<p>I am planning on going to Optometry school after my undergraduate career, and I am about to start college this fall. I know that getting into med school is becoming increasingly competitive, but I'm not sure if Optometry school admissions is nearly as demanding (?).</p>
<p>For pre-med's in general - Does taking completely non-medical electives/seminars cripple the chances of getting into med/dent/opt schools?</p>
<p>I'm greatly looking forward to the freedom of taking electives/seminars such as ancient history and marine biology - things that I've been dying to learn about, but aren't related to medicine whatsoever.</p>
<p>But it seems that med/opt schools prefer students taking med-related seminars and relevant electives - is this true?</p>
<p>And would taking non-related courses have a lesser effect on students applying to opt/dent schools if those paths are generally less competitive than medical schools?</p>
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<p>Absolutely not, where did you hear such nonsense?</p>
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<p>College is pretty much your only chance to pursue these heavily so absolutely take those classes.</p>
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<p>See above</p>
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<p>Just as there is absolutely no reason to not take these courses as a pre-med, I imagine that the same can be said of pre-opt/dent.</p>
<p>Contact the optometry school you plan to attend and be sure to take their required undergraduate courses.</p>
<p>As long as you meet the prerequisites for optometry schools, take whatever classes you want to take. You won’t have the option to in optometry school (or wherever you plan on going), so you should take the opportunity to study fields you’re interested in now. Many students take medical electives because they are genuinely interested in medicine, and there’s nothing wrong with you being interested in history or marine biology, in addition to optometry.</p>
<p>I took tons of classes surrounding medicine, and I wasn’t pre-med. I just thought it was interesting. Take the classes you want to take.</p>
<p>Contact a medical school and an optometry school you may want to attend. Ask what the cut-off grade point is for each. That should give you and idea as to the relative competitiveness to get in.</p>