Is Optometry the right career for me?

Question

Right now I am 16 about to be a junior in high school. I was considering Optometry as a career but I'm not sure if I can make it. My sophomore year, I took on more than I could handle and went with all honor classes, where I went from an honor role student to an A,B,C student. My junior year I will be taking regular classes in math, english, and social studies, but will be doing honors anatomy. I plan on really buckling down and doing the best I can this year. But I want to know if at this rate I will ever become an optometrist.

I would also like to know if optometry is a good career choice and maybe a list of pros and cons. I will greatly appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you!

Answer 1

Hola.

Not to sound cheesy or like I'm trying to give you a pep talk, but the probability of you becoming an optometrist is determined by how much dedication and hard work you are prepared to put into your future education.  You are looking at two years to finish high school, followed by an additional eight years of college, plus a possible one or two years of a postgraduate program to become an optometrist.  If this is something you would really like to do, then just be aware of the hard work and dedication you will have to put into it to make it a reality.

To start with, I think you are already one-step ahead of the game because you are already exploring your options prior to beginning your junior year.  I think your junior year is a much more beneficial year as far as preparing for colleges, and that in order to get started on the right foot you need to start well before your senior year in searching for a good school.  Your junior year is also vastly important to colleges because it is the last full year of your transcripts that colleges will see when you apply, because when you apply to colleges it is typically not even yet halfway through your senior year, so they will typically not even see your senior year grades.

I think you may have handicapped yourself by opting out of taking more honors/Advanced Placement (AP) classes this upcoming year.  Is it too late to try and change your schedule?   The reason I say this is because most colleges would rather see you get a C in an Honors/AP class than get an A in a regular class.  Why?  It tells them you are willing to push the limits on your educational boundaries, and even if you don't perform superbly, you are willing to try and push yourself and your limits to try and achieve excellence in your education.  Having initiative and determination are far more important than breezing through the easy way.  If you don't feel like you can handle a full honors schedule, then, by all means do not overextend yourself mentally or physically.  But I think it would be greatly beneficial to you if you would try to add more honors/AP classes to your schedule.  If only one, pick your best subject besides science and try to roll with it.  It also wouldn't hurt if you sacrificed an elective to take another science class, as you want as many science/biology courses as you can get.  You really want to start looking at prospective colleges during your junior year, and try to meet their requirements even before you reach your senior year.  

You will want to go to a college where you can take three years of pre-optometry courses. Consult your guidance counselor during your junior year about colleges that offer such a program.   Your guidance counselor is there to help you find a college, so don't be shy in getting as much help from him/her as you can.  If they can't help you enough, Google is your friend, and there are plenty of websites that will help you on your path to finding a good college that will send you on your way to achieving your goals.

There are some very beneficial reasons to become an optometrist.  The schooling isn't actually all that difficult (certainly not as difficult as going for an M.D).   You make decent money (you typically start out at least about $80k/year.  But it all depends on where you find a job after school.  You can use this chart as a reference for the range of starting salaries:

http://www.payscale.com/chart/190/Median...

Optometrists typically don't have to work long hours, and since they are not physicians they are typically not "on-call" to help their patients, so your life would not revolve around your job.  This leaves your more time for yourself, and/or your family, rather than focusing constantly on work.

One of the largest cons of becoming an optometrist is a recent trend of an oversupply of optometrists is occurring in many parts of the country, which may result in less opportunities for you finding the best job after school.  Don't let this deter you, and you can refer to several onlines sources as to which cities may have an overabundance of optometrists, so you can see what the prospect looks like in your area.

Good luck!