What Should I Do Until Summer '18?

[WhyNeedAName]

Hi! I am a rising Junior at Nova Southeastern University and I really want to go to their optometry school (Only one in FL!)
I want to make myself a competitive applicant since they only can take 100 people, but with a 2.9GPA, it's kinda hard .
I had over 100hrs of shadowing an Optometrist in high school and I'm actually a Certified Para-optometric assistant (so I can work at an optometry clinic if I have time). I'd also done my senior year research in something optometry-related, and NSU was nice enough to help me then. I also volunteered at a health clinic back then and got over 250 service hours. The thing with all of that is that they were all done when I was in high school, so idk if they'll accept the hours next summer.
The only shadowing I got in college so far was this summer. I did SHPEP at UAB and got 10hrs shadowing at their optometry clinic and 3hrs in their ER hospital.
Ok, this coming year, idk if I should work more on shadowing again or should I focus on a clinical-based research to show competitiveness. I would do both, but I need time to study for the OAT to do amazing on it.

Any ideas/suggestions?
Thank you, and sorry for making this long

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[evorage]

Work on your gpa and study for your oat. The shadowing and research are great but they are going to look at your gpa and Oat first to see if you are competitive enough for an interview.
Getting in with a 2.9 gpa is hard but it's not impossible.

 

[WhyNeedAName]

Work on your gpa and study for your oat. The shawdowing and research are great but they are going to look at your gpa and Oat first to see if you are competitive enough for an interview.
Getting in with a 2.9 gpa is hard but it's not impossible.

Thank you!

 

[car guy doc]

Work on your gpa and study for your oat. The shadowing and research are great but they are going to look at your gpa and Oat first to see if you are competitive enough for an interview.
Getting in with a 2.9 gpa is hard but it's not impossible.

a

I agree, try to shadow a few different practice settings (10+ hrs per location), and maybe even an ophthalmologist to make sure that you for sure want to do optometry and so that you can talk about the differences in interviews. Other than that, try to kill it with your grades this year, and knock the OAT out of the park and you should be good.