Admissions

OD Admissions

Application Requirements and Procedure

Applications are strongly recommended to be submitted as early in the application year as possible, even if all admission requirements have not been fully completed. While the deadline for submission of the application form is March 1st (unless an extension is provided by the Director of Admissions), the Committee on Admissions begins to make decisions much earlier in the year. 

Your application for admission will be considered if:

  1. A letter of recommendation must be prepared and sent by the Pre-professional Committee at the undergraduate school where you completed the majority of your pre-professional courses. If a Committee exist and can not submit a letter of recommendation, a letter from that Committee indicating why, is required. If there is no such committee at that undergraduate school, you must then also submit up to 3 letters of recommendation of your choice. Two of the four letters of recommendation must assess academic performance in the science areas.
  2. Official report of all Optometric Admissions Test (OAT) scores is provided. You are advised to take the OAT no later than the Fall of the application year;  OATs written after March 1 of the calendar year in which you wish to enroll will not be accepted for Rolling Admissions applicants. The OAT will be offered at a Thomson Prometric (previously Sylvan) Center. For more details about the OAT and where to take it, go to their website at https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html
  3. Official report of all scores achieved on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), if taken in high school, are to be submitted directly to SUNY optometry. If you took the American College Test (ACT) instead of the SAT in high school, please have these scores submitted. We will accept SAT and ACT scores submitted on an official high school transcript.
  4. Official transcripts of all college courses taken to date are submitted by the institutions.

Application Options

ROLLING ADMISSIONS

This is the standard way most students apply. Decisions will be made as early as September and continue until the class is filled.

Though the Application deadline is March 1, applicants are advised to submit applications during the summer or fall the year prior to the class entering in August.

JOINT DEGREE (students should inquire with the Admissions Office of their undergraduate college or SUNY Optometry to see which undergraduate colleges offer this option)

This option allows students to attend SUNY Optometry after three years of undergraduate college and receive a BS degree from their undergraduate college after completing our first year. They then continue at SUNY Optometry for the full 4 years to receive the OD degree. Applicants with strong academic backgrounds can be accepted provisionally into the Joint Degree Program directly out of high school or anytime during their first two years of undergraduate college.

Please forward any questions or suggestions to:
SUNY State College of Optometry
Office of Student Affairs
Room 1131
33 West 42nd St.
New York, New York 10036
(800) 291-3937
(212) 938-5500

Online Application

The deadlines for receiving applications for the 2022-2023 application cycle: 

  • ROLLING ADMISSIONS: for the 2022-2023 application cycle, applications may be entered on-line beginning July 1, 2022, but no later than March 1, 2023.

  • APPLICATION FORM: ALL applicants must apply using the Common Application form found at https://www.optomcas.org.

  • Check our website at https://www.sunyopt.edu/admissions for all admissions requirements.

    (OATs written after February 28, 2023 will not be accepted)

Since SUNY is on "Rolling Admissions", early applications and OATs are advised.

Click here to apply online