The Journey from a Pre-Optometry Student to an Optometry Student
By: Matt Geller
When a student has an idea that Optometry is the career they would like to pursue, were do they go from here? The subject certainly lacks information which in its own right is a positive thing, forcing students to be creative, to ask more questions and to try harder to achieve the answers. Yet often times the lack of information on the subject of pre-optometry turns away bright and ambitions students from entering the field.
During undergraduate college, a student has a very fuzzy idea of what optometry school will be like. Typically most students know 3 things.
1. Optometry school will be hard.
2. Optometry school will focus on eyes for the most part.
3. Optometry school will cost lots of money.
There are too many students who have no idea where what they are doing with their life because there is a massive lack of information to answer their questions. Simply put, the goal of OptometryStudents.com is to expand the minds of upcoming optometrists resulting in an increase of knowledge and a thorough understanding of eye care and all that comes with the career of optometry.
This website will be the #1 source of information for undergraduate optometry students and graduate optometry students so keep a close watch as it evolves over the years to come. The website will be updated on a daily basis with facts, figures, creative ideas, news, educational lessons and loads more. The keystone of the site will be a live feed describing the day-to-day grind that a SUNY Optometry College freshman student goes through.
With all of this valuable information about Optometry, students will find it much easier to transition into different phases of their life whether it is the undergraduate to the graduate level, or the graduate to professional level. There is no doubt about it; the more information one knows regarding a specific field, the more wisdom, value and creativity they can bring to the table to benefit themselves and others.
Bookmark OptometryStudents.com now and check back ASAP for valuable updates.
Welcome to the family!
Sincerely,
Matthew Geller
SUNY 2013
I think the website is an innovating idea and will definitely be a guide for many students as myself, who are trying to enter the competitive optometry field. Will bookmark this page and I’m excited to read more on the perspective of the day to day life of an optometry student.
P.S. Luv the idea and the picture!
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Hi Angelica, we are all glad you like the website. Definitely stay tuned because we have SOOO much planned.
If you have any specific questions just drop us a line!
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I was very glad that I came across this website. I know that I’ll need all the help that I can get to get into optometry school and I’m excited to learn more about vision care and the career of optometry. I feel this website will help me prepare for optometry school. Thanks for making this.
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Hello, I am 32 years man and the father of a four year old little girl. Though I did attend a university, my credits are no longer good and I would need to start over on my BA if I wanted to go forward with optometry. Years ago I left college to start a successful business that has treated me and my family very well over that past 10 years but the industry crashed with the economy and now I am back to the drawing board. I have some optic experience managing a large optical store several years back. I helped out with some of the preliminary testing and customer charts for the OD and really enjoyed doing that type of work for the most part. Most importantly, I want to continue providing for my family with a stable job that is not a sales job. I currently make just under six figures and hate sales. My first question is this, is it possible to make 70-90K a year as an optometrist working 40 hours a week or less? Secondly, has anyone been in my position and started later in life and what were the experiences? I want to make the best decision for my family and get into a career that will not require 70 hours a week as a 55 year old man to make a decent living. It seems that as an OD, age does not make as much difference allowing a person to remain working much later in life than many other career choices. I would appreciate advice from anyone that has been in a similar situation. Thanks you in advance for your time!
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John Reply:
January 6th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
@David, I think you should go for it! I don’t have to much experience or know many in your situation but I think you can be successful.
My overall advice is that you should get into Optometry only if you desire to be an optometrist, treat patients and give back to your profession in a positive way.
You should get into optometry if you have a passion for eye care… Any other reason will leave you dissapointed and unfulfilled. To many people want to be “punch the clock” eye doctors and that doesn’t work too well in Optometry. They do it for the money and the hours and that is not the type of person that Optometry needs and hence the profession suffers.
I suggest you read more articles here on the website and try to distinguish if you want to pursue eye care or if you are just resorting to optometry to pay the bills. If you find that you are very interested in eye care and are willing to be a leader in your profession then I suggest you go for it because you will be VERY happy in the end. Getting into it for any other reason will be a big waste of your time and money.
All the best,
Matt
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I am currently a neuroscience student at Temple University and I am interested in applying to Optometry school, but I have read different requirements for each school. As far as the natural sciences my major only required chemistry (2 semesters) and Biology (1 semester) and then we have other courses like cellular and molecular neuroscience which might fall along the lines of molecular biology. Math courses required are as high as College Algebra. I am taking 2 semesters of physics since there is a section completely devoted to it on the OATs. What would be the basic requirements that I could get by when applying to any school?
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