Professional development

Optometry schools are looking for well-rounded applicants who have a confirmed interest in the field of optometry. Pre-optometry students should plan to spend time outside of the classroom to explore and commit to optometry by engaging in a variety of activities including but not limited to shadowing, working, volunteering and research.Optometry related experiences show you are committed to being an optometrist and understand the role. Examples of working in optometry related settings include the following: work as an Optometric Technician at OptimEyes, Eye Glass World, SVS Vision, etc. It is good to shadow optometrists in a variety of settings and modes of practice. These are the following modes of practice: solo private practice, group practice, retail optometry, ophthalmological settings, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), veteran's administration and military, research and academics. Some optometry schools like Michigan College of Optometry (MCO) at Ferris State want to see at least five modes of practice.  

It is the pre-optometry student's responsibility to track all the experiences they engage in throughout the course of their preparation. This means knowing the range of dates, total number of hours, and supervisor contact information for each of the places an experience happened. The PMHSC suggests using an Activity Tracker to log this information.