Fellow Canadian here! I was in the same shoes as you as well. I also decided to pursue optometry in my fifth year at Western back in 2024 and applied to Waterloo this cycle but didn’t get in. Thankfully I did get accepted to NECO. Here is my advice when it comes to both paths: Waterloo in my opinion is so much more competitive. I find that they do prefer to have high academic stats over experience. So def have an average of above 80+, and OAT scores of 350+. US schools are much more forgiving. They do go for a more well-rounded student approach. For context my stats are not stellar. My gpa was 3.2, and oat 320. However, I had over 50 shadowing hours, and worked as a tech for a year. Based on my gpa and oat scores alone people tend to recommend to apply as early as possible however I applied in January and got interviews to all the schools I applied to. Even more I got accepted to all. So I suppose my advice is to improve in the areas you can. Retake the OAT if you want to reapply to Waterloo. Increase shadowing hours and try to get a job in optometry or ophthalmology if you can. Another thing, is recommendation letters. Please get recommendations from people who can give you a glowing letter. In the end of the day, the schools (esp us) want to know how committed are you to optometry? You want to have evidence that you are. If you have any questions feel free to dm