UC Berkeley School of Optometry

The University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry is an optometry school in the United States. Berkeley Optometry offers a graduate-level, four-year professional program leading to the Doctor of Optometry degree . The School also offers a one-year, ACOE-accredited residency program in clinical optometry specialties . In addition, Berkeley Optometry serves as the home department for the multidisciplinary Vision Science Group at the University of California, Berkeley, whose graduate students earn either MS or PhD degrees.Clinical Optometry ProgramClinical TrainingThe curriculum at Berkeley Optometry is designed to provide clinical optometric training as well as instruction in the science of vision. Students are trained to be primary eye and vision care providers, which includes comprehensive eye examinations and the diagnosis, treatment, and management of most eye conditions and diseases. Applicants to Berkeley Optometry must have a bachelor's degree and complete undergraduate general science courses (biology; general, organic, and biochemistry; mathematics, statistics, physics, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, immunology, and psychology).Berkeley Optometry operates its teaching clinics on a twelve-month basis. Students begin their training full-time in the first year with vision science and optometry courses. They are also enrolled in preclinical laboratories in years 1-2, beginning their training on the first day of the first year. Students have their initial clinic supervision in direct patient care in the summer following their second year. Third-year students continue to take didactic instruction but spend more than half their time in clinical training and direct patient care. Third and fourth-year students also participate in off-campus community outreach programs through which they provide vision care services in satellite clinics to serve segments of the local population who have limited access to health care due to lack of health insurance, low income, disability, or other restrictions. Fourth-year students train full-time in clinical rotations locally and throughout the United States. (Training for each fourth-year student must include an external rotation at a Veterans Administration medical center.)