University of Alabama at Birmingham School 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 No citation, no source link, and possibly wrong or out of date.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	76.36%	92.73%	78.18%	89.09%	66.83%	PDF

Class profile — 2025 entering class

Class size

Applicants

not given

Interviewed

not given

Average GPA

3.71

Average science GPA

not given

Average OAT (AA)

329

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

Program

Public / private: not given
Accreditation status: Accredited (next ACOE site visit 2026)
reviewed by hand
Year established: 1969
reviewed by hand

Class profile

Class size: 55
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average GPA: 3.71
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average science GPA: not given
Average OAT (AA): 329
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Profile year: 2025 entering class
ASCO · 2025 entering class

Admissions

Letters of recommendation: 3 letters — required: optometrist, science faculty — not accepted: teaching assistant
OptomCAS
Interview style: Required of all admitted candidates
Required of all admitted candidates; conducted virtually or in person by the Admissions Committee. Format (MMI vs panel vs traditional) not stated.
reviewed by hand
Patient care hours required: 40 hours minimum REQUIRED
40 hours minimum REQUIRED — applicants must explore optometry by employment or volunteer/job shadow for at least 40 hours
reviewed by hand
Application deadline: 4/1/27
OptomCAS
Last OAT date accepted: 4/15/27
OptomCAS
Supplemental application: Required — fee $75, due 4/1/27
OptomCAS
Bachelor's required: Strongly preferred
OptomCAS
Other tests accepted: MCAT and DAT are accepted. Possible other exams are accepted on a case-by-case basis.
OptomCAS

Cost

Year-1 direct cost: not given
Tuition — in-state: $33,930
reviewed by hand
Tuition — out-of-state: $55,335
reviewed by hand
Cost of attendance / yr: 79683 (first-year in-state)
First-year in-state (tuition and fees 32954, books and supplies 10700, living expenses 36029). Out-of-state total NOT PUBLISHED — see note.
reviewed by hand
Fees: 1323–1548 by year
1323 first year; 1548 second year; 1548 third year; 1386 fourth year
reviewed by hand
Average debt at graduation: not given
Scholarships available: School of Optometry Merit Scholarship…
School of Optometry Merit Scholarship reduces non-resident tuition to 43335/year; school states 98% of non-resident, non-contract students qualify. SREB contract seats let residents of GA, LA, MS, SC pay in-state tuition (7-8 seats total).
reviewed by hand

Boards & outcomes

NBEO Part I — first-time: 76.4%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part II — first-time: 92.7%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO Part III — first-time: 78.2%
ASCO · 2024-2025
NBEO ultimate pass rate: 89.1%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Average NBEO pass rate: 82.4%
ASCO · 2024-2025
Residency match rate: not given
Residency programs available: Yes — 8 programs, 16 positions
Yes — 8 programs, 16 positions. 3 in-house (Cornea and Contact Lenses 1, Pediatric Optometry 1, Primary Care Optometry 1) and 5 affiliated (Omni Eye Services Atlanta 4, Tuscaloosa VAMC 2, Eye Center of Texas Houston 4, Vanderbilt Eye Institute 1, Birmingham VAMC 2).
reviewed by hand
Employment after graduation: not given

Clinical training

Clinic starts: 1st year
1st year — CLN 131 Clinical Rotation I, first-year summer semester, introduces students to internal clinic operations. Assisting with adult exams begins 2nd year fall (CLN 211).
reviewed by hand
Patient volume: not given
Specialty clinics offered: General ophthalmology, retinal specialist +6 more
General ophthalmology, retinal specialist, pediatric neurology, vision therapy, developmental vision, mild traumatic brain injury, myopia control, dry eye relief
reviewed by hand
VA / hospital rotations: Hospital-based yes
Hospital-based yes; VA not named for OD students. 4th-year externships are in approved hospital-based or multidisciplinary healthcare facilities. VA appears only at RESIDENCY level (Birmingham VAMC, Tuscaloosa VAMC).
reviewed by hand

Curriculum

Problem-based learning: Not a problem-based curriculum
Not a problem-based curriculum. One course (OPT 325 Clinical Management of Vision Problems) is lecture-based augmented by case-based, problem-oriented laboratory learning.
reviewed by hand
Research opportunities: Research areas are ocular biology, systems…
Research areas are ocular biology, systems neuroscience, biomedical optics and patient-based research. No structured OD-student research program (named fellowship, summer program or honors research track) is described on the school site.
reviewed by hand
Dual degree options: OD/MBA, OD/MPH, OD/MS
reviewed by hand
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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