The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

So in terms of labs, I think third years get the best ones. We have a new course offered at ICO: Ophthalmic Lasers. Dr. Chaglasian organized an awesome lab with the help of the doctors at TLC Laser Eye Centers to give us first-hand experience working with lasers. We had several different stations set up and got to learn the components of each different type of laser refractive eye surgery. At the first station, we were each given our own pig-eye-in-a-cup to work on, and had t

HOORAY! I’m officially a third year! So this is how it happened: One day, I woke up, and I’m a third year. No, seriously, it felt that way. Every once in a while, I get the feeling that school is never going to end, and I’m just going to drown in huge piles of assignments, labs, practicals and exams. Then, one day, it was all over. There’s no more pharmacology to study for, we just have to know it for clinic. No more PAP observation sessions, we’re going to be in our own room

Most of the time I dread dispensing, I’ll be honest. Not because it’s not enjoyable or anything like that, but because I’m one of the lucky few that has it scheduled at just the right time. I dispense right before a really difficult exam, so those are valuable study hours that I have to spend dispensing instead. I enjoy interacting with patients, but I’m always worried out about not putting my all into studying. That feeling usually goes away once I’m actually at the Illinois