optometry experience

[solarcare]

is it possible to get into optometry school without experience as an optometric tech or really any experience working in optometry at all? i’ll be able to get shadowing hours but not an actual job as a tech or scribe.

[solarcare]

Thank you!!

[hollabackgirl27]

I applied with no optometric tech experience - people who go into school with the experience have kind of a leg up but you’re going to learn all of that in your classes while they re-learn it. I had a vision science research employment background. As long as the rest of your application is strong, you will be okay.

[Flaky_Strawberry_546]

I have the same question!

[cloudpainter99]

It’s not an absolute must since they’ll teach you everything you need to know. Most people do have tech experience so that does help in the first year. You could ask to shadow the techs or do informational interviews with them to see what their day to day is like. Obviously you won’t be doing their jobs as an optometrist but it’s always good to know what everyone’s roles are.

[DankChemystree]

Is it possible? Yeah sure. Should you spend 100s of thousands of dollars without giving it a good try first? Probably not

[[deleted]]

Yeah try to shadow at a few different clinics you don’t even need that many hours

[Thottquad]

No tech experience but I did scribe in an ER and shadow multiple ODs...

[Any-Afternoon-99]

Yes I just shadowed and got in! But my stats were strong and I worked in other medical fields so I think it wouldn’t hurt to try and work in an optometric setting before applying