Doctor of Optometry

The four-year professional Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) degree program includes all the clinical and practical facets of optometry, as well as the theoretical and fundamental aspects of vision science.

From day one, our students are working on clinical cases that bring together topics in vision science, optics, biology, disease, genetics, and physiology-pharmacology.

During the summer after your first year, you can participate in research with our faculty members in a broad range of topics, including optical imaging, early diabetes detection, color vision, and disease.

Just 20 months after entering the IU School of Optometry, you will be ready to examine patients. The clinical practice continues into the third year and culminates with four 12-week externships during the fourth year.

The notion of an optometry school at Indiana University was first seriously discussed by Indiana optometrists John P. Davey and Noah A. Bixler in the late 1930s. As members of the Indiana State Board of Optometry, they held high standards for practice in Indiana, and they felt that a school at IU would help maintain these standards.

In 1944, Irvin M. Borish, a graduate of the Northern Illinois College of Optometry, moved to Kokomo, Indiana, because he recognized those high standards required of Indiana optometrists. Davey and Bixler recruited Borish to help in the effort to start a school of optometry at IU. That December, they met with IU President Herman B Wells, who asked the Indiana Association of Optometrists to set up a committee to negotiate to found the school