APPLY TO THE COLLEGE OF OCULARISTRY

Thank you for your interest in the College of Ocularistry (COO).  The COO is a non-traditional educational institution that does not have a campus.  Our courses are held in conjunction with  the programs of the American Society of Ocularists (ASO) in the Spring and in the Fall.  These conferences are held at various locations around the country. The educational program administered by the COO is geared to academically educate Ocularists that are in training. A large portion of your education will take place on the job

Click here to review the Charter of the ASO College of Ocularistry.

Academic Prerequisites

You must have a high school diploma or equivalent and be at least 18 years of age.

Join the COO

When joining the COO, you enter as either an Unsupervised Intern or Supervised Intern. 

Unsupervised:  An Ocularist that is practicing full time in a clinical setting would qualify to join as an Unsupervised Intern. 

Full time = 35 hours or more per week. Click here for the Unsupervised Intern Application

Supervised:  If you are not currently working as an Ocularist, you will need to find a supervising ocularist that provides direct supervised training in their clinical setting full time and apply as a Supervised Intern.  Before you apply to the College as a Supervised Intern, you will need to secure a position as an Intern with your supervisor, they are Board Approved Diplomate Ocularist (BADO) with the American Society of Ocularists.

All BADOs are in the Directory of the ASO and can be found here:  https://ocularist.org/find_ocularist_search.asp

Click here for the Supervised Intern Application

How Long is an Internship?

Unsupervised Interns will need to complete a minimum of 16,000 (8 years) work hours.  This is based on a minimum of a 35-hour work week.

Supervised Interns will need to complete a minimum of 10,000 (5 years) work hours. This is based on a minimum of a 35-hour work week.

See the application and Charter for an accelerated graduation time frame if you are an Unsupervised Intern and have previous work experience.

Go to the APPLY TO THE COLLEGE tab for the applications.

Cost to Attend the College

There is a non-refundable application fee of $500.

Incomplete applications that need to be resubmitted will be assessed a $100 re-application fee.

Annual tuition is billed on December 1 for the following calendar year.  Tuition is $825 per year.  Tuition is pro-rated in the first year when joining before December 1.

There is a cost to attend each of the two conferences per year.  Registration fees are announced prior to the meeting.  Travel and accommodations are your responsibility, as well as other expenses associated with travel to the conferences.

There are prerequisite online courses for interns in years 1, 2 and 3, which carry an additional cost of $70 per course.  Year 1 will have 4 courses to take this way; Year 2 and 3 each have 2 courses to be taken online.

A printed diploma suitable for framing, signifying graduation from the program will be presented at the next conference after all requirements have been met  If interns are unable to attend the conference, or wish to have their diplomas mailed, there will be an additional cost to cover postage and handling.

Compensation is between you and your supervisor.