Optometrist schooling runs on a fixed ladder: at least 3 years of undergraduate education, a 4-year Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree, and a state license at the end.
Along the way come specific prerequisite courses, the OAT entrance exam and the OptomCAS application.
Here is each step, what it requires, and how long the whole path takes.
What degree does an optometrist need?
The degree is a Doctor of Optometry, abbreviated OD.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says optometrists typically need an OD degree and that the program takes 4 years to complete.
It is neither a bachelor's degree nor an MD: federal student-aid regulations list Optometry (O.D.) as its own professional degree, in the same category as the MD, DO, Pharm.D., DDS/DMD, DVM, DC, JD and DPM.
Because the OD is graduate study, undergraduate education comes first.
BLS says applicants to OD programs must have completed at least 3 years of undergraduate education, though applicants typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Accreditation is bound into the path: the typical licensure requirement is an ACOE-accredited OD degree.
The directory of the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE), dated August 17, 2026, lists 24 accredited OD programs in the US (including Puerto Rico) and 2 in Canada.
The Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) reports that there are no ACOE-accredited OD programs outside the US and Canada.
The degree alone does not finish the journey: every state requires optometrists to be licensed.
Licensing is a state matter with its own exams and application, and this page only marks where it sits in the path.
For the job the degree leads to, the optometrist career guide covers the work, the settings and the pay.
What undergraduate education comes first?
The floor is BLS's: at least 3 years of undergraduate education before an OD program, with applicants typically holding a bachelor's degree.
The requirements you can act on course by course come from ASCO, the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry.
Its general requirements for most optometry programs include:
- at least one year of biology or zoology,
- at least one year of general chemistry,
- at least one year of general physics,
- at least one year of English,
- at least one year of college math.
ASCO also tells applicants to check with each school about AP and online credit before counting on either.
Schools layer requirements of their own on top.
ASCO's May 2026 prerequisite chart tracks school-specific requirements in calculus, anatomy, physiology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, statistics, psychology and shadowing, and the details differ program by program — each school's admissions page carries the current list.
The prerequisite list names courses, not majors.
Among 2024-25 OptomCAS applicants, biology was by far the most common major with 1,097 applicants, followed by biological sciences (266), psychology (173), biomedical science (170) and health science (167).
Admissions are competitive on the numbers too.
Accepted applicants in the 2024-25 OptomCAS cycle averaged a 3.56 overall GPA and a 3.45 science GPA, and the cycle drew 2,897 applicants for 1,956 first-year matriculants, an applicant-to-matriculant ratio of 1.48.
The OAT is the exam in this stage.
ASCO is its governing body and the ADA's Department of Testing Services administers it, and OAT results are accepted by every US optometry school and by select Canadian schools.
The test has four multiple-choice sections: Survey of the Natural Sciences (100 items), Reading Comprehension (50), Physics (40) and Quantitative Reasoning (40).
Scores are reported on a scale from 200 to 400 in 10-point increments, and there is no official passing score — each program decides what it accepts.
Retakes are bounded.
Candidates must wait 60 days between attempts and may test at most four times in any 12-month period.
The OAT program's own timing advice is to test after completing the subjects the exam covers — ideally in the second semester of junior year or the summer between junior and senior year.
The OAT is not the only accepted test.
For the 2026-27 cycle, OptomCAS's school table shows most optometry schools accepting the MCAT and/or DAT in place of the OAT, and many accepting the GRE — the substitutions are school-specific, so check each program.
The application itself runs through OptomCAS, the central application service that OptomCAS reports all 25 US schools and colleges of optometry participate in.
That count of 25 includes the University of Detroit Mercy, which held ACOE's Preliminary Approval (preaccreditation) status, not full accreditation, as of ACOE's July 27, 2026 directory.
The 2026-27 cycle opened June 25, 2026 and closes to all submissions on May 20, 2027.
It costs $190 to apply to the first school and $85 for each additional school in the cycle, and OptomCAS forwards one personal essay to every school you designate.
Course requirements differ school by school
What happens in the 4-year OD program?
The professional program itself takes 4 years, per BLS.
The clinical component shows in ASCO's externship data: 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.
Graduation requirements are each program's own, and ASCO's annual data report shows how rarely the national boards are folded into them: only 7 of 25 US OD programs require students to take an NBEO (or OEBC) exam to graduate, and only 3 require passing one.
The National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) exams enter the path at licensure instead, which is the states' system, not the schools'.
The short version of what comes after graduation: every state requires optometrists to be licensed, and each of the 51 US jurisdictions sets its own requirements — typically an ACOE-accredited OD degree plus passing the NBEO's licensure exams.
Which exam parts, fees and application steps a state wants is that state's board of optometry's call.
Confirm them with the board where you plan to practice rather than relying on another state's rules.
Licensing is set state by state
Is a residency required?
Not in the schooling path.
BLS's requirements for optometrists run from at least 3 years of undergraduate education through the 4-year OD degree to a state license.
ASCO describes residencies as post-graduate programs — one year of experiential training that advances patient-care skills beyond entry-level practice — so a residency sits on top of the OD degree, not inside it.
Whether a residency matters for anything beyond education — licensure, credentials, hiring — depends on rules this page does not own.
Our research did not establish any state that requires one for licensure; the licensure pattern our research found is typically an ACOE-accredited OD degree plus the NBEO exams.
Treat the question as one for the board of optometry where you plan to practice.
For those who pursue one, the options are broad.
ACOE's directory of accredited optometric residency programs, dated August 17, 2026, lists 263 accredited programs in the US and Canada.
ASCO's category list includes primary care, family practice, community health, geriatric, pediatric, cornea and contact lenses, ocular disease, refractive and ocular surgery, low vision rehabilitation, vision therapy, and brain injury rehabilitation, among others.
Positions are offered and filled through ORMatch.
In the 2026 Match, 518 positions were offered across 283 programs at 271 residency sites, and 356 of them — 69 percent — filled.
How many years of school in total?
Put the standard stages end to end — the 3-year undergraduate minimum plus the 4-year OD program — and the count is 7, before the accelerated routes below.
The typical count is 8, because applicants to OD programs typically hold a bachelor's degree, which adds the fourth undergraduate year up front.
A few routes compress the professional years.
The Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Drexel University (PCO/Drexel) runs an Accelerated Scholars Program that completes the full OD requirements in an accredited 36-month, year-round, campus-based program.
NECO's Accelerated Optometric Degree Program is a 36-month curriculum for holders of a doctorate in science or medicine, and its Advanced Standing International Program lets international optometry graduates finish the OD in two years.
UAB's Advanced International Optometry Degree Program gives graduates of international optometry or ophthalmology bachelor's or doctorate programs a 2.5-year route.
ASCO counted 148 students enrolled in alternate or special OD programs in 2025-26 — 26 at NECO, 57 at Nova, 59 at PCO/Drexel and 6 at UAB.
Either way you count it, the undergraduate years plus the OD program are the whole of the schooling requirement.
The license that follows is measured in exams and application steps rather than academic years, and a residency, for those who pursue one, adds another year on top.
How does schooling compare with an ophthalmologist's?
Ophthalmologists sit on the medical side of the divide.
BLS distinguishes them from optometrists as physicians who also perform a wider range of surgeries, and that difference starts in their schooling.
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 replaces medical school with the 4-year OD program, and optometric residencies are one-year programs taken after graduation; the licensure pattern our research found is typically the degree plus the NBEO exams, with no residency stage.
One caveat on the comparison: BLS's figures cover physicians and surgeons as a group, and its source does not give ophthalmology's own residency length.
| Stage | Optometrist (OD) | Ophthalmologist (physician) |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | At least 3 years; applicants typically hold a bachelor's | Bachelor's degree (typical, per BLS) |
| Professional school | 4-year OD program | 4 years of medical school |
| Training after the degree | State license — typically the degree plus NBEO exams; an optional residency (1 year) after graduation | 3 to 9 years of internship and residency, by specialty |
For a student weighing the two, the comparison comes down to structure.
Both paths start with undergraduate coursework and a 4-year professional program; they part ways after it, with a required multi-year medical residency on one side and a state licensing process on the other.
In optometry, a one-year residency remains available after graduation for those who pursue one.