Pupillary Pathways

As you 4th year optometry students begin your final year of school, you’ll find that these last months will fly right on by! Before you know it, you’ll be walking across the stage at graduation and then out on your own as a doctor.

There are several things that you should start preparing for during your final year to ensure that once graduation passes, you’ll be ready to fly solo. We’ve compiled a list of items to help start your transition from optometry student to optometrist.

As your 3rd year begins to wrap up, you are probably starting to get prepared for your first rotation as a 4th year optometry student. This time is very exciting and represents a huge transition in your path to becoming a doctor. You will no longer be taking classes, midterms, and finals at school; you’ll be out working in a clinic (likely 8 hours a day, 5 days per week), seeing patients and absorbing all the information you can to help prepare you for the “real world.” 

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time of year when optometry students feel as if we have to turn over a new leaf. The time when we imagine that the arrival of a year will provide us the motivation and persistence we need to make some serious changes in our lives. 

Traditionally, New Year’s Day is thought to be the ideal time to kick start a new phase in your life and the time when you must make your all important new year’s resolution. Don’t start off the new year setting yourself up for failure by vowing to make huge changes that will be hard to keep.

Every year the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) publishes an Annual Student Data Report with information regarding enrollees in 21 of the currently operating optometry schools. Here are some of the highlights we thought you might find interesting about your colleagues!

Most of you 4th year students have either recently made the transition to your final rotation site, or are about to change locations within the next few weeks. Your last rotation site is going to be expecting a lot from you.

You are getting closer and closer to graduation and becoming a doctor, and with that comes a lot of responsibilities. You will need to feel comfortable making complex medical decisions on your own, and you will need to be confident as an eye care provider when presented with tough patients.

This is your last chance to take it all in, learn from your attending doctors, and make the most of your final few months working with some of the best optometrists and teachers out there.