Student Life Blogs

Hello readers! Things have been busy with my institutional externship lately and I realized today that I haven't posted recently with our updates about "what comes next." In my last post I talked about the long process of applying and interviewing for jobs. Now I'm thrilled to share that in February I accepted an offer as an associate optometrist at a large private practice in my home town of The Woodlands, TX!  I originally found the job listing on the AOA... Read More

Happy New Year! Last time I wrote I had just finished Part II (my final part) of my National Boards exams and was wrapping up at my fall private practice externship site. Since then I enjoyed a trip back home to Texas for the holidays, found out I passed Part III of Boards and my injections exam (woo!), and began my third and final externship rotation at Olive Branch Eye Care & Charles Retina Institute. So far things are going great at my new rotation! It's an awesome... Read More

I'm back again this month to talk about another boards exam that I have behind me now: Part II! I took Part II last Thursday which (hopefully) means I'm done with all three parts of our National Boards exams. Part II is different from the other two parts in that it's a multiple choice exam (like part I), but the questions are all case-based and focused on patient management and the diagnosis and treatment of ocular diseases. Luckily since we've all been seeing patients... Read More

Good morning! I wrote last month describing how our externship rotations work and how we spend our 4th year of optometry school in a clinical setting. This month I'll go into more detail on something else we do during our 4th year: Part III of our National Boards. Part III is different from Part I and Part II in that we can each sign up to take it almost any time during our 4th year rather than taking it all at once with the rest of the class. It's also unique because every 4th... Read More

This is a question I get a lot from prospective students. When you're just beginning optometry school, 4th year and clinical rotations seem so far away. It's hard to think past all the course work at the very beginning and to picture yourself seeing patients in a private practice somewhere as a 4th year. But the first three years flew by and now my class is spread out all over the country applying their clinical skills in a real-world setting. It's an exciting time and it makes... Read More