A Doctor of Optometry (OD) is the optometry degree that leads to licensed practice: 4 years of professional study completed after at least 3 years of undergraduate education.
Federal student-aid regulations list Optometry (O.D.) as a professional degree, in the same category as the MD, DO and Pharm.D., and every state requires optometrists to hold a license.
Here is what the degree is, what the program includes, and what it qualifies you for.
What does OD stand for?
OD is the abbreviation for the Doctor of Optometry degree.
Federal student-aid regulations list the program as "Optometry (O.D.)", and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says optometrists typically need this degree to enter the profession.
When the initials appear after an eye care clinician's name, they point to this credential.
The degree comes from a school or college of optometry: OptomCAS counts 25 in the United States, and all of them participate in the OptomCAS application service.
The Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE) is the recognized accrediting body for professional OD degree programs in the United States and Canada, and it is recognized as an accreditor by both the US Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation.
The degree and the job are different questions.
The OD is the credential; what an optometrist does with it — the work, the settings and the modes of practice — is the profession's own topic, which our optometrist career guide covers.
Is it a doctorate?
Yes.
The Doctor of Optometry is a doctorate, and specifically a professional degree: federal regulations (34 CFR 668.2) give Optometry (O.D.) as an example of a professional degree, on the same examples list as the Pharm.D., DDS/DMD, DVM, DC, JD, MD, DO and DPM.
The OD's endpoint is professional practice, not academic research: every state requires optometrists to be licensed to practice.
The classification has a practical side in student aid.
Federal loan law ties the "professional student" category to the 34 CFR 668.2 professional-degree definition as in effect on July 4, 2025, which puts OD students in that category.
What that means in dollars is the subject of our student debt and income guide.
One wording note: "doctorate" describes the degree.
Whether an optometrist is addressed as a doctor in practice is a related but separate question — whether an optometrist is a doctor has its own page.
What does the program include?
The program is 4 years of professional study, entered after at least 3 years of undergraduate education — applicants to OD programs typically hold a bachelor's degree.
The course-by-course route in, from prerequisites through the OAT and the OptomCAS application, is the schooling requirements guide's subject.
Clinical training is built into the program's later years: in 2024-25, US optometry schools reported 1,962 affiliated externship sites and 5,480 completed externships, with fourth-year students rotating through settings such as VA facilities, private practices, co-management centers, community health centers, and military and IHS sites.
The scale is substantial.
ASCO's 2025-26 survey covered all 25 US OD programs with enrolled students and counted 7,368 full-time OD students in fall 2025, up 1.7% from 7,247 a year earlier.
In 2025, 71.4% of new OD graduates were women, and women outnumbered men among full-time students at every school in 2025-26, at 70.7% of full-time students.
Where the programs sit: ACOE's directory of accredited OD programs, dated August 17, 2026, lists 24 accredited programs in the US (including Puerto Rico) and 2 in Canada.
The 25 that OptomCAS and ASCO count adds Detroit Mercy, which holds ACOE's Preliminary Approval — a preaccreditation status — as of the July 27, 2026 directory, rather than full accreditation.
Our guide to the schools offering the OD profiles the full list.
What can you do with an OD?
First, the degree alone does not authorize practice — the license does.
BLS's path ends with the state: all states require optometrists to be licensed, which takes an accredited OD plus all sections of a qualifying exam, and some states add a clinical-skills or law exam.
How the licensing stage works across the states is the subject of our license requirements guide.
For graduates who want training beyond entry-level practice, optometric residencies are one-year, post-graduate, experiential programs that provide it.
The program types, the match and who they suit are in our optometry residency guide.
With the license in hand, the settings question opens up.
Per BLS, the largest employers of optometrists in 2025 were offices of optometrists (61%), offices of physicians (14%), retail trade (13%), self-employed workers (5%) and outpatient care centers (4%).
Our where optometrists work guide compares the modes of practice.
The license is the state's, not the degree's
OD vs MD
On paper the two degrees share a shelf: 34 CFR 668.2 names Optometry (O.D.) and Medicine (M.D.) on the same federal examples list of professional degrees.
In practice the paths part after the undergraduate years.
BLS describes the physician path as a bachelor's degree, 4 years of medical school, and then 3 to 9 years of internship and residency depending on the specialty.
The OD path is 4 professional years after at least 3 years of undergraduate education, with a one-year residency available to graduates who want training beyond entry-level practice.
One caveat: BLS's physician figures cover physicians and surgeons as a group, not ophthalmology's own residency length.
The professions differ in kind.
BLS distinguishes ophthalmologists — physicians who also perform a wider range of surgeries — from optometrists.
Where each state's scope-of-practice law draws the line for a licensed OD is its own topic, which our state-by-state scope guide tracks.
The pay figures need their labels.
BLS's May 2025 median for optometrists was $136,570, and it counts payroll optometrists only — OEWS excludes the self-employed, so practice owners are not in it.
For physicians and surgeons as a group, the median was $275,930 in the same cycle — an all-specialties figure, not an ophthalmology-specific one.
The optometrist salary guide breaks the OD side down.
For the career-level choice between the two — schooling cost, scope, settings and pay in detail — our optometrist vs ophthalmologist comparison owns the question.
Career information, not medical, licensing, legal or clinical advice. Degree, licensure and scope rules change; confirm them with the state board of optometry, the school or the accreditor named before you act on them.