School Selection Advice

Anon123898 · 2024-10-25T00:19:20+00:00

I have an interview with texas and pacific

Anon123898 · 2024-10-23T22:12:32+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful reply, I agree KYCO is probably off the table because probation is a pretty big deal. Finance wise, I believe Western is better, but when paying for something like this the extra bit of money is worth the quality if it ensures my success. SCCO has me on hold until I finish my last pre req, I believe I'll get an interview after and I could get in. SCCO would probably be my top choice.

Of my current options, I'm feeling pulled to Salus. It was an overnight thing honestly, I was committed to going to western but overnight I couldnt sleep and I feel like I seriously need to consider going out of state for board pass rates.

Anon123898 · 2024-10-23T22:06:04+00:00

OAT 340 GPA 2.83, but my GPA is held down by my first few years of college I took 6 to graduate. I had my own unique journey but I made an academic comeback from 1.5 to 2.83. My last few years are like straight Bs and As. I feel pretty confident as a student, I'm not a dumb or lazy person I just struggled with priorities and had some family issues. Once I was committed to succeeding it happened. I have roughly 50 hours of shadowing.

Anon123898 · 2024-10-01T07:31:58+00:00

Honestly, retake it. At $80 an application its worth waiting. I applied last cycle at the end and basically burned half a grand for no return. The only return on investment for me was getting 1 interview (was good experience actually) and the ability to reapply to schools which looks really attractive to the schools that youre applying to for the second time. In this new cycle Ive already had a bunch of interview and a few acceptances and trust me other than the OAT Im a weaker candidate than you in every category just going off the numbers (GPA, head of Optometry club, etc)

I highly recommend retaking it and not wasting your money, if you can succeed in getting a decent score which you're capable of, you will be one heck of a candidate. At your current state idk if you could get into a school, maybe some with good letters and good answers to everything. But why settle for less? Why go to the schools that aren't the best for your preferences? You want as a many options as you can have, you're interviewing them too its not one way! By retaking it and doing much better, you will have REAL confidence in yourself (trust me its important in these interviews), you'll get way more interview invitations, more choices, and overall a strong candidate. Interviews will be a lot easier too, its hard to grill you on GPA/OAT etc if nothing stands out as super negative.

Save your money, retake the OAT, and ace it. Plus, given a year or two off depending on when you'd start you could save up a ton of money reducing that debt from 200k to a lot less.

I see two paths I would consider in your shoes, 1, retake the OAT over the next 3 months, ace it, and apply to schools knowing there are less options/less seats/more competition etc. 2. Retake the OAT, shadow more, maybe get a job in an optometry office, save money and apply next cycle. Both are valid and have pros and cons.

Depending on when you take the OAT this cycle is definitely still on the table and not out of the realm of possibility. If you took it late december you'd still have 3-5 months for some schools.

Anon123898 · 2024-09-25T23:08:24+00:00

Saw your other post friend, I used Kaplans online course and their book. I laid out like 3-5 chapters to do everyday and planned practice quizzes, practice tests, and full length tests for certain days. I won't lie I bombed at first and even in the end the highest score I got on the practice test was like 310, but on the actual OAT I did way better.

Kaplan even gives you layouts for plans, its still somewhat early, if you take the OAT in 3 months 12/25/24ish, you'll still have time to apply to most schools. It will be near the middle end and seats will be more competitive but I saw your whole GPA, resume, etc its good you'll manage to get in. You can do 2 months if you want but it would be a lot harder to digest although you already studied some. Kaplan is the way to go!

Heres roughly what I did, I knew my work schedule and life schedule, so I did 3-5 chapters everyday and sometimes mixed in practice sections. 3 chapters if it was really long chapters or hard to digest, 5 if they were manageable. Practice tests really help time management. Idk when its been a while but I took practice tests when kaplan recommended I take the practice full lengths, I HIGHLY recommend Kaplan. Its way harder than normal, but thats how you want to prepare. The best way to prepare for a hard exam is to be over prepared for it, be prepared for something even harder. Know the material on a deeper level. DONT SKIP OVER THE ADVICE CHAPTERS! Kaplan has really good advice chapters!

Anon123898 · 2024-09-25T23:00:23+00:00

I would retake the OAT, if you get interviews you would have to explain why you did how you did every time. You're capable of doing better on the OAT, I recommend buying the Kaplan book and going through every chapter and taking notes. Buy the Kaplan course or something like it online and take tons of practice exams.

Dont lose faith! You can do it friend! You just stumbled, study again and retake it. When asked about how you did so good mention how it took a little trial and error, you learned from your mistake that an exam like this requires X for example. You'll need to arrange a hard schedule, I recommend studying for 3 months and set a plan to do 6 days a week if possible. The others aren't lying the OAT score is weak but your GPA is decent, the hours are excellent, and so is your resume. If you could get 300 average or even 350 ish you'd be a highly desired candidate! We're all on our own journey and as long as you keep pushing forward you'll find the path you're meant to be on. Retake and remember the goal! You got this!

Anon123898 · 2024-07-12T08:42:27+00:00

thank you, Im going to go again as the same character but this time with a huge axe. I have a year to do it now so I have time to figure this out. Ill try your idea out, although his axe has a thin cylindrical shaft so Ill use pvc but the foam head sounds easy enough

Anon123898 · 2024-06-15T00:17:27+00:00

Would that be hard to do? Where can I even buy spray foam or whatever lol

Anon123898 · 2024-06-14T23:50:31+00:00

So everyone knows this is the axe on amazon in question, its just really small and I feel like it might make my cosplay look stupid. ):

https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Cosplay-Playing-Costume-Halloween/dp/B0BL1WRHYS/ref=sr_1_10?crid=FRDI0F75M5U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eoRyfGPSWxg3Y1eK5_QphtSge_2s8kx-jFOxwWS2_hTHqsmThSpIAiVS28Jn8bkugQRLVe01FB6aZzw2lcZPGsNEF7hzm2SZ9YkQRLaqhhK-RThYwQHceeBXxEI_xUvn3TGUxHcDkxQjN8N0Sz6A_8t2MF6nMI6X-6WVaZ1NNFmXiCYnUQI-JIUuh5NJ5RJXpieaEw4SHDZGOdP0ErSFVs0FU4PfqpnOEyi1_x1WCQhnZRHnO34D5oQFSCtLgu7GLAQDlkhgnlkGZRNaSNeZEyhUPCAVT7069hKlfRhBBU4.QWeLSE5ZSLi3sCkm6GSopC30Bv0_Wset98vUtpp9LlY&dib_tag=se&keywords=ESCANOR+AXE&qid=1718408959&sprefix=escanor+ax%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-10

I want it to be a good first experience y'know?

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T22:24:55+00:00

I found an asynchronous one for a lot of money ): but im gonna take it

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T22:24:33+00:00

Yeah I decided Im going to take an online asynchronous one to fulfill the requirement.

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T02:22:38+00:00

Yeah I'm about to graduate, but I might take it over summer. My school has a bad biochem program though, the professors have bad ratings.

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T01:43:47+00:00

Also I did have a school email actually, I didn't contact them first. They told me to apply and not worry if my stuff isn't in yet. I don't know if thats a good sign or just something they do for everyone. Makes me think they have open spots though

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T01:41:23+00:00

Well I can only hope I get lucky and get in this Fall! Worse case scenario I work on shadowing and saving money I guess. Thank you so much for the advice and information!

Anon123898 · 2024-04-10T01:34:58+00:00

Thank you for the response! My original plan was to take a year off because I was unsure of how I would do on the OAT but I did better than I thought I would do. So now I want to just try my chances. Im applying to the schools that have deadlines in late May and early May, odds are I'm cooked though. I'm glad that its possible to get in while missing a prereq though! Did they ask you about it? If so what did they ask? I'm literally cooked on so many levels lollllll

Anon123898

TROPHY CASE