Questions to Ask in an Optometry Interview
For applicants with an optometry school interview coming up, and for new optometrists interviewing at a practice. The school questions follow the day: your faculty interviewer, the clinic, outcomes such as boards and residencies, current students, then cost and the offer. The last group is for a first job, from patient load and mentoring to pay and partnership, and every question has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, or what to do with it.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Faculty
What does this optometry program do better than the other schools I could attend?
Why ask it
Every school has a line ready, so listen for something you could check: a clinic the school runs itself, a specialty service every student rotates through, a strong externship list. If the answer is the friendly atmosphere, ask what a student gets here that they would not get somewhere else.
In which year do students start examining patients, and what do they do in those first visits?
Why ask it
Some programs put first-years into screenings or pretesting and others hold full exams until the third year. A good answer names the term and the task. 'Early clinical exposure' with no detail can mean watching from the corner of the room.
What has kept you teaching at this school?
Why ask it
Whatever they name, whether the students, the patients in the school's clinic or their own research, is where their attention goes, and where a student gets the most from them. It also gives you something true to say back if it matches why you applied. Someone who joined last year can answer a different version: what made them come.
Which kind of student does best in this program, and who finds it hardest?
Why ask it
The first half tells you what the program rewards, whether that is steady daily study, quick hands in lab or ease with patients. The second half is the honest part. If nobody can describe a student who struggled, ask what happens to the ones who fail a course.
Which course in the first two years do students find hardest, and what help comes with it?
Why ask it
The course named will differ by school, often optics or one of the heavy science courses, and it matters less than the help around it. Review sessions, tutors from the year above and a professor whose office hours people attend are good signs. A shrug and 'everyone gets through' is not.
How do students practice exam techniques before clinic, and are the practice lanes open after hours?
Why ask it
Retinoscopy, the slit lamp and the lenses for viewing the back of the eye are learned on classmates, by repetition. Ask how many students share a lane and whether the rooms are open on evenings and weekends. You will be the patient as often as the examiner, dilating drops included, so ask how that is handled if it worries you.
Do you still see patients yourself, and would I work with you in the clinic?
Why ask it
A lecturer who was in clinic on Tuesday teaches from Tuesday's patients. The answer also shows whether today's interviewers are the doctors who would be checking your work once you reach clinic, or whether the clinic has its own staff you have not met yet.
What happens when a student fails a practical exam or a clinical proficiency?
Why ask it
At many schools a proficiency check stands between a student and the clinic, so the retake policy decides whether a bad morning costs a week or a term. Get the specifics: how soon the retake is, who grades it, and how many students in the last class started clinic late.
How much hands-on training do students get in procedures that only some states allow optometrists to perform, such as lasers and injections?
Why ask it
What an optometrist may do, from prescribing to lasers and minor procedures, is set by each state or country and keeps changing. Find out whether the training is on real equipment or in a lecture hall, and look up the rules for where you want to practice yourself, because the school teaches for more than one place.
Can students take part in research here, and how do those who do find a project?
Why ask it
A student project can be anything from a summer in a vision science lab to a case report written with a clinic supervisor. A real answer names the program or the person who takes students on. Find out too whether a project is required to graduate, which turns an opportunity into a deadline.
How are grades reported here, and would a residency director see where I ranked in the class?
Why ask it
It matters only if a residency is on your mind, and then it matters from the first term. Where courses are pass and fail, more rests on letters and clinic evaluations, so the person to hear from is a faculty member who writes those letters: what do they draw on?
Is there anything in my application you would like me to explain before I leave?
Why ask it
Save it for the last minute with an interviewer who has read your file, and skip it where interviews are run blind to grades and scores. A doubt you hear now, about a low science grade or thin shadowing hours, can be answered on the spot. Left unspoken, it is settled later by people who cannot ask you.
Clinic
How many patients does a typical student examine before graduating, and how many of those have eye disease?
Why ask it
Ask for the typical student, not the record holder. A big total made mostly of healthy young adults needing new glasses teaches less than a smaller one with glaucoma, diabetes and children in it. If the school tracks encounters by type, it will have the breakdown to hand.
Where do the clinic's patients come from, and are students ever short of them?
Why ask it
A clinic with a steady referral base and a neighborhood that depends on it fills its own schedule. The worrying answer is that students are expected to bring in friends and family to meet their numbers. A third-year can tell you how often a booked slot goes empty.
In clinic, how many students share one supervising doctor?
Why ask it
The ratio sets how long you sit with a patient in the chair waiting for someone to check your findings, and how much teaching each case gets. Raise it again when you meet students. If their figure is higher than the official one, theirs is the one you would live with.
Does every student rotate through pediatrics, contact lenses, low vision and vision therapy, or only those who choose them?
Why ask it
A service on the website is not the same as weeks in it for every student. Get the number of sessions each person has, and find out whether the harder contact lens fits are done by students or kept for residents.
How are fourth-year externship sites assigned, and how many students got their first choice last year?
Why ask it
A lottery, ranked preferences and placement by staff each produce different winners. Last year's first-choice figure tells you more than a description of the system. If the popular sites go by grades, that reaches back into your first year, so find out now.
What kinds of externship sites are on the list, and how many are in other states?
Why ask it
The point of the final year is variety: a hospital site for disease, a private practice for the business, a surgery or referral center for the cases in between. An externship in the area where you hope to settle doubles as a long job interview, so ask whether a student can propose a new site.
Do students run and read the imaging themselves, such as OCT scans and visual fields?
Why ask it
Reading scans is daily work in a practice that manages eye disease. A good answer is that students capture and interpret them from a named year, with a doctor checking. If technicians run the machines and the supervisor reads the printout, you would be learning it on your first job.
Do students follow patients with chronic conditions such as glaucoma across several visits?
Why ask it
Diagnosing a condition once and managing it over a year are different skills, and a clinic that reassigns patients every term teaches only the first. The follow-up is whether a student keeps their own patients, and for how long.
How much time do students spend in the optical, fitting frames and sorting out glasses that patients cannot get used to?
Why ask it
A new graduate's first unhappy patient is often unhappy about a pair of glasses, not a disease. Schools differ on whether dispensing is a short lab or real shifts in the clinic's optical. If you are heading for private practice, this is worth more than it sounds.
Outcomes
What share of your last class passed each part of the boards on the first try, and how does that compare with the classes before it?
Why ask it
Many schools post these figures, so look first and use the interview for the story behind them. In the United States the national boards come in parts taken at different points, and a single blended figure can hide a weak part. A school that explains a dip plainly and says what it changed is more reassuring than one that quotes its best year.
Does clinic ease off before boards, and does the school run its own review or leave that to students?
Why ask it
A commercial review course is a real cost if students buy one, so find out who pays for it here. Then put the question to a fourth-year: was the built-in review worth attending? Theirs is the answer to go by.
Of the students who started with the class that just graduated, how many finished on time?
Why ask it
The gap between the entering class and the graduating one is made of repeated years, leaves and dismissals, and each has a different cause. A school that knows its number and its reasons is watching. One that changes the subject may not be.
What share of each class applies for a residency, and in which areas do they place?
Why ask it
Where a residency is optional, the share shows what the program steers people toward more than how good it is. If ocular disease, pediatrics or specialty contact lenses interest you, ask where last year's applicants landed and which faculty member advised them.
Where did last year's graduates go to work, and how does that split between private practice, retail and hospital settings?
Why ask it
The split is a picture of the school's contacts and of who is hiring nearby. A program whose graduates nearly all land in one setting may suit you perfectly or not at all. The follow-up is how many had an offer in hand at graduation.
Who teaches practice management, and have they owned or run a practice?
Why ask it
Billing and coding, reading an associate contract and what it takes to buy into a practice all arrive soon after graduation. A course taught by someone who has done those things tends to use real numbers. One taught from slides tends to be the course students tell you they skipped.
Is the program fully accredited, and what did the last review ask the school to improve?
Why ask it
Status is a public record, so the part worth an interviewer's time is what the reviewers wanted changed. For a new program that is not yet fully accredited, ask exactly what that means for sitting boards and getting a license, and ask for the answer in writing.
Will this degree let me get licensed where I plan to practice, and who helps students heading elsewhere?
Why ask it
Licensing is decided by each state or country, and some add their own law exam or extra certification. The school knows its home rules best. Take any answer about another place as a starting point and check it with that licensing board yourself.
Students
What made you choose this school over your other offers, and has the reason held up?
Why ask it
A current student will give you a specific reason, such as cost, the clinic or being near family. What you learn from is the follow-up: listen for whether the thing that sold them turned out to be true.
What does your week look like right now?
Why ask it
Put it to a second-year and a third-year, because one will describe labs and exams and the other clinic shifts. Add up the hours yourself afterwards. 'Right now' keeps them from giving you the average week, which nobody has.
How much of a life outside school do you have, and what do you do with it?
Why ask it
A student with room in the week names something recent and specific: a team, a shift at a part-time job, a trip home. The answer changes by year, so hear it from a first-year and from someone in clinic. If you would be moving for this school, follow up with where students live and what rent runs.
What did the equipment kit cost you, and which pieces would you not buy again?
Why ask it
Optometry students usually buy their own diagnostic instruments and lenses, and the bill tends to land early. Students know which items never leave the drawer, whether graduates sell theirs on, and whether second-hand equipment is allowed. Ask how it works at this school before you budget.
Who do you practice on, and how hard is it to find a partner the night before a proficiency?
Why ask it
This is the culture question in a form people answer honestly. In a class that helps each other, someone always stays late to be your patient. If students describe guarding lane time or practicing on reluctant roommates, the word 'collaborative' on the website needs a second look.
How do the clinic doctors react when you get a finding wrong in front of a patient?
Why ask it
Everyone misses things while learning, so the story tells you how teaching happens here: a quiet correction in the hallway afterwards, or one made across the patient. Notice too whether the student names a supervisor they hope to be scheduled with. A clinic where students trade advice on whom to avoid is a harder place to learn.
What would you ask the dean to fix first?
Why ask it
Students answer this faster than faculty do. One complaint heard from three different students is a finding, whether it is parking, an exam schedule or a clinic that books too few patients. Follow up by asking whether the class has raised it and what came back.
If you were interviewing again, what would you ask that you did not ask the first time?
Why ask it
Students remember exactly what they wish they had known, and it is usually something small and practical. Whatever they name, write it down and ask it at your next interview as well.
Cost and offer
What does the whole degree cost, counting fees, equipment and board exams as well as tuition?
Why ask it
Tuition is the figure everyone quotes, and the surprises sit beside it. Ask the financial aid office for a year-by-year estimate that includes the instrument kit, exam fees, health insurance and living costs during externships. A school that can hand you that sheet has been asked before.
Should I budget for tuition to rise after the first year?
Why ask it
An offer letter states one year's price. Ask whether the school commits to a rate for an entering class or sets it annually. If it is annual, ask for the last three increases so you can run your own estimate.
Which scholarships does the school award itself, and do they renew every year?
Why ask it
An award that needs a set GPA to renew, or that covers the first year only, changes the four-year total. Ask whether you would hear about it with the offer or months later. If a military or public service scholarship interests you, ask who on staff has helped a student through one, because the terms belong to the outside program.
Does my home state or region have an agreement with this school that lowers what I pay?
Why ask it
There are not many optometry schools, so some states and regions support seats at schools elsewhere, and a few attach a promise to return home and practice afterwards. Whether one applies to you depends on where you live. Ask admissions, then confirm the terms with the program at home, since the rules are theirs.
What did the last graduating class owe on average, and does the school know what their first jobs pay?
Why ask it
Get both figures from the same class and compare them yourself. If the school knows the debt and not the salaries, ask who keeps in touch with alumni. Treat any salary as local, and as a few years old by the time you graduate.
How soon are decisions sent, and how long would I have to accept and pay a deposit?
Why ask it
This one is for admissions staff, and it makes a clean last question of the day. If the deposit date lands ahead of another school's answer you may be paying to keep a choice open, so get the amount, the date and whether any of it comes back. If offers are made as interviews happen, ask how many seats are still open.
Job interview
How many patients a day would I see, and how long is each exam slot?
Why ask it
This number sets the pace of the whole job. Ask what it would be in your first three months and what it is for the established doctors. A schedule that ramps up is a good sign. A full book from the first morning, with nobody down the hall, is a hard way to start.
Who would I turn to with a difficult case in the first year, and are they in the building?
Why ask it
'Call me anytime' and a doctor in the next room are different kinds of mentoring. Ask how the last new graduate was brought on and whether anyone reviewed their charts. If you would be the only optometrist at a second location, say out loud that you are new and watch the reaction.
How many technicians or scribes would work with me, and what do they do before I see the patient?
Why ask it
The same schedule with two trained technicians and with none is two different jobs. Ask who takes the history, who runs the pretesting and imaging, and who writes the chart. If support is shared between doctors, ask how it is divided on a busy day.
What diagnostic equipment is in the office, and what are you planning to add?
Why ask it
Ask to see the exam lanes. Without imaging and visual field testing in the building, you end up referring out conditions you were trained to manage, and the skill fades. Plans to add equipment count for more when there is a date and a budget attached.
What share of the visits are medical, and what share are routine exams for glasses and contacts?
Why ask it
The mix decides whether you use the disease training you have just finished. Ask as well which insurance and vision plans you would need to be set up with and how long that takes here, because until it is done a new doctor may not be able to see part of the schedule.
Why is the position open, and how long did the last associate stay?
Why ask it
Growth, a retirement and a departure each start you somewhere different. One short stay means little. Several in a row is a pattern, and the polite way to test it is to ask whether you could speak to someone who worked there before.
What days, hours and locations would I cover, including evenings and weekends?
Why ask it
Retail settings often keep retail hours, and a group with several offices can move a new doctor between them. Get the days and the sites named, and ask how often the schedule has changed for the current associates. What is agreed should end up in the contract and not only in the conversation.
Who takes after-hours calls and urgent eye problems, and would I be in that rotation?
Why ask it
On-call duty is easy to leave out of an offer and hard to miss once you have it. Get the frequency, whether it is paid, and who you could phone when a call is beyond what you have handled alone. If the practice sends every urgent case elsewhere, weigh that against what you were told about the medical share of the schedule.
Who has the final say on which tests I order, what I prescribe and how long I spend with a patient?
Why ask it
The answer you want is that clinical decisions belong to the doctor. Ask directly whether there are targets for glasses, contact lens or add-on test sales, and whether anyone's pay depends on them. Targets are not always a deal-breaker, but you should hear about them before you start and not in your first review.
Could I build a specialty here, such as dry eye, myopia management or specialty contact lenses?
Why ask it
It tests whether the practice wants a colleague or another pair of hands. A serious yes comes with something attached: equipment money, protected slots in the schedule, a mention on the website. If the owner already has a niche, ask whether there is room beside it.
How is the pay structured: salary, a percentage of production, or a base with a bonus on top?
Why ask it
The structure matters as much as the figure. Ask how production is defined: billed or collected, exams only or glasses and contact lenses too. Then ask to see how the formula would have paid a recent associate in an ordinary month.
Would I be an employee or an independent contractor, and who pays for malpractice insurance, license fees and continuing education?
Why ask it
Arrangements differ by employer and by local law, so ask how it works at this practice and do not assume. Add paid time off and health cover to the list, and put a value on each item when you compare offers. A higher salary that leaves you paying for all of these yourself can come out lower.
Does the contract limit where I can work if I leave?
Why ask it
Restrictions on working nearby or contacting patients appear in some associate contracts, and whether they hold up depends on where you are. Nobody's summary in an interview settles it. Ask for the wording early and have a lawyer who knows local employment contracts read it before you sign.
Is there a path to partnership or buying in, and has anyone here taken it?
Why ask it
A path that exists only in conversation is a hope. Ask when it would first be discussed, how the practice would be valued and whether any of that is written down. If the owner is nearing retirement, ask what the plan is, since you might be it.
Could I spend half a day in the office and talk with the staff before I decide?
Why ask it
A few hours in the building shows you the pace, how the front desk speaks to patients and whether the technicians look rushed. Ask the staff how long they have worked there. An owner who welcomes the visit is telling you something, and so is one who would rather you did not.
How to use your questions at an optometry interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Find out who you will meet
A school interview day usually has several audiences: a faculty interviewer, admissions staff, a walk through the clinic and time with current students. Ask the admissions office for the schedule if it was not sent. The groups on this page follow that order, so you can pick questions for each person instead of carrying one list into every room.
Read what is already published
Board pass rates, tuition, class size and accreditation status are usually on the school's own site or the accreditor's. Arrive knowing them. 'I saw the first-time pass rate dipped two years ago. What changed?' gets a better answer than asking for the number, and it shows you did the reading.
Pick three for each person
Time for your own questions is often a few minutes at the end of each conversation. Choose the three whose answers could change where you rank the school, and put the most important one first in case there is only time for one.
Write down what would decide it for you
Before you visit anywhere, note what would make you choose one school over another: cost, patient numbers, a specialty clinic, distance from home. Interview days are built to be likeable. A list made in advance keeps the comparison honest when every school has been friendly.
On the day
Match the question to the person
Faculty know the teaching and the clinic. Admissions and financial aid know the numbers, the dates and the money. Students know what a week feels like and what the class grumbles about. A question about deposits put to a professor wastes a turn, and so does a question about class culture put to the person whose job is recruiting.
Ask about last year, not in general
'How are externships assigned?' gets the policy. 'How many students got their first choice last year?' gets what happened. Most of the questions under Clinic and Outcomes improve when you ask about the most recent class.
Ask one question twice
Put the same question, such as how many students share a supervising doctor, to a faculty member and to a student. When the answers match, you can rely on them. When they differ, you have learned something neither would have told you directly.
Look while you walk
On the clinic tour, count the exam lanes, and notice whether there are patients in the waiting room and students practicing in the pre-clinic rooms. What you see on an ordinary afternoon is evidence too, and it gives you a specific follow-up for the next person you meet.
Make notes before you drive away
Schools blur together after the third interview. Ten minutes of notes the same day, under the same headings for every school, is what you will reach for when the offers arrive.
If it is a job interview
Start with the work, then the money
In a first conversation, open with patient load, mentoring, support staff and equipment. They show you care how you would practice, and the answers tell you what the pay is buying. The Job interview group runs in that order: the work first, then pay, the contract and partnership, which fit a second meeting or the offer stage unless the owner raises them sooner.
Ask to see, not only to hear
Ask to see the exam lanes, the pretest room and an ordinary day's schedule with the names removed. A schedule answers the questions about pace and patient mix more exactly than anyone's memory does.
Get the important answers in writing
Hours, locations, the pay formula, what is covered and any path to partnership should appear in the offer or the contract. Contract terms and how they are enforced differ from place to place, so have someone qualified where you live read it before you sign. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Weigh the first year, not the top line
A new graduate tends to gain most from a doctor nearby, a sensible schedule and the instruments to manage disease. An offer that pays more and provides none of those can cost you in confidence and in skills you stop using. Decide what you need from your first year before you look at the number.
Mistakes to avoid
Asking what the website answers
Class size, prerequisites and the length of the program are a search away. Asking for them tells a faculty interviewer you have not looked. Build on what is published instead, and spend your turns on what only a person in the building can tell you.
Treating the student session as off the record
At some schools the students who host applicants are asked for their impressions afterwards, so assume they might be. Be curious and ask the honest questions politely. Running down another school or joking about your interviewer is the kind of thing that gets repeated.
Leaving cost until after the offer
Applicants often feel that asking about money looks ungrateful. Financial aid staff expect it, and the answers take time to compare. Ask on the day, while the person who knows is in front of you.
Reciting the list
A notebook on your knee is normal. Reading out question four because it comes after question three, when the professor has just said something worth chasing, is a missed chance. Follow what was said, and send whatever you did not reach to admissions by email.