Optometry schools can only estimate how much success you will have in their institution by examining how you have done in the past.

Love it or hate it, your Grade Point Average tells the truth about how well you have done in school.

Now only your future self knows how well you will do in optometry school, and we all know that GPA does not perfectly reflect your effort and learning in previous classes. Regardless of the bad professors you’ve had or the difficulty of the university that you attended, those small numbers can have a huge impact on you getting into optometry school.

GPA IS WEIGHTED BASED ON YOUR SCHOOL:

The first, and usually biggest, impact on your GPA is where you attend college for your undergraduate studies. The same person that would get a 4.0 in community college would probably have less than a 4.0 at Harvard. Same quality of applicant, same doctor potential, different GPA.

Optometry schools know this and will give you the benefit of the doubt if you went to an Ivy League or some other 'harder' school. But this will likely not matter in most instances. Oregon State might be harder than U of O, or Whitworth might be harder than Gonzaga, but to most people (including the admission teams at the schools), the differences in those schools have little meaning and all they care about at the end of the day is the GPA they see on your application.

Scholarships, location, and family circumstances will probably dictate where you will go to undergrad, but if have not yet committed to a college, here is where the sweet-spot would be: the highest quality of education you can get, while still getting as close to a 4.0 as possible.

If you can barely get into a university, and know you will probably not get the best grades because of how competitive it is, it’s probably not the best idea to go there. Why? Because the end goal is not your education you receive at that university-- your goal is becoming an optometrist– and you want nothing to get in your way, especially your GPA.

Hidden perks also exist in undergraduate programs that partner with optometry schools. Each are worth looking into as they can have perks like graduating a year early, not needing to take to OAT, or even not needing to apply again. Make sure to contact the admissions team at the school before committing to a plan with this info, because slight changes might exist year to year. A list of said schools are in the infographic below.

Whatever school you end up going to, commit to it, and make the most of your GPA.

What is a 3+4 and 4+4 program?

Some colleges of optometry will partner up with undergraduate programs that they feel are reputable, and offer an accelerated track and a soft acceptance into their school when entering. A 3+4 will be 3 years of undergraduate study followed by the regular 4 years of optometry, and a 4+4 is the regular 4 years of udergrad followed by 4 years of optometry. I do not have personal experience with this, but if you are interested, I highly recommend reaching out to the programs on the graphic to ask about possibly enrolling in their 3+4/4+4 programs that they have available!

What is an accelerated program?

The 3+4 programs deal with a faster path through undergraduate studies, but the accelerated programs (currently at NECO and Salus), are 3 year optometry school programs. These optometry programs have more difficult requirements for acceptance, smaller classes, and are faster paced. You graduate in 3 years, with shorter breaks, more frequent examinations, and less clinical experience, but you get to become an optometrist a full year before your peers!

There is also a 2 year program available at NECO, but special requirements need to be met. Some examples are: already having a doctorate degree (if someone was a PhD or other doctor and wanted to switch careers), or being a practicing optometrist in a different country looking to get an OD in the US.

Of course, these accelerated programs are not for everybody, but they definitely need to be talked about more so that the right people can discover them and potentially enroll. Also, not every program required a traditional undergraduate bachelors degree for admission into their program, so keep that in mind as you are searching for undergraduate programs and optometry schools!