Congrats on your acceptances guys.
Heres stuff that people always want to know when school starts or when coming to dental school and sorry for the wall of text and verbal diarrhea:
If you decide to come to oregon, I personally suggest trying to find somewhere that is within 15 minutes biking or bus distance. You get the portland bus system subsidized for $80/year and the parking of bikes at the school they pay you 20 bucks for every 20 times you park there which well pays for bike parking at the school and shower locker room etc and then a little extra. Otherwise try to live close to the school and not spend a ton. It really helps out. use google as a guide for finding apartments within range and best of luck. No matter what you get tho it'll prob be spendy. Its hard to find good places for less than 1300 a month for a 1 bedroom. Parking is 8/day at the schnitzer parking lot so if you want to live further and drive tthen make sure you account for 8$x20=$160/month in parking if you dont carpool and share expenses into your rent. I personally carpool from lake oswego so its 80/month in parking for me and I have a 1 bedroom for 1200/month (but its newer and pretty nice, yet traveling during any rush hour sucks.
Every year, people also ask, should I pre-study? IDK. I dont know that it'd really be that helpful unless you want to take like some anatomy classes and focus on nerves/arteries for gross anatomy class that you start off with in summer term. It's a pretty hard class and if you have a base in that then it'd be useful I guess but nothing can really prepare you for what is to come with it since what you have to know is class specific and theres a TON of it. Many people just take a break and enjoy some solid vacation. Be aware that a few people in my class will have to re-take gross because it's a hard class though and people failed it.
For electronics, Most people use either macbooks/ipads or microsoft surfaces. All your textbooks will be available via vitalsource texbook program (FYI, it sucks, but most people dont even use the textbooks ever since pretty much all tested material is on powerpoints) I like the microsoft surface devices personally but you can get by just fine without either and using any other windows device if you dont care about pen functionality and prefer to type. People organise their classes by printing the powerpoint PDF's into microsoft onenote (a program available on mac and PC) and then using those for note taking organization. Many in my class use anki and quizlet to make flash cards for themselves to study from. Anki has a leanring curve but can be fast for card creation whereas quizlet is a bit slower creation but much nicer interface and more shareable. There is also somtimes a benefit to being able to have your main computer for note taking and a tablet to read books to multiscreen from also for some classes so if you have that as an option I'd say go for it. Also, put your name on all your stuff because many people have similar items so its nice to have your name in a discreet place should it get lost or go to the lost and found. Everyone's pretty ethical and honest though so its not like people are gunna steal your stuff but things can get misplaced or mistaken.
You'll be given a lanyard for your ID badge near the end of the first summer term but I personally enjoy having a retractable ID badge lanyard. Find a good one on amazon or something. They sell them at the school.
Get a nice backpack that's waterproof or a waterproof bag to go around your backpack (they're like 10 bucks from amazon) cuz it rains here a good bit this time of year. Timbuk2, osprey, and ebags all have great backpacks. If you ride, a good pannier may be a better idea to avoid backsweat.
Get 5 pairs of scrubs eventually, you can start with 3x for the first couple terms but by year 3 you'll be in clininc 5 days a week so you'll want 5 pairs. I like "carhart ripstop" scrubs because they have lots of pockets and they fit me well as an overweight dude (have belt loops too which is nice) and are really durable but also thick so they get warm during summer, which sucks but is great during winter. Get matching colors, don't mismatch them and avoid baby-blue and green scrubs because those are used by surgeons and nurses. Other than that get a few different colors and enjoy. Some people in my class really like the "figs" scrubs. They're spendy but pretty designer. I've also heard OK things about dickies, cherokee, and greys anatomy but none of those fit me very well, your mileage may vary. Try checking out a scrubs store if you have one near you (portland has one just south of the school if you're local)
And now loupes. You'll be budgeted via financial aid 1500 for loupes for your summer/fall term. There are a variety of brands out there that are good and well known and here is my take. You'll hear from an "ergonomics" expert that may or may not be heavily biased toward certain brands. She has some good info but some is just her opinion based on ergonomics alone and not on enjoyability and quality of life so take that as you want. My opinions are as follows:
I prefer metal frames (Titanium and aluminum are durable and light) because I want it to last, having worn glasses a lot and knowing about plastics I know that they degrade and dont look and last as long as good.
I dont care about brand name frames (oakley, nike etc) but some people do. I just personally wanted the glass to wrap around my head so that I dont have to have the dorky side shield attachments and there are frames that allow this
IMO go for at least 3.5x magnification. You'll be recommended 2.5x but having looked through them all I dont see the need for it as you have plenty of viewing area with 3.5, and some people prefer higher. You'll be pressured to get 2.5's when being advised by an ergonomics expert.
If you wear glasses/contacts, I suggest seeing if you can wear contacts because it's easier and cheaper on the changes, you can also get inserts with prescription or get the actual glass lenses with prescription if you want. Just be aware that they may not make your actual magnifiers with prescription and your working distance may change depending on your eyes because of that. Hence why I suggest getting used to contacts if you can help it.
Thru the lens vs flip up: if you want flip ups, buy some amazon 50 buck loupes to try them out. These work well in a pinch anyway because they still add magnification and are cheap. Otherwise I like thru the lens and most of your class will also. (you'll be advised to get flip ups by the ergonomics lady because they can have high angle of declination, but the distance from your eyes reduce field of view and the weight imo make them suck. They can however be easily adjusted which can be good or bad if you knock them or want to share with someone or something.) Trust me, thru lens is the way to go for most people.
On to brands: I think that q-optics are the the best to my preferences as they're titanium, light weight, wrap your head so you dont need the dorky side shields, and they have amazing prismatic lenses (3.5x+) that have a huge field of view, they have a lifetime frame guarantee, the rep is really responsive and they get them to you and do fixes really fast. The cons of them are tthat they're like 1800 bucks (worth it IMO tho) so they arent cheap, and the lights that q-optics sell suck. Get a lumadent light or ultralight (those are like 400 with student discounts) instead. I'll talk about lights more tho later.
Surgitel loupes are oakleys and wrap around nice but I dont like plastic and I dont like the weight of them. They arent bad, but they didnt impress me. You'll get a chance to check them out, mb they'll have newer ones next year. Their light is dope but its expensive if you dont package it with their loupes and want to buy it solo.
Oroscoptic has really cool loupes but I dont like the rep dude and they were heavy. They had some really neat available options for customizability of thier loupes though with different magnifications that can be swapped out or even one that has a switch to change the mag on the fly with the same lenses.
Designs for visions had cool loupes but they never came to our vender fair so I never tried them on (only saw through the website) and they also supposedly are difficult to get to increase the angle of declination on (to help your back pain, its nice to have a high 40+) for some reason.
Lumadent is the one that I got because they were super cheap, had a good rep and they were as light weight as the q-optics at half the cost. If I had no money issues I'd have gotten q's but lumadent are still good. They have metal and plastic types of frames, and are under 800 bucks with student discount.
As for lights: you'll see them all but my opinion is that surgitel is best (700 bucks tho lol) lumadent is 2nd (400 bucks for 2 batteries and they fit every type of lens) and ultralight is great also. These 3 have a focused beam led which is really nice to reduce over scatter of light. You can also get them with filtered out blue (helps to stop from curing composites and is easier on your eyes) Surgitel will tell you theirs is best by far and they're right its best but its not that far and tbh lumadent is nearly half the cost and the rep is in seattle and comes down whenever you want to talk to him. The other brands can be good also but are usually expensive as hell if you dont buy their loupes similar to surgitel, I just brought up surgitel because it's the "best" but prob 1/2 hour class got lumadent lights.
There you go guys, hopefully that helps prepare you a bit and gives you some info to do research on stuff for yourself. Dont even listen to me 100% anyway, things are very personal based and I just wanted to give a bit of direction but try everything out. Opinions are like dinguses the saying goes... You may think im full of **** by the time you try on some loupes that you love and work perfect for you and differ from my opinions. Check all those brands out though online and see if you can go to a vender fair (I think theres one in december in portland, idk)