Pupillary Pathways

You’ve spent the past few months applying for residency programs, sending in all of your supporting documentation, traveling for interviews, and now comes the HARDEST part of the entire process: submitting your ORMatch Rank Order List!

This part of the process can be extremely stressful as it determines the next pathway that you will take in your optometric career. Where you end up for your residency year is a huge stepping stone that will help you determine where you want to practice, what type of setting you will practice in, and which specialty you will focus on within the profession.

‘Tis the season for all things residency! By this time, you have likely submitted all of your applications to optometry residency programs using the ORMatch Application Service. Now, the next couple of months are going to go by quickly with traveling for interviews, ranking your programs, and waiting for the Match results!

As you enter the final stretch of optometry school, many of you are likely weighing the pros and cons of applying for a residency program. Determining whether to spend an extra year of your life on more training is a huge decision and will probably be one of the most important ones you make in your optometric career. Here are the dates for 2020 you should know!

Here are some Important Optometry Residency Dates to Know up until April of 2017.

October 5, 2016

A complete list of all of the optometry residency programs participating in ORMatch was made available by this date. Additionally, the ORMatch registration also became open for applicants. 

You’ve registered for the Optometry Residency Match (ORMatch), sent in all of your application materials to residency coordinators, interviewed at residency sites, and now comes the HARDEST part of the entire process, submitting your ORMatch Rank Order List!

This part can be extremely stressful as it determines the next pathway that you will take in your optometric career. 

Where you end up for your residency year is a huge stepping stone that will help you determine where you want to practice, what type of setting you will practice in, and which specialty that you will focus on within the profession. 

Just the thought of interviewing for residency positions can bring on a lot of stress and anxiety. Optometry residency programs have become very competitive as there are typically many students interviewing for only a few open positions at each site; some residency programs even only accept one student each year. Additionally, every year there are typically several optometry students who don’t match with any residency site. Also, is an Optometry residency right for you?

Ocular disease residencies are one of the most sought after and competitive residency type programs for optometry. I was able to chat with Dr. Dean Fasciani about why he chose to pursue a residency in ocular disease, and how this decision shaped his future career. 

Dr. Reena Patel earned her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO) at Marshall B. Ketchum University. Upon graduation from SCCO, Dr. Patel went on to pursue a residency in Pediatric Optometry at State University of New York (SUNY), College of Optometry.

Once her residency was completed, Dr. Patel chose to continue her career at SUNY as assistant clinical faculty. She supervised residents in the areas of pediatrics, infant vision care, and vision therapy, including therapy for preschool aged children as well as children with special needs. She performed direct care at New York University’s Eye Clinic, located in NYU’s Student Health Center. 

Dr. Patel joined the Vision Therapy and Pediatric Vision Care faculty at SCCO in 2011. She is a full-time assistant professor with clinical and laboratory teaching responsibilities in the Vision Therapy and Pediatric services. She is an investigator with the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) and conducts research in the areas of amblyopia, strabismus, binocular vision disorders and myopia control. 

Pediatrics and vision therapy residencies are much less common than the most of the other residency programs available, so I took a few minutes to to speak with Dr. Patel to learn a little more about why she chose to take this path. 

You’ve made the decision to apply for a residency, now you need to take the following steps to ensure that you are registered for the match, you apply to each program you are interested in, and that you have all of the materials necessary to send to each residency coordinator.