Disclaimer: M1 at Mizzou
The ophtho department is located in Columbia, so I am not sure what you meant by them being located 3 hours away. That's the Springfield campus which is just for 3rd year rotations for a select number of students. Also, we usually have a pretty decent ophtho match list (even matched 8 people in 2022) and all of the people I know who are interested haven't had trouble finding research. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions about Mizzou med or life in Columbia in general !