Student Performance

KYCO Student Performance

The Kentucky College of Optometry graduated its first class in 2020. As we gather this data we will publish it for review on this page.

Ultimate Pass Rate

Class of	KYCO Pass Rate
2020	91.89%
2021	81.48%
2022	*60.00%

* In 2022, the faculty of the Kentucky College of Optometry changed the graduation requirements for the Doctor of Optometry degree.  This change allowed students from the Class of 2020 and 2021 to have their degrees conferred in 2022.  Therefore, 70 students actually received degrees in 2022, but only 55 were from the Class of 2022.  Within the Class of 2022, 41 students passed all 3 Parts of the NBEO or were licensed to practice optometry at the time of graduation.  This is 74.5% of the students.

NBEO Part I – Applied Basic Science (ABS)

Year of Administration	Number of First Time Takers	KYCO First Time Pass Rate(weighted)
9/1/2019-8/31/2020	44	75.00%
9/1/2020-8/31/2021	64	54.69%
9/1/2021-8/31/2022	55	45.45%
9/1/2022-8/31/2023*	52	71.15%

March administration only

NBEO Part II – Patient Assessment and Management (PAM)

Year of Administration	Number of First Time Takers	KYCO First Time Pass Rate(weighted)
9/1/2019-8/31/2020	61	72.13%
9/1/2020-8/31/2021	51	76.47%
9/1/2021-8/31/2022	57	73.68%
9/1/2022-8/31/2023*	56	71.43%

December administration only

NBEO Part III – Clinical Skills Examination (CSE)

Year of Administration	Number of First Time Takers	KYCO First Time Pass Rate(weighted)
9/1/2019-8/31/2020	58	63.79%
9/1/2020-8/31/2021	51	47.06%
9/1/2021-8/31/2022	55	49.09%
7/1/2021-6/30/2022	52	46.15%

Applicants and New First-Year Matriculates

Class of	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
KYCO Applications Accepted New First-Year Matriculates	- 504 104 60	- 461 100 63	- 460 178 62	- 456 126 59	- 551 113 60	- 881 217 62

Applicants and Matriculates by Ethnic Groups and Gender

Class of	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
Applications White, non-Hispanic Asian Hispanic/Latino Black, non-Hispanic Other and Unknown Multi-ethnic Percent Minority Women Percent	- 270 117 39 25 56 -- 43.0% 323 64.1%	- 248 112 32 25 44 -- 42.9% 317 68.7%	- 265 118 29 22 26 -- 40.4% 317 68.9%	- 270 121 27 30 8 -- 39.7% 300 65.4%	- 321 129 43 35 23 -- 39.9% 354 64.2%	- 437 192 54 57 141 -- 15.2% 553 62.8%
New First-Year Matriculates White, non-Hispanic Asian Hispanic/Latino Black, non-Hispanic Other and Unknown Percent Minority Women Percent	- 45 6 3 4 2 25.0% 34 56.7%	- 48 7 3 1 4 18.6% 41 65.1%	- 50 4 3 4 1 18.0% 47 75.8%	- 48 5 2 2 2 17.0% 35 59.3%	- 50 2 3 2 3 15.0% 41 68.3%	- 46 4 2 5 5 16.1% 28 42.2%

Source: ASCO Annual Student Data Reports

Notes: (1) Applicant data comes from the OptomCAS data Files, (20) Percent minority removes unknown applicants/matriculates from denominator

Grade Point Averages and OAT Scores of New First-Year Matriculates

Class of	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
Grade Point Averages Science mean gpa Non-Science mean gpa Mean cum GPA	- 3.10 3.54 3.31	- 3.00 3.51 3.23	- 3.09 -- 3.31	- 3.12 -- 3.33	- 3.28 -- 3.44	- 3.15 -- 3.30
OAT Scores Academic Average mean Total Science mean Natural Sciences: Biology General Chemistry Organic Chemistry Reading Comprehension Physics Quantitative Reasoning	- 305 290 - 307 308 290 340 274 309	- 301 287 - 297 303 288 325 275 312	- 296 279 - 294 292 276 327 266 310	- 298 280 - 296 290 282 324 271 312	- 301 285 - 298 300 287 335 271 308	- 302 284 - 301 297 282 330 275 321

Sources: ASCO Annual Student Data Reports and OptomCAS data files.

Note:          (1) In the OAT, scores range from 200 to 400 with a mean of 300.

Entering Class Origin

Class of	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
N	60	63	62	59	60	62
Highest Degree: Bachelor’s Master’s	- 90% 5%	- 97% 2%	- 92% 3%	- 94% 5%	- 87% 3%	- 89% 8%
Most Prevalent Schools: (N) University of Pikeville University of Kentucky Morehead State University East Tennessee State University Eastern Kentucky University Western Kentucky University University of VA’s College at Wise Marshall University North Carolina State University University of Louisville	- 3 3 1 1 1 2 2 0 1 0	- 1 5 3 2 1 0 1 3 2 1	- 3 2 1 2 2 2 0 1 - 3	- 4 0 4 3 2 0 1 0 0 0	- 1 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0	- 5 0 1 1 0 0 4 0 1 1

Sources: ASCO Annual Student Data Reports and OptomCAS data files.

Currently, KYCO has matriculated students from 38 U.S. States with the highest number coming from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

Additional Characteristics of New First-Year Matriculates

Class of	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
New First-Year Matriculates	60	63	62	59	60	62
Share from Central/South Central Appalachian Region. Share from Rural America (non-Cent’l/So Cent’l Appalachia). Total Share Meeting KYCO Mission:	33% - 28 61%	24% - 41 65%	21% - 40 61%	32% - 32 64%	20% - 65 85%	26% - 29 55%
First Generation College Student First person in family to go to professional school KYCO was first choice of optometry schools	22% 53% 68%	26% 65% 81%	21% -- --	25% 57% 73%	32% 65% 80%	31% 67% 75%

Sources: OptomCAS data files and KYCO Survey of First Year Students.

Notes:       
(1) The Central Appalachian Region includes the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia; the South Central Appalachian Region includes the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Attrition Rate

	2017 2018	2018 2019	2019 2020	2020 2021	2021 2022
First-Year Students (N) Dismissed/Withdrew academic failure Dismissed/Withdrew disciplinary reasons Withdrew Personal Reasons Transferred to another optometry school First-Year Attrition Rate	60 3 0 0 0 5.0%	63 1 1 0 0 1.6%	65 2 0 2 0 6.2%	63 2 0 1 0 4.8%	64 1 0 1 0 3.1%
Second-Year Students (N) Dismissed/Withdrew academic failure Dismissed/Withdrew disciplinary reasons Withdrew Personal Reasons Transferred to another optometry school Second-Year Attrition Rate	64 0 0 1 0 1.6%	58 1 1 2 0 5.2%	62 0 1 1 0 3.2%	59 1 0 1 0 3.4%	58 2 0 0 0 3.4%
Third-Year Students (N) Dismissed/Withdrew academic failure Dismissed/Withdrew disciplinary reasons Withdrew Personal Reasons Third-Year Attrition Rate	-- - 0 - -	62 0 1 1 1.6%	51 0 0 1 2.0%	58 0 0 0 0.0%	55 0 0 0 0.0%
Fourth-Year Students (N) Dismissed/Withdrew academic failure Failure to pass NBOE (per policy) Fourth-Year Attrition Rate	-	-	61 0 14 23.0%	51 0 7 13.7%	58 0 0 0.0%
ANNUAL ATTRITION RATE	3.2%	2.7%	8.8%	5.2%	1.7%

Source: ASCO Annual Student Data Report.

Note:    
(1) ASCO does not count students with approved leaves of absence as part of the attrition calculation.

Graduation Rates

Matrticulated:	Original OD Cohort	Completed the program in 4 yrs	Completed the program in 5 yrs	Completed the program in 6 yrs	Total Completers of programs within 150%
Fall 2016     Completion Rate	65	37 56.9%	14 21.5%	10 15.4%	61 93.9%
Fall 2017     Completion Rate	60	40 66.7%	14 23.3%
Fall 2018     Completion Rate	63	55 87.3%

Graduation Profile

	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022
First Professional Degree Optometry [51.1701] Women Ethnic Minority	NA	NA	NA	- 36 64% 14%	- 55 51% 13%	- 79 68% 9%
Location after Graduation Located in Appalachia Located in Rural Area Located in a Health Shortage Area - Vision Difficulty – county				- 32% 44% 15%	- 45% 52% 15%	- 28% 54% 7%

Sources: KY Council on Postsecondary Education Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred and Graduate Office of Student Affairs

Career Placement

Plans after Graduation

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
	N | %	N | %	N | %	N | %	N | %	N | %
Accepted into Residency Program Primary Eye Care/Ocular Disease Primary Eye Care/Low Vision Rehabilitation Ocular Disease/Glaucoma/Retina Ocular Disease/Refractive & Ocular Surgery-Stipend Ocular Disease/Co-Management Pediatric Optometry				N | 22 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |	N | 9 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0|	N | 11 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Accepted a Position/Opening Own Practice				22 | 59	26 | 47	36 | 46
In Negotiation for a Position				5 | 14	7 | 13	19 | 24
Not Yet Secured a Position				2 | 5	15 | 27	14 | 18
Other/Unknown				0 | 0%	2 | 4	1 | 1
Total	NA	NA	NA	37 | 100	55| 100	79 | 100

Source: KYCO Office of Assessment