Clinical

Residency Programs

The road ahead is ready for you.

Residency programs at the Illinois College of Optometry offer post-graduate training for those interested in all aspects of optometry, including clinical practice, optometric education, and business. Residents gain advanced competency in eye care through education, scholarship, and patient care. Such experience aims to provide ICO residents with the expertise and confidence needed to treat complex clinical patients.

All ICO Residency Programs are ACOE accredited. We can help find the right residency for you. Explore our on off campus options below:

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On-Campus Residencies

• Pediatric Optometry and Vision Therapy and Vision Rehabilitation Residency (see video)

• Cornea and Contact Lenses and Ocular Disease Residency  (see video)

• Vision Rehabilitation, Geriatric, and Ocular Disease Residency  (see video)

• Ocular Disease and Primary Care Residency  (see video)

Affiliate Residencies

• Ocular Disease Residency - University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

• Ocular Disease Residency - Insight Vision Group, Parker, CO

• Residency in Cornea and Contact Lenses / Anterior Segment Disease – Davis Duehr Dean, Madison, Wis.

• Ocular Disease, Anterior Segment, and Glaucoma Eye Care Residency – Minnesota Eye Consultants, Minneapolis, Minn.

• Ocular Disease and Anterior Segment Residency – Associated Eye Care, Stillwater, Minn.

• Ocular Disease / Low Vision Rehabilitation / Cornea and Contact Lens Residency – Jesse Brown VA Medical Center/Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, Chicago, Ill.

• OD Residency in Ocular Disease / Refractive and Ocular Surgery / Glaucoma – Vance Thompson Vision, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

• Primary Care and Ocular Disease Residency – Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, North Chicago, Ill.

• Primary Care Optometry / Vision Rehabilitation Residency – Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, Minn

To Apply

All ICO and affiliated residency programs use Optometry Residency Match (ORMatch) to fill their positions. The applicant must, prior to matriculation, have attained the Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) degree from a school or college of optometry accredited by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education. All applicants will be evaluated without regard to sex, race, color, creed, age, religion or non-disqualifying physical disabilities. Application information and an interview are used for the selection process.

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To apply, please register online in the NMS Match System to participate in ORMatch. Required components of your ORMatch application include:

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• Letter of intent

• Curriculum vitae

• OD Transcript

• Three (3) letters of recommendation

Please check the individual programs for additional requirements.

For more information about ICO’s residency programs, please contact the program coordinator of each residency, or ICO’s Residency Director, Dr. Heather McLeod.

Residency Information Session

A wide range of topics were discussed in our November 2020 online info session. Below you can watch the live discussion covering topics like why you should consider a residency program, what is available through ICO, what the application process is like and a live Q&A covering common questions. You can watch the recording below. 

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