University of Detroit Mercy School of Optometry

Accreditation notice

Preliminary Approval (next ACOE site visit 2027)

This is a new program that has not yet graduated a class, so it holds Preliminary Approval rather than full accreditation. That is the normal path for a new school and is not a finding against it, but full accreditation is not guaranteed. Confirm the current status with ACOE before accepting an offer.

ACOE’s own notice · As of 2026-08-17

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 No citation, no source link, and possibly wrong or out of date.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.

Class profile — 2025 entering class

Class size

Applicants

not given

Interviewed

not given

Average GPA

3.46

Average science GPA

not given

Average OAT (AA)

303

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

Program

Public / private: not given
Accreditation status: Preliminary Approval (next ACOE site visit 2027)
Preliminary Approval (next ACOE site visit 2027) — NOT accredited
reviewed by hand
Year established: not given

Class profile

Class size: 35
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average GPA: 3.46
ASCO · 2025 entering class
Average science GPA: not given
Average OAT (AA): 303
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: not given
Patient care hours required: not given
Application deadline: 5/27/27
OptomCAS
Last OAT date accepted: 6/15/27
OptomCAS
Supplemental application: None listed
OptomCAS
Bachelor's required: No; completion of three or more years of undergraduate coursework (90+ semester hours) is required.
OptomCAS
Other tests accepted: OAT preferred. MCAT, PCAT and DAT accepted.
OptomCAS

Cost

Year-1 direct cost: 47345
— DERIVED (46500 tuition + 845 mandatory fees). Excludes computer, equipment and optional health insurance per the standing formula.
reviewed by hand
Tuition — in-state: $46,500
reviewed by hand
Tuition — out-of-state: 46500
— the cost table is explicitly headed "for Residents and Non-Residents", so there is no residency distinction
reviewed by hand
Cost of attendance / yr: 99261
For year 1, 99213 for year 2. PUBLISHED as a total — the second school in the set to do so, after Indiana. Explicitly covers residents and non-residents living off campus, and includes the optional health insurance.
reviewed by hand
Fees: 845 (recurring per year)
Recurring per year (lab supplies and activity fee 510, student health service fee 300, clinical technology fee 35). Separately billed: computer expense 2000 in year 1 only, equipment 4919 in year 1 and 6876 in year 2. Health insurance 3134 is marked optional and excluded.
reviewed by hand
Average debt at graduation: not given
Scholarships available: not given

Boards & outcomes

NBEO Part I — first-time: not given
NBEO Part II — first-time: not given
NBEO Part III — first-time: not given
NBEO ultimate pass rate: not given
Average NBEO pass rate: not given
Residency match rate: not given
Residency programs available: not given
Employment after graduation: not given

Clinical training

Clinic starts: not given
Patient volume: not given
Specialty clinics offered: not given
VA / hospital rotations: not given

Curriculum

Problem-based learning: not given
Research opportunities: not given
Dual degree options: not given
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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