2023 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Optometry in the Southwest Region

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

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 Southwest region, there were 247 optometry graduates with average earnings and debt of $91,909 and $0 respectively. At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 247 optometry graduates with average earnings and debt of $75,218 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region” ranking analyzed 4 colleges that offered a degree in optometry. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their optometry program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southwest region doctor’s degree optometry students.

Top 4 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Optometry in the Southwest Region

1

Midwestern University - Glendale
Glendale, Arizona

#12 overall quality in Southwest

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Midwestern University - Glendale. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region. Midwestern University - Glendale is a private not-for-profit institution located in Glendale, Arizona. The school has a small population, and it awarded 50 doctorate’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read full report on Optometry at Midwestern University - Glendale

2

University of the Incarnate Word
San Antonio, Texas

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of the Incarnate Word. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region. UIW is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school situated in San Antonio, Texas. It awarded 64 doctorate’s optometry degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 5.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Optometry at UIW

3

Northeastern State University
Tahlequah, Oklahoma

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northeastern State University. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region. NSU is a medium-sized school located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma that handed out 28 doctorate’s optometry degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full NSU Optometry Report

4

University of Houston
Houston, Texas

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Houston. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Optometry Major in the Southwest Region list. UH is located in Houston, Texas and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 105 doctorate’s optometry degrees to qualified students.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 4.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full UH Optometry Report

• Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Optometry

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

Footnotes

• *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.