University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Optometry

3.68 verified3.68 unverifiednot published checked, absentnot given not researchedWhat do these mean? ▾

3.68 Verified — official source: Published by ASCO or OptomCAS, the bodies that run optometry admissions and report board results. Board pass rates, class GPA and OAT averages, deadlines and letter requirements come from here. Click any underlined value to open the exact document it came from and check it yourself.
$31,746 Verified — the school’s own site: Read directly off the school’s website, then either accepted automatically because the wording was unambiguous, or approved by hand after a person read the surrounding sentence. Also clickable to the source page. These can go stale if a school updates a page and we haven’t re-crawled it yet.
Traditional Unverified estimate: Compiled by a student in a personal spreadsheet. No citation, no source link, and possibly wrong or out of date. These are a starting point for your own research, not a fact. Confirm with the school before you make any decision based on one. Where an official figure exists it always replaces these — so an unverified value means nobody has found a published source yet.
31,746 Calculated: Worked out from sourced figures rather than published as such. Year-1 direct cost is tuition plus mandatory fees, because no two schools break their costs up the same way and nothing else compares across them. The inputs are sourced; the arithmetic is ours.
not published Checked, genuinely absent: Someone opened the school’s own page and the figure is not there. This is a finding, not a gap — it means you can stop looking. Click it to open the page that was checked.
not given Not yet researched: Nobody has looked at this field for this school yet. Different from the one above: absence of research, not evidence of absence.

NBEO results — ASCO institutional report

Report year	Candidates	Part I	Part II	Part III	Ultimate	US Part I	Source
2024-2025	55	72.73%	87.27%	50.91%	74.55%	66.83%	PDF

Class profile — 2025 entering class

Class size

Applicants

not given

Interviewed

not given

Average GPA

3.52

Average science GPA

not given

Average OAT (AA)

301

Read from the school’s own page, 10 days ago.

Program

Public / private: not given
Accreditation status: Accredited (next ACOE site visit 2028)
reviewed by hand
Year established: not given

Class profile

Class size: 60
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average GPA: 3.52
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average science GPA: not published
See the rule 1 warning below, this one is dangerous
Average OAT (AA): 301
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Profile year: 2025 entering class
ASCO · 2025 entering class

Admissions

Letters of recommendation: 2 letters — required: optometrist, healthcare professional — not accepted: secondary science faculty, general faculty, teaching assistant
OptomCAS
Interview style: Both in-person and virtual
Both in-person and virtual. In-person interviews include a campus tour and meetings with campus leaders, students, faculty and staff; virtual interviews are held on Zoom. Invitation only. SWEEP 2 FIELD, came free.
reviewed by hand
Patient care hours required: not published
The admissions criteria reference "exposure to the optometry profession" as a review factor but specify no hour requirement or recommendation.
Application deadline: 4/1/27
OptomCAS
Last OAT date accepted: 4/1/27
OptomCAS
Supplemental application: None listed
OptomCAS
Bachelor's required: Preferred, but not required
OptomCAS
Other tests accepted: MCAT and DAT are accepted.
OptomCAS

Cost

Year-1 direct cost: 49950
— equals tuition, since no recurring mandatory fee is published
reviewed by hand
Tuition — in-state: $49,950
reviewed by hand
Tuition — out-of-state: 49950
— private institution, single rate, no residency distinction
reviewed by hand
Cost of attendance / yr: not published
The catalog repeatedly references a "KYCO standardized student budget" that caps financial aid, but never states its value.
Fees: not published
KYCO publishes no recurring mandatory annual fee. The catalog's Fees section lists only a one-time 1000 matriculation fee (credited toward tuition), per-request transcript fees, and a waivable health insurance charge (5660/year continuing, 4931/year incoming, removed on proof of qualifying coverage).
Average debt at graduation: not given
Scholarships available: Military Health Professions Scholarship…
Military Health Professions Scholarship Program (Air Force, Army, Navy) covering full tuition and required fees plus a monthly stipend, with a service commitment. Contract scholarships requiring post-graduation service are referenced generally. No KYCO-specific named institutional scholarship or dollar figure is published in the catalog.
reviewed by hand

Boards & outcomes

NBEO Part I — first-time: 72.7%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part II — first-time: 87.3%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part III — first-time: 50.9%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO ultimate pass rate: 74.6%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Average NBEO pass rate: 70.3%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Residency match rate: not given
Residency programs available: not given
Employment after graduation: not given

Clinical training

Clinic starts: 2nd year
2nd year — OPT 613 Clinical Internship I: Introduction to Patient Care, second-year fall semester, consisting of observing and assisting doctors and student interns within the KYCO clinical system or community vision screenings. First-year clinical skills courses are peer-based labs, not patient care. SWEEP 3 FIELD, came free.
reviewed by hand
Patient volume: not given
Specialty clinics offered: not given
VA / hospital rotations: not given

Curriculum

Problem-based learning: Not a problem-based curriculum
Not a problem-based curriculum, but case-based methods are used throughout: OPT 524 and OPT 611 both use case-based/problem-solving methodology, several disease courses run case-based labs, and OPT 730 Integrated Case-Based Learning is a dedicated third-year course. SWEEP 3 FIELD, came free.
reviewed by hand
Research opportunities: Research is embedded in the curriculum via…
Research is embedded in the curriculum via OPT 620 Epidemiology and Research Methodology (second-year summer), which covers study design through publication. UPIKE holds an annual Research Day (April). Stated institutional goals include developing, supporting and promoting student research. No named student research fellowship or honors track is described.
reviewed by hand
Dual degree options: not published
No combined or dual degree pathway appears anywhere in the 2026-2027 catalog
Faculty-to-student ratio: not given

Location & life

Cost of living: not given
Housing availability: not given
Weather / climate: not given
Competitiveness vs collaboration: not given

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