Location: Zoom
Meeting Called by: Pre-Optometry Club
Duration: 1 hour
Guest Speaker: Candace Johnson, OptomCas/Applications
Agenda
- Candace is the director of admissions at OSU Optometry, managing the admissions process and its materials
- OptomCAS: similar to CommonApp, all optometry schools utilize the OptomCAS for admissions. Sections include: personal information, academic history, supporting information and program materials. You can add schools from a list, with application deadlines still open, to send your application to (under the Add Program tab)
- Personal Information Section: mainly personal information (name, gender, pronouns, birthday), contact information, citizenship, etc.
- Academic History: a long section on the application, requires all enrollments in universities (transfers, etc), submit all transcripts and records for courses, manually input all courses, enter in OAT/GRE/other standardized test scores, etc
- Supporting Information: includes letters of recommendations (optometrist, professor and a choice), experiences section is professional jobs and achievements, extracurriculars, clubs, etc.,
- Program Materials is a custom section based on each school with questions specific to their program, possibly essay questions, additional scores or academic information, resume, observation hours, etc
- You can submit your applications and check application status on OptomCAS site
- Students can create accounts and begin working on their application whenever they chose, but can only submit when the cycle opens (July 1st)
- Timeline of application process: Schedule to take the OAT in the spring of your third year, to ease testing complications and allow time (90 days) between tests if you need to retake. Applications are submitted the summer between third and fourth year, schools will review applications. Schools will begin evaluations and inviting candidates for interviews, typically a couple weeks after receiving applications.