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School Reviews » Illinois College Of Optometry
Illinois College Of Optometry
Illinois College Of Optometry
  • Year founded: 1872
  • ENROLLED TOTAL: 164
  • School Website: View Site >
Illinois College Of Optometry
Optometry School
Chicago, IL
  • SDN RANKING 4
  • INTERVIEW FEEDBACK 4 68 Responses
  • SCHOOL REVIEWS N/A 0 Responses

Overview

Overview

School Stats

  • Resident Tuition $41,984
  • Non - Resident Tuition $41,984
  • Application Fee $75
  • AVG OAT 316
  • AVG GPA 3.4

Crime: Detailed Stats >

Admissions Information

  • Office of Admissions
  • 3241 South Michigan Ave.
  • Chicago, IL 60616
  • United States

School Overview

Illinois College Of Optometry Fast Facts

Application Service

School Info

Illinois College of Optometry was founded in 1872 by Henry Olin. Over the years, through mergers and consolidations, it has established itself as one of the world's leading urban optometric institutions and has been serving the Chicagoland community for over 130 years.

Curriculum

The clinical program is designed to permit the student to develop clinical and interpersonal skills beginning in the lecture-laboratory setting and progressing to a one-to-one relationship between student and patient. As the student advances through the professional program, patient contact increases. During the first two years of study, students receive clinical training designed to acclimate them to the patient care environment. Initial experiences in the Community Screening Program and the Eyewear Center provide a foundation for direct patient care in both Primary Eye Care and specialty services. The third year program more fully integrates students into direct patient care activities. The fourth year is devoted to patient care as a full-time activity.

Facilities

The Illinois Eye Institute (IEI) is the clinical arm of the Illinois College of Optometry and manages over 70,000 patient visits annually. IEI is a multi-specialty eye care center that serves patients from metropolitan Chicago, the United States and throughout the world. Eyecare professionals at the forefront of their profession combine their expertise to bring patients the latest developments in vision correction, diagnosis of eye disease and comprehensive treatment. All members of the professional staff hold a faculty appointment at either the Illinois College of Optometry or University of Chicago. IEI is the top Medicaid provider in the state of Illinois for eye care.

Interview Feedback

Interview Feedback

Results Overview

How did the interview impress you?

Response # Responders
Positively 63
Negatively 1
No change 4

What was the stress level of the interview?

Response Avg # Responders
3.91 65

0 = low, 10 = high

How you think you did?

Response Avg # Responders
8.16 68

0 = low, 10 = high

Select Questions & Recent Responses

What are your suggestions for the admissions office?

"Nothing!" More from this Member | Report Response

"None" More from this Member | Report Response

"Keep up the good work." More from this Member | Report Response

"Nothing really, I thought the interview process went really smoothly." More from this Member | Report Response

"Maybe be a little friendlier. The woman who spoke with me about having all of the materials for my application seemed a little rude at times. everyone else was nice." More from this Member | Report Response

"I loved the admissions office" More from this Member | Report Response

"I am not sure what can be done but there was a lot of waiting around where I felt like I got more and more nervous about the interview." More from this Member | Report Response

"Nothing much. All was well." More from this Member | Report Response

"notify acceptance by e-mail in addition to sending a hard copy through snail mail. The wait feels like forever" More from this Member | Report Response

"Everyone were super nice, even better than I expected. I wish I had more time to talk to the admissi" More from this Member | Report Response

"Keep up the good work!" More from this Member | Report Response

"The process is unnecessarily drawn out." More from this Member | Report Response

What is one of the specific questions they asked you (question 1)?

"What is your journey in determining that optometry was for you and why optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are some volunteer work you've done?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why certain sections of my OAT were below average" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Explain the trend in your grades." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How do you relieve stress? Time management skill? How did you study for the OAT? How do your parents feel about you moving to Chicago?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What was your favourite course that you've taken and why? At what point did you know you wanted to do optometry? What can you bring to the school community? Where are you from? What do you like to do for fun?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why would you want to put yourself through this rigorous program?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why Optometry" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are your strengths and weaknesses?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What is a progression of your interest in optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Explain the trend in your grades. How do you feel about your OAT scores? What other schools did you apply to?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"I see that you applied to many different colleges that are so different, so I'm wondering why you did that?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Where do you see yourself practicing?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why major in biological sciences? So many other students major in this." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why Optometry? Why ICO?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What do you do for fun?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"(All the obvious ones were asked; why optometry? Why ICO? They also referenced my personal statement and asked me specific questions about something I mentioned in it, so know that really well.) How did you manage your time? " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"When did you get to Chicago?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"It was conversational... nothing too challenging" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why did you choose your undergraduate institution?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What made you interested in optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Can you handle our course work?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"I recall the entire interview consisting of two structured questions, with one of them being "Do you have any questions?". It was very chill, definitely not stressful if you sincerely want to be an opt. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Do you want to do a residency? What do you know about our residency program?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Tell me about yourself? Why optometry? What quantitative skills do you have? Why weren’t you a full time student during certain semester? What do you know about optometry? " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"I will just list all the questions asked, including in the one-on-one file review with an admissions counselor and one-on-one interview with faculty. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Tell me about yourself." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"When did you get here?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Describe the trend of your grades and are your grades and OAT representative of your work?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why Optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why did you move to Florida?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"So tell me why you wanted to do optometry." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How would you describe the trend of your grades?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What did you enjoy about your high school experience?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How did you choose optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why ICO?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"If you are accepted, where do you plan to live when you graduate opt. school, and why?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to come to ICO?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What challenges will optometrists be facing in the future?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"So where's your suit?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Tell me about your undergrad experience." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"which class in college did you dislike the most? " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to be an optometrist ?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What did you think of PCO?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to go into optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to be an optometrist" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to become an optometrist?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are the positive and negative aspects about yourself?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"''What kinds of things did you do to prepare for the OAT?''" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Class you like and one you disliked." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

What was the most interesting question?

"None" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How does my family feel about me moving to Chicago?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"If your house was on fire what would you take with you?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"You seem like you're very involved, how would you deal with the transition once you're in optometry school?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"If you were to encounter a personal tragedy during your time here at ICO, how would you deal with it and how would you prevent it from affecting your studies?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"When you were in college did you live on campus or at home? Did you live on-campus all your school years?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are you looking for in an optometry school?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Start with when you were in high school, go up through undergrad, volunteering, and working experience and pretty much just discuss how you got here today." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Do you have family in Chicago" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"give 3 reasons why ico should choose you over others." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"what do you do in your free time?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How do you see yourself practicing in the future?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"There are three schools in California, why did you bypass those three schools? Why not Berkeley?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why optometry? (Felt like I could really share with the interviewer my reasons)" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Is there a specialty you would like to go into?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Name one person who has influenced you the most" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Something random about one of the activities I mentioned participating in." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Nothing really out of the ordinary. There were no trick questions. I think the question regarding why I withdrew was the most detailed question I had in any of my interviews." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How do you feel about the big age gaps between your siblings?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Everything very basic." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Tell me more about your research. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"I believe I asked more questions than they did. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"The truth is that you need to understand that each question should be geared toward your showing them that you are interested in optometry." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"None." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"why were you a parttime student?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Honestly...the interviewer will probably read your personal statement 15 minutes before your interview. Have this work FOR you. Read and re-read your essay 1000000 times. Be consistent, but not verbatim. They want to make sure your experiences were real and worthwhile. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What's your favorite book?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How have your parents/family supported you throughout this process?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"none, very straight forward" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What will you do if we accepted you?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"If you had to tell a patient bad news, how would you go about it." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Where do you plan to practice?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Tell me about how your nontraditional majors (French and Art History) relate to the field of Optometry?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Where is and why did you attend your college?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"None, really :) They're all pretty straight-forward." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"I don't even recall many questions as the whole interview was like a long conversation. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"How would I describe the trend of my grades?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What did you like about your high school years?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why do you want to do research and not just be an optometrist?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What was your most rewarding experience in college?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are your main hobbies/interests?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What is your philosophy on embracing diversity in the workplace?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What are some of the challenges you that are going to face optometrists in the future?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"So if you're parents are from Nebraska, then why are they Bears fans?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Specifics about what I do at work (I'm an optometric assistant). and probably what classes I liked the least/most." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why did you take the OATs twice? " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"This interviewer's style was so informal that for me it was pretty much just a conversation, so no questions really stand out. " More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Why should you be accepted at ICO?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Are you interested in doing a residency?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What is rodeo?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Which class I had in undergrad which I was genuinely interested in but felt it did not meet my expectations at the end." More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"What is/or are your greatest accomplishments?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"Most of the questions were pretty standard, ''why do you want to be an optometrist'' etc. It was realy more of a conversation. I think I asked my interviewer more questions than she asked me!" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

"If tell the admissions committee three things about myself before they made their decision, what would it be?" More from this Member | Report Response | I was asked this question too

View All Questions & Responses

Individual Responses

Read what each person had to say about their experience with this school.

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School Reviews

School Reviews

Results Overview

Overall, how satisfied are you with this program?

No responses

What do you like most?

No responses

What do you like least?

No responses

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