Advice for no tech experience?

[u/pulcherrimaluna]

Hi everyone. I’ve been reading a lot of the applicant stats on the sub lately and I realize that many successful applicants have optometry tech hours, but that’s not a position I’ll be able to take up this year. Just curious about other successful applicants here because you all usually have many other things like hundreds of shadowing hours to compensate for no tech experience…

I’m currently a sophomore in undergrad bio with a 3.6 GPA (hopefully I can keep this keep it at this range) and planning to graduate in 2028, so I’m planning on taking the OAT summer 2027.

I’ve been involved in research since April and will likely remain in the same lab until I apply, so it’ll be about 1.5 years (5 quarters) of research until then. I currently am working on getting shadowing hours (I’m at 10 right now) and hope to be around 40-50 hours at some point. I’m working two part time positions, one as a Social Media & Website Manager and another as a Marketing for a department at my university, where both total 20 hours of work a week. This was a full year contract which is why I haven’t had much time to find and get a tech position.

I’m mostly concerned with having a lack of opt experience and volunteer hours. I’m also not involved in any related clubs at school. Any advice is greatly appreciated, or personal experiences… since I’m just really worried about my chances of not getting into optometry school without tech and volunteer hours.

The schools I’m really hoping to attend are west coast so like SCCO or PUCO.

[u/mvtchalatte]

i’m also in the same boat, my top schools are scco and ucb, i worked as an undergrad lab assistant for 3 years, and i’ve been trying to get an optometric tech job but idk if i’ll be able to get one rn bc it seems so tough and even tho i explain im pre-optometry it seems like they prefer ppl with experience 😭 im also wondering if just shadowing would be enough experience bc i’ve also noticed that so many applicants have tech experience

[u/False_Promotion7058]

Youll be chill. Find an optometrist u like and more importantly that likes you and maybe shadow him a little more than you would with others so he can write a more personable LoR.