As COVID necessitates the use of more online resources to help the prospective student make the all-important decision of which optometry school to attend, here is another in this series of articles. 

Eryn Kraning, Senior Director of Recruiting and Admissions at SCCO, recorded this interview with current first-year SCCO student, Jacob Lopez. While Jacob was able to interview in person last cycle before COVID forced all interviews to be conducted virtually and because he lives only 15 miles from SCCO, he didn’t need the on-campus experience to help him decide which school to attend.  He had visited SCCO’s campus on several occasions attending campus events designed for potential students and also on several occasions,  meeting with SCCO admissions officers.

Jacob Lopez SCCO Class of 2024

Jacob knew where he hoped to attend optometry school; but of course now because of the pandemic, for all accepted applicants who haven’t been able to do the same, it’s much harder to have that conviction when it comes to making that final choice.

In this interview, Jacob explains what it has been like for him as a student with a 15 mile one-way commute and how he has adapted to the pace of grad school.  Even though SCCO’s lectures are held remotely, students must attend on-campus lab sessions that occur two times per week and they spend additional time in the pre-clinic labs practicing the skills they are learning. 

Click on the image that will take you to the video hosted on Vimeo:

What Jacob shares in this video interview are his insights on such topics as setting healthy boundaries while living at home, how he’s minimizing distractions to prioritize study time, and why a mindset of adaptability has helped him immensely during this challenging time—tips that will help any new grad school student. 

Use this link to access more videos in this series.