

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If you are thinking about NOVA and have specific questions for a 4th year Nova student feel free to drop me a line.

 

[subedude]

hey..NOVA is actually my first choice and I'm interviewing there on the 26th...but ya, I have a few questions (there may be more to come lol)

1) What are the hardest 1st year courses (my biochem knowledge isn't that great)
2) Is it hard to do things outside of school during the week...im mainly concerned with exercising and stuff like that
3) What are the professors like?
4) Is the transition from undergrad to NOVA Optometry overwhelming?
5) I hear a good amount of people fail..is this true?

Thanks in advance for all your help!! If I think of more questions I'll post..

 

[vsarge0708]

hey..NOVA is actually my first choice and I'm interviewing there on the 26th...but ya, I have a few questions (there may be more to come lol)

1) What are the hardest 1st year courses (my biochem knowledge isn't that great)
2) Is it hard to do things outside of school during the week...im mainly concerned with exercising and stuff like that
3) What are the professors like?
4) Is the transition from undergrad to NOVA Optometry overwhelming?
5) I hear a good amount of people fail..is this true?

Thanks in advance for all your help!! If I think of more questions I'll post..

I'm a second year at Nova so I could probably help you out with most of these:
1. The hardest courses for first year will depend on you. Some students say gross anatomy is the toughest, others say biochem, and yet others would argue that optics is/was the toughest. Our gross anatomy course was more intense then it needed to be, but Nova has re-structured the course this year and the grades seem to be drastically higher than when I was a first year. Nova just made biochemistry a mandatory pre-req this past year so biochem shouldn't be to tough. I didn't have biochem in undergrad and still ended up with a B in the course--it wasn't that bad. Optics is relative, you either get it or you don't--I found it to be one of the easier courses during first year.
2. I currently work 12 hours a week and I'm only starting to feel the squeeze. Last year I was at the gym probably 3 nights a week. This year I try to play Halo 3 a minimum of 12 hours a day. It's def. possible to do things outside of school.
3. Most professors are very approachable and helpful.
4. I expected the transition to be much tougher. More importantly than the transition I feel is the state of mind--you have to want to do optometry school or else this can lead to #5. It's 20+ credits per semester--prepare yourself for it.
5. We lost 20 students; however, more than half came back in this years entering class. Admin did say they were actively trying to reduce the attrition rate. This is fairly evident when comparing gross anatomy courses from my class to the current first years class.

 

[subedude]

nice, thanks for your help..I'll keep all of that in mind..I definitely know this is what I want to do..I'm really motivated so hopefully that'll help..thanks again..o and by the way..halo 3 is great..i play all the time too lol