Career Center
Prepare for
Prepare for
Optometry School
Confirm your interest in optometry, prepare academically and develop the necessary skills and experience.
Academic Pre-Requisites
Identify School Pre-Requisites and the UC San Diego classes you can take to meet them. This is a general guideline. Please check individual schools for their specific pre-requisites:
One year of biology
- BILD 1, 2, 3, & any upper division Biology lab course (must be at least 4 quarter units)
- CHEM 6A, 6B, 6C, & lab 7L (lab)
- CHEM 40A, 40B, & 43A (lab)
- OR, Student who are Chem/Biochem, or Engineering majors will use: CHEM 41A, 41B, 41C, & 43A (lab)
- One of the following: BIBC 100, BIBC 102, CHEM 114A, or CHEM 114B
- One Anatomy Course with Lab
- BILD X13 at UC San Diego Extended Studies
- OR, community college
- One Human Physiology Course with Lab
- BIPN 100
- BIPN 105 (lab)
*Alternatively some community colleges teach Anatomy and Physiology combined*
8 quarter credits/6 semester credits combination human anatomy/physiology with labs
Microbiology
- BIMM 120 & BIMM 121 (lab)
- PSYC 1 Psychology
- The Analytical Writing Program and UC Entry Level Writing Requirement courses
- MATH 11 Or PSYC 60
**40AB is a prerequisite for biochemistry, which is a requirement for Molecular Biology, which is necessary to take Microbiology at UC San Diego.**
Experience
- Talk to, shadow or volunteer with an optometrist
- Find optometrists through your network of family and friends
- UC Berkeley School of Optometry: Opto-Camp (registration for summer opens in the spring)
Student Organizations
Join INSIGHT Pre-Optometry Club!