Pacific University College of Optometry

Forest Grove, OR · Official site

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 No citation, no source link, and possibly wrong or out of date.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	71	76.06%	85.92%	71.83%	84.51%	66.83%	PDF

Class profile — 2025 entering class

Class size

Applicants

not given

Interviewed

not given

Average GPA

3.49

Average science GPA

not given

Average OAT (AA)

321

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

Program

Public / private: Private
reviewed by hand
Accreditation status: Accredited (next ACOE site visit 2032)
reviewed by hand
Year established: 1945
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source

Class profile

Class size: 90
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average GPA: 3.49
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average science GPA: not given
Average OAT (AA): 321
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Profile year: 2025 entering class
ASCO · 2025 entering class

Admissions

Letters of recommendation: 2 letters — required: optometrist, general faculty
OptomCAS
Interview style: Virtual
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Patient care hours required: 10 hours recommended
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Application deadline: 3/1/27
OptomCAS
Last OAT date accepted: 3/1/27
OptomCAS
Supplemental application: None listed
OptomCAS
Bachelor's required: No, but applicants must meet the requirements for the Bachelor’s Degree Completion Option. Please check school website for more information.
OptomCAS
Other tests accepted: OAT is strongly preferred; GRE, DAT and MCAT are accepted.
OptomCAS

Cost

Year-1 direct cost: 54168
— this is Pacific's own published combined tuition-and-fees line for year 1, matching the derived-field definition exactly.
reviewed by hand
Tuition — in-state: not published
Separately from fees. Pacific publishes combined "tuition and fees" per year: 54168 (Y1), 54153 (Y2), 54153 (Y3), 54177 (Y4).
Tuition — out-of-state: not published
Pacific states it is a private institution, so all students pay the same tuition rate. This is stated explicitly rather than inferred.
Cost of attendance / yr: not given
Fees: not published
Separately from tuition.
Average debt at graduation: $195,000
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Scholarships available: Approximately 20 scholarships awarded to…
Approximately 20 scholarships awarded to first-year optometry students: the Dean's Merit Award (15000 over three years), the Dean's Scholarships (5000 toward first-year tuition), and other awards from 1000 to 5000. Selected by the Admissions Committee, mostly in spring, based on overall application quality including GPA and OAT scores, written application, letters of reference, and the on-campus interview. Pacific also participates in the WICHE Professional Student Exchange Program for residents of AK, AZ, CO, HI, MT, NM, ND, UT and WY.
reviewed by hand

Boards & outcomes

NBEO Part I — first-time: 76.1%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part II — first-time: 85.9%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part III — first-time: 71.8%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO ultimate pass rate: 84.5%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Average NBEO pass rate: 77.9%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Residency match rate: 75%
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Residency programs available: Yes
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Employment after graduation: 98%
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source

Clinical training

Clinic starts: 2nd
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Patient volume: Medium
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Specialty clinics offered: Vision Therapy, Community Outreach
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
VA / hospital rotations: Yes
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source

Curriculum

Problem-based learning: No
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Research opportunities: Good
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Dual degree options: OD/MS, OD/MEd
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Faculty-to-student ratio: 12:1
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source

Location & life

Cost of living: Medium
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Housing availability: Moderate
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source
Weather / climate: not given
Competitiveness vs collaboration: Supportive
unverified — student spreadsheet, no source

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