Office of Pre-Health Advising
BASIC ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS FOR OPTOMETRY SCHOOL
We recommend the following courses for Oxy students who are interested in optometry. Specific
requirements vary among optometry schools. Please check official admissions requirements, for
each school to which you plan to apply.
OptomCAS: School and College Pre-requisities:
http://www.optomcas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=8
Biology: One year with labs
Bio 115
General Zoology
Bio 130
Cellular & Molecular Biology
Chemistry: One year with labs
Incoming frosh must take the Chemistry Placement Test online before enrolling.
Chem 120
Chem 240
General Chemistry I (or Chem 130, AP General Chemistry with AP scores of 4 or 5)
General Chemistry II
Physics: One year with labs, taken sequentially
Physics 115
General Physics I
Physics 125
General Physics II
or
Physics 106, 110, and 120 in sequence
Note: Oxy’s pre-req for physics is Calculus 2
College Math: One year
Students take the Math Placement Test online before enrolling and are advised which Calculus courses to
take.
Calculus 1(Math 109, 110, or 114)
Calculus 2 (Math 120 or 124)
English: One year
2 semesters of Oxy’s core CSP courses are accepted. Additional courses from Writing and Rhetoric
(WRD 201, 275) or English and Comparative Literature departments are highly recommended.
Other recommended or required courses
 Anatomy (Kinesiology 300 I and 301 II) and/or Physiology (Kinesiology 307)*
 Microbiology (Bio 325 or 350)
 Biochemistry (Bio 222 or 349 for Biochem majors)
 Organic Chemistry: one term or one year (Chem 220, Chem 221)
 Statistics or Biostatistics (Math 146 or Bio 368)
 Psychology (Psych 102)
UC Berkeley requires human anatomy (with lab), human physiology (with lab), microbiology, and
biochemistry.
Please work closely with your academic advisor and/or contact department chairs if you have any questions about
scheduling your courses to ensure that you meet college core, major and minor requirements.