Southern College of Optometry (SCO) is a private, ACOE-accredited optometry program in Memphis, Tennessee.
Its 2025 entering class enrolled 140 first-year students against 136 first-year slots, and admitted applicants averaged a 3.68 GPA and a 332 OAT Academic Average.
First-year tuition for 2025-26 is $32,832 for residents and $45,902 for non-residents, and the 2026-27 OptomCAS deadline is March 1, 2027.
This page pulls together what the numbers schools report to ASCO, NBEO and ACOE say about applying.
Where is Southern College of Optometry, and how big is the class?
Southern College of Optometry is a private optometry program in Memphis, Tennessee.
Its professional OD program holds ACOE's accredited status, and ACOE's directory dated August 17, 2026 schedules the program's next site visit for 2029.
The class size applicants care about is the first-year cohort.
SCO's 2025 entering class had 140 first-year matriculants against 136 first-year slots, per ASCO's Profile of the 2025 Entering Class.
The same profile shows where the class came from: 20 students listed Tennessee residency, 113 came from other states and 7 from abroad.
The OAT was the entry route for 138 of the 140.
What are SCO's admission requirements and stats?
ASCO's Profile of Applicants counted 813 verified OptomCAS applicants for SCO's 2025 entering class and 313 admitted — 22 in-state, 262 out-of-state and 29 foreign.
That works out to roughly 38% of applicants admitted, our arithmetic from ASCO's counts, not a rate ASCO publishes.
The averages show the bar.
Applicants overall averaged a 3.49 GPA and 317 on the OAT Academic Average; admitted applicants averaged 3.68 and 332.
The enrolled class carried an OAT Total Science average of 323.
A bachelor's degree is not a hard requirement in OptomCAS's listing — the school's requirement shows as strongly recommended for the 2026-27 cycle — though 98% of the 2025 class held one.
ASCO's general prerequisite guidance for most optometry programs includes at least one year each of biology or zoology, general chemistry, general physics, English and college math, and ASCO says applicants must check with each school about AP and online credit.
On tests, OptomCAS lists GRE and MCAT scores as accepted case-by-case at SCO, and the last OAT date SCO accepts for the 2026-27 cycle is listed as March 1, 2027.
Our OAT exam guide covers the test's sections, scoring and retake rules.
On deadlines, the OptomCAS application is due March 1, 2027, with a $50 supplemental fee and the same supplemental deadline.
OptomCAS's 2026-27 cycle opened June 25, 2026 and closes to all submissions May 20, 2027.
Requirements change — verify before you apply
How much does SCO cost?
SCO reported first-year OD tuition of $32,832 for residents and $45,902 for non-residents for 2025-26.
Those figures exclude fees, books and instruments, tuition differs across years 2-4 (year 2 resident tuition is $33,913), and the school can change its rates.
The resident figure needs one explanation.
ASCO footnotes that it reflects an average state contract-seat reduction, and that Tennessee has no public OD school.
Contract seats are a big part of the picture: 191 SCO students were enrolled under state contract agreements in 2025-26, the most of any program in ASCO's count.
The seats are funded by Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, out of 411 contract students ASCO counted.
Per ASCO's tables, Tennessee paid $14,354 per contract student at SCO for 2025-26, while most southern-state contract seats paid $21,184 per student per year toward tuition.
Against the national picture, SCO's $45,902 non-resident figure sits just under ASCO's $46,981 average first-year non-resident tuition at private schools for 2025-26.
Debt tells the other half of the cost story.
Among SCO's 2024-25 graduates, 84.9% had optometric educational debt, averaging $160,678 per graduate with debt and $136,449 across all graduates; undergraduate debt is excluded.
Nationally, the same report put average debt at $209,280 per graduate with debt, with 78.6% of graduates carrying it.
What clinics, externships and residencies does SCO offer?
Start with an honest gap: the sources behind this page — ASCO's student data reports, NBEO's institutional report, ACOE's directory and OptomCAS — do not describe SCO's own teaching clinic or name the externship sites its students rotate through.
Ask the school for its current clinical network.
The national picture gives the shape of the fourth year.
US optometry schools reported 1,962 affiliated externship sites and 5,480 completed externships in 2024-25, with fourth-year students rotating through settings such as VA facilities, private practices, co-management centers, community health centers, military and IHS sites, per ASCO's Externship Survey.
After graduation, one post-graduate option is a residency: a one-year, experiential program that advances patient-care skills beyond entry-level practice.
ASCO counted 31 residents in 2025-26 in programs affiliated with SCO.
If you are weighing that route, our guide to optometry residencies and the Match covers program types, stipends and how applications work.
How do SCO graduates do on boards and in jobs?
NBEO's institutional report for October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025 counted 128 SCO graduates who attempted all three parts.
Their first-time pass rates were 86.72% on Part I ABS, 97.66% on Part II PAM and 74.22% on Part III (PEPS), and 95.31% had ultimately passed all three.
National first-time rates for the same period were 66.83%, 87.96% and 70.09%, with an 82.49% ultimate rate.
NBEO's report counts only candidates who graduated in the period and attempted all three parts at least once.
One SCO detail matters when reading those numbers.
Per ASCO, SCO is one of only three US programs that require students to pass NBEO exams to graduate — Parts I and II, or OEBC.
At most programs, the NBEO parts matter at licensure rather than graduation, and each state's board sets which parts it requires.
On jobs, the reports we read include no SCO-specific employment or placement figures, so our research cannot say where its graduates practice — ask the school.
When you reach the job search itself, our guide to first associate jobs after graduation covers the associate role: pay structures, schedules and what to read in a contract.
Exam and licensure rules change
How does SCO compare with nearby optometry schools?
ASCO's tables note that Tennessee has no public OD school, and ACOE's directory of 26 accredited OD programs, dated August 17, 2026, lists no other Tennessee school.
For a regional comparison, the table below puts SCO next to three public university programs in nearby states whose 2025-26 figures we can compare directly: UAB, Indiana University and the University of Missouri at St. Louis.
Our sources include no official ranking of optometry schools, so the table compares the raw figures, each drawn from the same ASCO and NBEO series.
| Program | 2025 entering class | First-year tuition 2025-26, non-resident | Passed all three NBEO parts, Oct 2024-Sep 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern College of Optometry (private) | 140 | $45,902 | 95.31% (128 graduates) |
| UAB School of Optometry (public) | 55 | $54,012 | 89.09% (55 graduates) |
| University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry (public) | 46 | $50,464 | 83.72% (43 graduates) |
| Indiana University School of Optometry (public) | 92 | $47,814 | 72.73% (77 graduates) |
The columns are not identical cohorts: class sizes are the 2025 entering class, tuition is the 2025-26 first-year rate, and the pass rates come from NBEO's October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025 report, which counts only graduates who attempted all three parts.
A few readings the numbers support.
SCO enrolls the largest class of the four by a wide margin, and its non-resident tuition is the lowest sticker rate in the table.
The Missouri figure bundles standard university fees into tuition, while SCO's excludes fees, books and instruments.
Sticker tuition is a starting point, not a bill: ASCO footnotes that most UAB non-resident students qualify for a merit scholarship that significantly lowers non-resident tuition, and SCO's own resident figure is an average after contract-seat reductions.
For every ACOE-accredited program side by side, see all optometry schools in our schools guide.
Career information, not licensing, legal, medical or billing advice. Confirm admissions, tuition and graduation requirements with Southern College of Optometry and OptomCAS, and licensure rules with the board of optometry in the state where you plan to practice.