2023 Most Popular Colleges for Optometry in the Southeast Region
4
Ranked Colleges
346
Degrees Awarded
$28,600
Avg Cost*
It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.
In 2020-2021, 1,822 people earned their degree in optometry, making the major the 194th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, optometry graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $88,635 and had an average of $0 in loans still to pay off.
Across the Southeast region, there were 346 optometry graduates with average earnings and debt of $94,909 and $0 respectively.
This year’s “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region” ranking analyzed 4 colleges that offered a degree in optometry. To top this list, a school must have a successful optometry program that graduates more students in the field than other colleges that offer the same major.
Check out our ranking methodology for more information.
One Size Does Not Fit All
The optometry school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we’ve developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region”.
To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.
Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region
The colleges and universities below are the best for southeast region optometry students.
Top 4 Most Popular Colleges for Optometry in the Southeast Region
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Southern College of Optometry. The school came in at #1 for the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region. Southern College of Optometry is located in Memphis, Tennessee and, has a small student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 134 ’s optometry degrees to qualified students.
The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.
Read more about Optometry at Southern College of Optometry
Out of the 4 schools in the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Nova Southeastern University landed the #2 spot on the list. This large school is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it awarded 107 ’s optometry degrees in 2020-2021.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.9% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.
Full Nova Southeastern University Optometry Report
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Pikeville. The school came in at #3 for the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region. Pikeville, Kentucky is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s optometry degrees to 55 students in 2020-2021.
Read full report on Optometry at UPIKE
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Alabama at Birmingham. The school came in at #4 for the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in the Southeast Region. University of Alabama at Birmingham is a large school located in Birmingham, Alabama that handed out 50 ’s optometry degrees in 2020-2021.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 4.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%.
Read more about Optometry at UAB
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Notes and References
References
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
Read more about our data sources and methodologies
- *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
- Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.