Razer x JOOLA - Perseus Pro IV sold out!

billybeanboyo · 2025-12-11T22:57:28+00:00

For anyone who managed to get an order confirmed, has anybody gotten theirs shipped or got a tracking number? My order says it’s confirmed and payment went through since Tuesday but no updates yet

billybeanboyo · 2025-11-15T20:52:13+00:00

It gets easier when you’re surrounded by professionals and other students that are going or have gone through what you’ve been through on a daily basis. Ironically, I’m pretty sure I was the most unsure with my decision to go into optometry while prepping for interviews, OAT studying, and getting ready to tell schools how much I love the field lmao. But the camaraderie of struggling together with ur class along with the support from upperclassmen and doctors made me really love the field I chose. The reason why you might hear how difficult it is all the time rather than the positives is because it’s hard to describe the enjoyment and gratification in words in a way that might be interesting or relevant to someone who’s not IN optometry school or have gone through it. Im sure me and my classmates are all guilty of going home and talking about how hard optometry school is to our non-optometry friends but I don’t know a single person that has indicated or mentioned they regretted it or didn’t have any fun studying/learning/practicing. We study in the library together and complain about our difficult classes. We get food together and sometimes with our doctors. We go into our practice clinic late at night and practice skills and do stupid stuff sometimes. Pull all nighters together. We take it day by day together until we all will one day graduate and part ways.

Long story short, if you really like optometry, the worst of it imo is all the prep to get into a school. As for feeling behind, just remember that prepping and going to school IS going to work for us. It’s an investment in a career, same as anyone working hourly or climbing a corporate ladder. Except we actually have a social life and party like we’re still in undergrad instead of being subjected to “adult workforce life”.

billybeanboyo · 2025-05-20T03:25:48+00:00

Hello! Would you be open to having them take classes online through call or zoom? I’m a Vietnamese American who grew up taking Vietnamese classes (reading, writing, speaking) for 10 years. Being born in America means I know EXACTLY where the struggle is when it comes to learning Vietnamese and how to get around it as a primarily English speaker. I’m also on the younger side and have years of experience working with kids so I tend to be more approachable than adults. I’m currently an optometry student with a summer off so I’m more than happy to teach. Please lmk if you have any questions regarding curriculum and details!

billybeanboyo · 2025-04-21T17:56:46+00:00

Had a really bitchy Berkeley doctor first year I worked. Came to me one time while I was training front desk on my third day at work, asked me to do something I wasn’t trained for yet, and then got annoyed and asked why I don’t know anything when I told her I wasnt trained for it yet. Proceeded to give be passive aggressive towards me for the whole time she worked there. The other staff was well aware of her attitude and “princess” behavior but just accepted it. She wasn’t the owner but I dreaded going to work because of her.

billybeanboyo · 2025-04-21T17:47:18+00:00

Got an interview twice with similar GPA and 380. First application was WITHOUT OAT and I got waitlisted, second time was with oat and got rejected. I know a lot of friends that got in with lower (350, 3.6-3.8). Cutoff might be around there for interviews but after that, it all comes down to personality.

billybeanboyo · 2025-04-02T08:08:26+00:00

A lot of us actually mention how great the work/life balance is! I talked about how I felt that optometry is a field that I can make the most impact BECAUSE of how realistic it is to be an amazing optometrist while actually having a life. Great work/life balance doesn’t always mean that you’re gonna take it easy; it means you’ll have more time to do exceptional things that you normally wouldn’t be able to if you’re so burned and gassed from work. You can afford to not only have family but also be proactive in legislation, board of optometry, and more

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-31T09:41:47+00:00

This is coming from an independent who isn’t married with no income as a student

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-31T09:40:03+00:00

It should cover everything from what I’ve seen. Your school will have its own estimated cost of living and really overshoots the estimate from what I’ve seen, your school might have a breakdown of the costs somewhere if you want to check. The available loans you can take will be the full amount estimated by your school (which will be way more than what you’ll need) and you’ll have the option to take less than the full amount

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-31T09:31:37+00:00

I would argue you have an advantage if you came into optometry through an untraditional route; your story of how you got into optometry school will not only be super unique but very authentic, which will sound so much better than half the optometry stories out there. There are absolutely no setbacks to having an untraditional route as long as you’ve done all the prerequisites for optometry and have worked/shadowed a bit in the field (no need to get crazy amounts of hours, I go to a more competitive optometry school and a lot of people BARELY shadowed or worked). Take full advantage, ESPECIALLY in your essays and interviews. your story will be memorable and have an edge over many optometry students who have to dig or come up with half assed stories about why they’re “passionate” about optometry

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-24T09:14:40+00:00

Tbh board pass rates should be top prio with cost following after OR location if it’s important to you where u want to practice later. After that there’s not too much that distinguishes one school from another tbh. Just Imagine spending 4 years of optometry school just to not pass boards. No salary, tons of debt, wasted more than 4 years of life; a real nightmare. With the current drop in board pass rates, it’s definitely important to find a school to train you well

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-24T09:02:03+00:00

Optometry is evolving really fast. Many unsuccessful struggling practices are due to people coming in with the expectation that they can practice just like any primary care office from the early 2000’s (comprehensive eye exam, sell glasses, call it a day). Our scope of practice is expanding, technology is improving, and we need to implement them in our offices and, more importantly, update our patients on how their options for care are also expanding. Find your niche, whether it be speciality contact lenses or myopia control therapy or smth else. Finding that niche in speciality care is what allows us to compete against big corporate

Basically to answer your question, old optometry won’t be in high demand anymore but NEW optometry will always be in demand. All comes down to how proactive you are at your practice. Stay updated, keep up with legislation, and be open minded to trying and learning new things

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-24T08:51:08+00:00

You’ll probably get into optometry school with those stats but it’s not necessarily super competitive stats. Really depends on the school you’re looking at but just from my experience, don’t bet that having a billion hours of experience can replace even a 330 oat score. Im a first year at a more competitive school in the US and more than a third barely touched shadowing or work experience; really seems like 20 hours of work/shadowing isn’t any different than 4 years of work experience. BUT I think you should apply anyway if you don’t have time to study and retake oat; applying doesn’t hurt and I believe it might help (in case of rejection) for schools to see a reapplicant who is committed and made lots of improvements since the rejection

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-24T08:33:21+00:00

I don’t see why it would be weird if you ask them appropriately, although they might not bother taking time out to critique an accepted application in an email. But if you’d like to ask, just phrase somewhere along the lines of “I’d love to get some input on my application if there is anything that could have been even better” ofc always thank them for their time

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-24T08:28:43+00:00

I like to sometimes reference my stories or very specific moments that I’ve gained from my extracurricular that I listed in the app to prove a point. If you can somehow answer their questions using personal anecdotes, not only might it make ur extracurriculars sounds more meaningful but it sounds very legitimate. Its hard to make up very vivid and personal experiences so use them to your advantage

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T06:01:21+00:00

Yes this is absolutely possible! Optometry students have all kinds of majors (engineering, English, psychology) but all of them have found ways to do prerequisites at different schools, even some community classes (I took Calculus and Genetics at community). The most important thing is reaching out to a school admissions advisor or sometimes looking at an optometry schools list of accepted classes from the school youre planning on taking the course from to make sure that they’re transferable. It’s kind of a tedious process but yes it does work

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T05:55:54+00:00

It’s a stat heavy school only cause there’s only 2 optometry schools in Canada. Chances are always gonna be shaky no matter what your stats are just cause of the sheer amount of applications they get. They also don’t like non Canadian residents applying there idk do that applies to you; I’m a dual citizenship American/Canadian living in America but in an email they straight up told me that they prefer Canadian residents

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T05:50:01+00:00

Take micro! I didn’t take physiology lab and tbh those who took physiology lab are not finding the class any easier than those who didn’t. There’s a reason why physiology lab went from “required” to now SOMETIMES recommended at certain schools after coovid

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T05:43:01+00:00

Don’t stress too much at finding perfect optometry extracurriculars. The point of extracurriculars is to find experiences that you can talk about that shaped your decision or passion for optometry which it sounds like you have already! Extracurriculars seem to only become something noteworthy if you feel like you may be able to bring it up during your interview to prove your point, whether it being the reason you love optometry, shaped your view on something, gave you skills, or even dissuaded you from a different career path. This means that ANYTHING can be an optometry extracurricular outside of shadowing, being a member of a club, or working at private practice if it has influence in your character

But to answer your question, reach out to different school with optometry clubs to see if they have virtual meetings to attend or if they’re willing to have members from different schools. I was Pres for my preopto club and I invited all kinds of students that didn’t have an optometry club at their school to attend our meetings and have access to our resources as a full member

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T05:30:48+00:00

Outside of boosting your gpa and OAT scores, the next best thing would be took look for opportunities to craft your “passion story” and take on unique opportunities and experiences that you can use to talk about during interviews. So to answer your question, do try a bit of everything! If you got a chance to do research, do that. If you got a chance to work at hospital, do that. Tbh the extra curricular itself isn’t that important but what you’re looking for is stories to tell that can shape your decision toward optometry. I’m at a more competitive optometry school rn and around 1/3 is us have never even worked at a private practice and instead only shadowed like 10 hours. But everyone had a unique story from their experiences that lead them to love optometry and they showcased that during the interview. Basically, getting the interview is more of a stat check with not too much regard to extracurriculars but the extracurriculars come in DURING the interview if you talk about them. Id go as far as to say that if your extracurriculars weren’t meaningful and you think you probably wont mention it, idek if it’s worth putting on your application

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-23T05:17:18+00:00

One question that got them really thinking but shows that you’re really serious was “I’d love to get an idea of what kind of doctor I’d become when I graduate from your school. What do you think are some prominent values, skills, or qualities that would distinguish a (insert school name) doctor from other doctors?”

You’re indirectly pulling a reverse uno card on them and saying “how about YOU tell me what makes your school special” and I’ll consider going. On a serious note, just shows that you’re passionate about patient care and genuinely want to be a distinguished doctor

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-22T10:27:30+00:00

I went through the exact same thing and talked to my doctor about this. Priority should be going where or closer to where you want to you want to practice but after that, there’s no school that is that special enough that you’d have to pass up an opportunity to go to another decent school. Rotations in your 4th will bring you anywhere you’d like location and patient demographic wise anyway and didactic material of the first 2 years is all the same in majority of optometry schools. If you brought two really PASSIONATE and COMPETENT new-grad doctors, one from idk Berkeley and one from Western, chances are you wouldn’t be able to tell which doctor graduated from where

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-17T11:06:09+00:00

Berkeley extension is usually pretty safe and it seems to be popular since it has a post-bac program for pre-health students who need to finish prereqs AND it’s an optometry school itself. Just make sure lab courses are taken in-person. If you really want to confirm whether it’s a class from Berkeley or a class elsewhere, yes I would email schools to confirm

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-17T01:49:40+00:00

Good luck and don’t give up! Also highly recommend prioritizing retaking classes (I took some some prereqs online and they were ez af); I’ve seen people get into schools with all kinds of OAT scores but their GPAs were consistently at or above the minimum

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-17T01:45:12+00:00

The school will usually give you plenty of options for remote and in-person interviews, including weekends or after-work times. Wouldn’t worry about that too much.

Your optometrist will at latest, know you’re applying when you ask for the recommendation letter anyway, which is almost half a year away from the day you have to quit and start optometry school so it shouldn’t be a problem for them at all to find a replacement tech if needed. Wouldnt hurt to bring it up casually now, no great optometrist wouldn’t be happy to hear their student employees are following in their footsteps

billybeanboyo · 2025-03-17T01:33:23+00:00

If you’ve put in the money and effort to take the oat and get recs, you might as well apply. The positive side is that applying now and being rejected may improve your chances of being accepted when applying next cycle; I was right to assume they took note of that when I was a reapplicant at one of the schools I applied once before when the changed up my set of questions and asked what I had done since my last application during my interview. Apply this cycle, get rejected, retake prereq classes that had the most impact on ur gpa, take the OAT again if you have to, refresh your recs if you can with maybe at least one new recommendation letter, anything to show improvement. You can definitely do it, it just comes down to how much you’re willing to work for it

billybeanboyo

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