Bachelor of Science in Optometry

Introduction

Technology is expanding every day. Along with the expansion, we are facing a threat to some parts of our body. The eye is one of the organs getting ruined for some people. So they require appropriate medications and the personnel who are responsible for creating, prescribing and ingesting it needs to be qualified. One of the most popular qualifications in this field is Bachelor of Science in Optometry, also known as B.Sc in Optometry. It is a 3-year long undergraduate course for students willing to pursue a career in the field of the eye. The curriculum is divided into six semesters and covers subjects like clinical psychology, low vision aids, nutrition, visual optics, etc.

The average fee charged by institutes in India for offering the courses ranges from ₹3,000 - ₹50,000. After pursuing this course, a degree holder has two options which are to either study further like masters or Ph.D in the same field or obtain a job. They can job in a position like an optometrist, optician, teacher or a relevant job profile. The average annual pay from such job profiles can be between ₹2,00,000 - ₹6,00,000 depending upon the skills you possess and job profile.

Eligibility

Applicants willing to pursue B.Sc in Optometry from a college have to verify their eligibility. For this, the colleges ask the students to fulfil specific requirement criteria, for example, getting qualification of 10+2 educational level. Most institutes demand the standard requirements, while some may change it. The standard conditions asked in most institutes are as follows. 

• Applicants must have completed 10+2 level of education in the stream of science from a recognised educational board. 
• Applicants must have secured a score of 60% in aggregate in the Higher Secondary Examination. Some institutes might allow a relaxation of 5% to the SC/ST applicants. 

Entrance Examination

Institutes ask students to give a specific entrance examination for testing their eligibility. The college may conduct it themselves or rely on the government-administered tests. Some of the popular examinations are as follows.

• All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Entrance Test
• Christian Medical College (CMC) Entrance Examination
• Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Combined Entrance Examination
• National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Under Graduate (NEET-UG)
• University of Delhi (DU) Biotechnology Entrance Examination

Syllabus

B.Sc in Optometry is a 3-year long course and the examinations held in this course are on a semester-based system. This means there are six semesters in this course. The curriculum covers subjects like clinical psychology, low vision aids, nutrition, visual optics, etc. the curriculum is showcased in the table below.

Institutes

Many institutes in India offer the course of B.Sc in Optometry out of which few are government, and few are private. Details like its location and the average fee charged for this course is given in the table below.

Future Prospects

B.Sc in Optometry provides a lot of job opportunities for its degree holder. They can get employed in areas like contact lens & ophthalmic lens industry, eye hospitals, lens manufacturing lens, etc. at a position of the optometrist, optician, teacher or such. They can expect annual pay to be anywhere between ₹2,00,000 - ₹7,00,000. Some of the famous and high yielding job profiles in this field are as follows.