Percentage of Underrepresented Minorities Enrolled in OD Programs Rises

Percentage of Underrepresented Minorities Enrolled in OD Programs Rises

ASCO’s 2022-2023 Annual Student Data Report, released in May 2023, shows an increased percentage of underrepresented minority full-time students as compared to last year. The percentage of Black or African American students increased from 4.0% to 4.3% and the percentage of Hispanic or Latino students increased from 7.8% to 8.7%. Numbers are based on the 23 U.S. optometry schools with enrolled students in fall 2022. Five years ago, the percentage of Black or African American students was 2.7% and the percentage of Hispanic or Latino students was 6.4%.

The number of all full-time OD students decreased 1.0% to 7209, and first-year students were down 1.5%. The percentage of female full-time students continues to rise, moving from 69.8% to 70.5%. Every institution reported more full-time female students than male students in 2022-2023. There were an additional 173 students enrolled in part-time, alternate and special programs leading to the OD degree, up from 143 last year.

In 2022-2023, full-time and part-time students came from every state in the U.S. and from the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, from Canada and from 16 other foreign countries. More students resided in California than any other state, with the next largest group coming from Texas, followed by Canada.

The total number of graduates at the schools and colleges of optometry, from both regular and special programs, decreased 4.4% from 2021 to 2022, falling from 1807 to 1728, with 23 institutions awarding degrees. The number of graduates from regular and special programs has increased 4.2% since 2017, when there were 21 schools awarding degrees. The percentage of Black or African American graduates of regular and special programs decreased from 3.0% in 2021 to 2.5% in 2022; in 2017 it was 2.6%. The percentage of Hispanic graduates fell from 7.5% to 5.7%; in 2017 it was 5.0%.

In 2021-2022, the percentage of students receiving financial aid was 85.4%, down from 85.7% the previous year. The average award in 2021-2022 was $53,755, down from $54,152 in 2020-2021.

The complete Annual Student Data Report, which includes a number of additional categories of information as well as trends data, can be found on the ASCO web site.