In 1973, the Optometry building was built on the north side of Columbia Street, where lecture halls and clinic facilities were made available in one place.
Announced January 2006, as a new School of Medicine, the Waterloo Regional Campus of McMaster University was completed in 2009.
There are several prerequisite courses, encompassing subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics, calculus, psychology and ethics that are required to be considered for admission.
Classes cover topics such as general medicine, optics, pharmacology, ocular disease, visual perception, practice management and more.
[1] Residencies are available for licence OD's who wish to advance their clinical knowledge in a specialty practice area.
Due to the fact that UW is the only English speaking School of Optometry in Canada, admissions tend to be quite competitive.
In past years, the average cGPA of the entering class has been 87% (range 80-96) There are 19 pre-requisite courses and labs, all of which must be completed by the term prior to commencing the optometry program.
Applicants are expected to have experience job shadowing an optometrist in addition to community involvement, extracurriculars and volunteering.
The clinics are staffed by interns, residents, and graduates of the School operating under the supervision of faculty or other licensed optometrists, allowing optometry students to gain patient care experience as well as providing vision care services to the community.
[3] Vision science is a cross-discipline study encompassing biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, psychology, and medicine, in both laboratory and clinical settings.
The areas of research at the School have been defined as: The Optometry building is equipped with research laboratories supported by metal, wood, electronic and optical workshops, a vision science library centre, histology and live-animal housing facilities.