Optometry students must work together to reach their goals.
They are often described as "the cream of the crop." Their numbers are small - only 32 per academic year. They are the students in Ferris State University's Michigan College of Optometry. Early on they bond; they support each other through four years of graduate school. Yet in their junior year, that friendship is put to the test when they gather one evening to compete for the best internships.
Every year approximately 250 students vie for acceptance to the College, known for its selectivity, quality of education and individual attention. Each applicant must possess a minimum 3.0 GPA (most are higher) and three years of undergraduate study. The College, established in 1974, is the only optometry school in Michigan and one of only 17 in the United States, Puerto and Canada.
Waiting for Acceptance Brings Tense Times
With such strenuous competition, even waiting to be admitted to the College is an exciting and tense time in a student's life. Third-year student Debbie Denton happily found her acceptance to optometry school under her family Christmas tree. Amanda Church set her goal for admittance to the graduate school while still in high school. She placed all her eggs in the Ferris basket, applying only to FSU.
"My goal was to get here, and now that I'm here, nothing is stopping me from becoming a doctor of optometry," said Church. "Now I'm learning with a purpose. Not to just pass that day's test."
Each class of 32 students becomes its own support group, bolstering each other through the upheavals of college life. They form a unit, right up to the day they enter the "rotations room."
Students Compete for Internships
Juniors choose three four-month-long internships, called "rotations," for their senior year. Approximately half the sites are in Michigan; the others as far away as Alaska, Florida and North Dakota. The students are responsible for their own transportation and housing costs.
One night in March, 32 friends enter a classroom and stay until each has accepted three rotations. The rotation sites are listed upon a bulletin board, and every student knows which internships carry the most prestige. Each student must tack a first, second and third choice slip of paper to that board. First choices are often determined by a literal roll of dice, termed a "roll-off."
Jennifer Lintz entered the room with butterflies in her stomach and a philosophy of "whatever happens, happens." All three of her choices were contested and determined by roll-off. Lintz lost all of her first choices. "But I did get to stay in Michigan," she said. "However, any of the sites would have provided me with a quality intern experience."
Despite the importance of the internships, friendship always prevails. When two students in the most recent class needed to stay in Michigan for family reasons, two other students agreed to go out of state. The class of 1998 left the rotations room as friends who had determined their futures together.
Annual social events such as the "Eye Ball," a dinner/dance, or the "Optic Cup," a picnic/golf outing, are a brief respite in a grueling curriculum. "We don't get out much," said student Debbie Denton. "I'm coming off the hardest academic year I've ever faced, but passing my boards and getting my degree will be the most memorable events the social stuff is just gravy along the way."
