The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

As I continue on my journey to becoming an optometrist, my experience would not be complete without the people I’m surrounded by every day here at ICO. Although I haven’t met EVERYONE in my class yet, I have to say: our bonds are growing strongly at a fast pace. Usually, I’m not the one to develop friendships this quickly, but I tell myself that I will be in the same lecture hall, labs, and living area as my classmates for 3 years and 9 months. Why not develop these friendshi

WOW. It hardly feels like only two weeks have gone by since I arrived at ICO. The first few days of my journey here were a daze of getting settled in, Orientation actives, and explorations of this beautiful city. In the blink of an eye, my class was able to mingle amongst ourselves while being introduced to many of the amazingly kind second years, as well as faculty/staff. I am so impressed by what a fantastic job ICO and the Orientation team did to make us feel so welcome. A

Last week, I said my goodbyes and stepped on a plane in Boston, Massachusetts. Roughly two hours later, I entered a new time zone and touched down in Chicago. As of August 16th, I have officially completed my first year Orientation at ICO. Now, I’ve begun classes. View from plane leaving Boston! Things are moving along very quickly, but I am enjoying every minute of it! It is such a great feeling to know that I have accomplished one of my life goals and made it to optometry s

Very few things captivate my nerdy heart the same way that school supply shopping does. There is just something about being amongst aisle upon colorful aisle full of brand new binders, folders, and pens that makes me itch to get back into the classroom- if only just to use my new toys. Seeing notebooks without bent edges is much like having a clean slate to work on… and that is exactly what I imagine beginning school at ICO will be like. I won’t bore you with the long list of

It has been almost a year since I started ICO, and boy, has a lot happened! Am I happy to be at ICO? Incredibly. I have met some of the best people here, I have learned so much about myself (and about the eyes,) and I have found something that I really enjoy. However, if you would have asked me during the first week of classes if I had made the right decision, I probably wouldn’t have said all this. In fact, I actually told Beth Karmis that I thought I had made a huge mistake