What Can You Expect At An Optometry University Open Day?

Apart from shadowing an eye doctor for a few weeks, attending an open day is a great way to find out what the optometry profession is all about, and especially what studying optometry at a given institution is like. A university open day is when a university invites prospective students to come to their campus and spend a day or two looking around and discovering the campus as well as life on campus including having a look at student accommodation, checking out the library, sitting in the university’s cafe facilities, and visit its labs and lecture rooms. On an open day, students have the opportunity to meet staff and current students and find out more about different study programs, exit plans, career development, and extra-curricular activities.

When it comes to Optometry colleges, many are incorporated into a large campus where other study programs are offered. High schools usually organize trips to such universities and all students have to do is subscribe to any of those trips. However, if a student plans to attend an open day at a college where Optometry is the only study program. He might be very lucky to find that his high school is organizing a trip to this college. But most of the time, he will have to do the research, exploration, trip, and questioning all by himself. Some key insights and questions students must be able to collect and find answers to include:

Talk to staff and faculty members and discover in advance why they teach in this specific college, what internship opportunities are available for students, who to speak with if a student is struggling with a class, what is the average class size, what are the most difficult courses, how’re security in the campus, what activities are available on campus, who and how can you get financial aid, and what about application deadline and fees.

Talk to students and find out what do they like most about this university, why did they choose it, how was the transition from high school, how was the first semester, how they spend their weekends, how’s life in dorms, how’s food in the cafeteria, how difficult are transportation and commuting around the campus and the city, is car parking offered for free on campus, is laundry free, and what classes and courses are the most difficult if you want to schedule two courses simultaneously.