At our first meeting of the year, Mr. Shawn Gilbert from our very own Optometry school came to speak with us! He is The Ohio State University’s Assistant Director of Admissions, and is also our club advisor. It was really great to learn more about the admissions process with Shawn, thank you for coming to speak with us! Shawn explained to us that Ohio State has a huge number of students from all backgrounds, and has a very comprehensive health science campus. This aids in Interprofessional Education, which is very important among medical professionals as it helps them to have an understanding of what the other professionals see on a daily basis. In addition to this, Ohio State is located in Columbus, and this is a very important part of choosing a school. As Columbus is a large city it has many opportunities to offer as well as a lower cost of living in comparison to huge cities.
The alumni of Ohio State are doing many impressive activities as there are many who are leaders of OOA, AOA, and AAO who have come from OSU or been associated with it. In addition to the alumni network Ohio State offers, they also offer many resources to get you through school such as tutoring, counseling for test anxiety, and others.
During the four years at Ohio State, students, on average, see 1800 patients before graduation and these cover all specialties. They also will have access to technology such as the Virtual Reality BIO simulator, Camtasia records lectures, and Examsoft on iPads which tracks content of questions answered correctly vs incorrectly. Some other programs offered through the College of Optometry are the Graduate Business Minor in Health Sciences, and a combined OD/MS degree which involves research, but is still completed in 4 years
To be admitted to Ohio State it is not necessary to have to have a bachelor’s degree, and there is no specific major requirement. The prerequisite courses are listed on the website but they do not have to be completed before applying, but they must be completed before starting. At Ohio State they use a rolling admissions process and holistic review (grades, OAT, experience, references, essay). Typically they see 600 applicants for 64 spots.
As for Tuition, for in state the first year is $23,476 and for out of state the first year is $46,952. It is also possible to have the out of state tuition waived after the first year as long as you declare residency. Ohio State also offers scholarships ranging from $1,000-$10,000 based on merit and are reevaluated at the end of each year in preparation for the next year.
If you have any more questions, Shawn’s email is gilbert.351@osu.edu. Again we would like to thank him for coming to speak with us and for sharing all of this great information!