Hey you guys... your book lists will be coming out fairly soon, and I wanted to do a preemptive strike on "what not to buy"... esp for anatomy lab. (this is mostly from personal angst, having spent money on the wrong things last year!!)
The "required" lists sometimes include dissection kits etc... do NOT buy dissection kits. Mr. Silverman has many many sets (we all donate them back to the school at the end of the year) and he cleans them up and sells them for $5 apiece at the beginning of the year. there are a bazillion sets, plenty to go around. He uses the money as some sort of fundraiser for lab stuff. If you need more blades during the year, they'll give you as many as you want for free.
The list last year required nitrile gloves... which can be pricey, irritating, or both. I spent about twice as much on two boxes of nitrile gloves... only to find that not only did most of the other students not buy nitrile, even the lab instructors were using latex. If you have an allergy, then obviously, do what you have to do. "kirkland" Latex gloves are available at costco. Buy a couple of boxes and be ready to share. The less money you pay, the more happy you'll be to be sharing with everyone around you who forgot theirs. Don't worry, pretty soon it'll be their turn to share with you. It all works out.
"lab copies" of Netters and Grants are hanging around lab. You may buy or get a copy from mr. silverman. I don't remember if we bought ours, but if we did, it was at an extremely discounted price. Lab copies are STRICTLY lab copies... truly foul and covered in grease... you wear gloves to turn the page, you'll also have a "home" copy which is entirely different.
We got a free copy of Netter's at the beginning of the year (new, in the plastic, not a lab copy!!!). Don't buy a netters (you'll prob get it free too) buy a Rohen's.
Blue scrubs... i would go to costco for these. that's the cheapest. ANY shade of blue will do... light, dark, teal, baby, just make it blue. Or not. One guy had black scrubs the entire year. Most of us had some sort of blue. They tell you that you can't have a laundry mark from some other hospital on your scrubs (this is to discourage scrub theft, i suppose??). Again, I saw some that had laundry marks.
Some club did a fundraiser and sold scrubs that had a little cheesy logo on the breast... not the official touro logo, but something else. anyway, I would save my money and go to costco. two pairs were plenty... if I'd had my own washer/dryer, i could have gotten by with one pair.
Buy yourself some new sneakers and donate your old ones to "the cause" and let them be your lab sneaks. If you want clogs, buy yourself some of the $10 cheapies they have at allheart.com... get the ones with the vents tho, your feet will sweat in those rubber shoes!!
Finally, wait until you get your lab groups to buy dissection kits, and lab copies of books. That way you end up with just the right amount of tools and books, and everyone can chip in.
Of course, all of this comes with the caveat that this information applied to us THIS year, and I have no idea if they've since changed anything. I don't believe anything has changed, and this information is still accurate to the best of my knowledge!!
Best of luck!!
Christine
