Two Questions pretaining to Pre-Optometry

[bchin88]

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Hey Everyone,

I'm currently a Junior at Rutgers University and I have always wanted to be an Optometrist. I'm currently majoring in psych with a 3.4gpa after switching from accounting.. (dont ask). But I'm majoring in psych with full intentions of fulfilling my pre-reqs and getting into optometry school. With that said.. my first question is that I want to graduate on time but at the same time I might not be able to take all the pre-reqs in time. My dream optometry school is SUNY. Does anyone here know whether SUNY prefers your classes to be taken at a private college over a community college? or is there no preference as long as your OATs are acceptable? I've taken Bio and Physics already but Chem I wanted to do during the summer. Any insights?

For question number two, I've already shadowed an Optometrist by my home for over 100 hours. However, I know that having more shadowing experience with different optometrists and specialists are favored over one major shadowing opportunity. I'm just confused with this because I spent a summer shadowing one. Should I be shadowing @ various places at different times? And how often should you shadow the same optometrist? Cause I've noticed people saying they've shadowed various optometrists but only once or twice. Feedback would be great.

THANKS GUYS !!

oh sorry for the typo in the intro topic.

 

[eheaps]

Best thing to do is call SUNY, explain your situation, and ask them how they would feel about chemistry at a community school. In regards to shadowing, it's always good to get various perspectives of the profession by shadowing different specialists and optometrist in different offices. You can also look into working as a technician, I did that as well as selling glasses for Lenscrafters and thought that helped me learn a lot from different angles of the profession. Good luck.

 

[bchin88]

what about how much you should shadow a particular optometrist? pretend im shadowing 3 optometrist... how many hours should I shadow for each of them before i decide i should go to another optometrist?

 

[eheaps]

I really couldn't tell you. I only shadowed 1 optometrist for one day other than the Drs that I worked for or with. I'm not really sure how many hours the last two add up to.

 

[WeeNinja]

i think SUNY does prefer some school over others, but just to be sure, i would (as eheaps said) call their admissions office. everyone's case is different!

wow, it's great that you have so many hours of experience with an optometrist. sounds like you have lots of good shadowing time. if you feel like you need, you can definitely strengthen your application by shadowing different optometrists and expanding your scope of the field. =)

 

[jc812]

I have no experience with SUNY, so I can't answer Q1.

I shadowed as many ODs as I could find out there willing to let me shadow. I spent about 2-3 days shadowing different ODs in different settings. After 2-3 days, things begin to become routine (part of the field anyway) so I don't know why you would want to do overkill- 100 hrs- with each OD. I feel that the schools want you to shadow them so that you understand what the profession entails. After shadowing about 5 ODs I felt that I knew a whole lot more about the different types of practices than I did when I only shadowed one.

When you are shadowing ODs, ask them questions and be interested in what they have to say. There's nothing worse than a bored shadow who is disinterested in the work the ODs are doing. The ODs that I shadowed had to email my OD school to let them know that I did indeed shadow- so make good impressions!