University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) is the University of Houston's college of optometry — classed as a public school in ASCO's report — and one of two ACOE-accredited OD programs in Texas as of the accreditor's August 17, 2026 directory.
Its 2025 entering class held 100 first-year students with an average GPA of 3.61, and 2025-26 first-year tuition is $26,075 for Texas residents and $46,355 for non-residents, as reported to ASCO.
Below: the application window, admissions stats, costs, residencies and board results.
Where is it and how big is the class?
University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) is the University of Houston's college of optometry, classed as a public school in ASCO's report.
It holds ACOE's 'Accredited' status for its professional OD program, with its next ACOE site visit scheduled for 2031, per the accreditor's directory dated August 17, 2026.
The Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE) is the recognized accreditor for professional OD degree programs, optometric residency programs and optometric technician programs in the US and Canada.
Both the U.S. Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation recognize it as an accreditor.
The 2025 entering class held 100 first-year matriculants against 100 first-year slots, per ASCO's Profile of the 2025 Entering Class.
84 were in-state students, 15 out-of-state and 1 foreign, drawn from 13 states represented, and every member held a bachelor's degree.
The 2025 profile is the most recent entering-class data in our research; check ASCO and the school for a newer class.
Statuses and figures move — verify at the source
What are the admission requirements and stats?
UHCO uses the OptomCAS application service.
For the 2026-27 cycle, which opened June 25, 2026, UHCO's OptomCAS deadline is 2/28/27, and the school charges a $50 supplemental fee with the same 2/28/27 deadline.
OptomCAS's listing directs applicants to get all documents to UHCO's Office of Student Services by 2/28/27.
On hard requirements, OptomCAS lists UHCO's bachelor's degree requirement as 'Yes', and every member of the 2025 entering class held one.
MCAT, DAT, PCAT and GRE results are accepted alongside the OAT, though 97 of the 100 2025 matriculants entered with OAT scores, 1 with the MCAT and 2 with the DAT.
The pool's size, in ASCO's counts: 734 verified OptomCAS applicants for the 2025 entering class, of whom 142 were admitted — 96 in-state, 45 out-of-state and 1 foreign.
That works out to roughly 19% admitted, our arithmetic from ASCO's counts rather than a rate ASCO publishes.
The averages tell the same story.
Applicants overall averaged a 3.43 GPA and a 308 OAT Academic Average, while admitted applicants averaged 3.66 and 339.
The class that enrolled averaged a 3.61 GPA, with OAT averages of 337 Academic Average and 332 Total Science.
What these figures do not include is the course-by-course prerequisite list.
Our research compiled ASCO's reported statistics, not UHCO's required coursework, so read the school's OptomCAS entry and website for the classes and credits it expects.
Averages, not cutoffs
How much does it cost?
UHCO reported first-year OD tuition for 2025-26 of $26,075 for residents and $46,355 for non-residents to ASCO.
Tuition also moves between years, and the same report lists all four.
| Year | Resident | Non-resident |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1, 2025-26 | $26,075 | $46,355 |
| Year 2 | $25,407 | $45,167 |
| Year 3 | $32,762 | $58,242 |
| Year 4 | $34,099 | $60,619 |
The figures exclude fees, books and instruments, and ASCO flags tuition as subject to change — confirm current figures with the school.
Most UHCO graduates finish with optometric educational debt: 83.7% of the school's 2024-25 graduates had it, averaging $153,334 per graduate with debt, or $128,300 averaged across all graduates.
The figures exclude undergraduate debt.
For a benchmark from the same ASCO report, 2024-25 graduates with debt averaged $209,280 across all schools, and 78.6% of the 1,340 graduates reported carried debt.
UHCO's $153,334 average among graduates with debt sits below that national figure, while its 83.7% debt share is higher than the national 78.6%.
Our research notes the national table is incomplete — not every school reports its graduates into it.
What happens after the debt is its own topic — loan repayment and forgiveness programs for optometrists covers the programs graduates use.
What clinics, externships and residencies does it offer?
ASCO's 2025-26 residency listing reports 9 residents in optometry residency programs affiliated with UHCO.
Whether a residency year is worth it, and which types exist, is its own decision — the optometry residency guide walks through it.
On the clinical side, our research compiled the figures schools report to ASCO and NBEO, not the training sites behind them.
Where UHCO students rotate, and which sites partner with the program, are details the school's own website and OptomCAS listing carry — worth confirming directly before you apply.
How do graduates do on boards and in jobs?
NBEO's institutional report for October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025 covers 94 UHCO graduates who attempted all three parts.
First-time pass rates were 60.64% for Part I (ABS), 87.23% for Part II (PAM) and 60.64% for Part III (PEPS), and the ultimate pass rate — the share who had passed all three — was 84.04%.
The national US figures in the same report were 66.83%, 87.96%, 70.09% and 82.49%.
Read both lines with the counting rules: the report includes only graduates of the period who attempted all three parts at least once, and with a 94-person cohort, a handful of candidates moves UHCO's percentages by whole points.
The exams themselves — what each part covers, fees and attempt rules — are covered in the NBEO exams explained.
On employment, our research found no placement statistic for UHCO in NBEO's report or in the ASCO figures — neither names the employers graduates go to.
The first job after the degree is its own decision — first associate jobs after graduation covers what those roles look like and what to weigh.
How does it compare with nearby schools?
As of ACOE's August 17, 2026 directory, UHCO is one of two ACOE-accredited OD programs in Texas.
The other is the University of the Incarnate Word Rosenberg School of Optometry (UIWRSO), which also holds 'Accredited' status as of that directory, with its next site visit scheduled for 2030 to UHCO's 2031.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Optometry in McAllen holds only ACOE Stage One designation as of July 27, 2026.
Programs at the Stage One and Stage Two rungs are prohibited from recruiting or enrolling students, so it has no applicant figures to compare yet.
There is no official ranking of optometry schools in the sources we checked — no accreditor or ASCO ranking — so the comparison below runs only on the figures the two schools report.
| Measure | UHCO | UIWRSO |
|---|---|---|
| ACOE status (Aug 17, 2026 directory) | Accredited, next visit 2031 | Accredited, next visit 2030 |
| School type (per ASCO) | Public | Private |
| First-year tuition 2025-26 | $26,075 resident / $46,355 non-resident | $42,900 (one rate) |
| 2025 entering class | 100 matriculants | 74 matriculants |
| Class averages: GPA / OAT AA | 3.61 / 337 | 3.36 / 300 |
| 2025 applicants, admitted | 734, 142 (roughly 19%) | 437, 190 (roughly 43%) |
| Avg debt, 2024-25 graduates with debt | $153,334 | $252,267 |
| NBEO ultimate pass rate, Oct 2024-Sep 2025 | 84.04% | 63.49% |
| 2026-27 OptomCAS deadline | 2/28/27 | 5/1/27 |
| Bachelor's degree (OptomCAS) | Yes | No, but preferred |
| Other tests accepted (OptomCAS) | MCAT, DAT, PCAT, GRE | MCAT, DAT |
Every row pairs the same report for both schools: accreditation from ACOE's August 17, 2026 directory, tuition from ASCO's 2025-26 Annual Student Data Report, and class, applicant and debt figures from ASCO's 2025 profiles and its graduate-debt table for the 2024-25 class.
NBEO rates come from the institutional report covering October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025, and deadlines and degree requirements from OptomCAS's 2026-27 table.
The admission percentages are arithmetic from ASCO's counts, not published rates.
For how either program sits against the other accredited schools, all optometry schools compares class size, tuition, GPA and OAT averages across the US programs.
Career information, not licensing, legal, medical, clinical, billing or coding advice. Figures are the schools' own reports as dated here; confirm current admission and accreditation details with UHCO, OptomCAS and ACOE before you act on them.