I tried to go through the RSU website, to find any information on what I need, what to get, etc. for my studies. But there was barely any information, and all the information was quite confusing.
So this blog post is meant to make it very clear.
Study materials
To study medicine, I highly recommend getting a laptop. Some people only have an ipad, but it does lead to some issues in certain courses. For example, in the anatomy course there is a 3D printing sub-course which requires you to download an application which is not available on ipad. And in physiology you will need to analyse the practical experiment data in a software unavailable to ipads. That's why you really should get a laptop. You can get one for relatively cheap. I personally use a mac, and I'd recommend the macbook neo (around 500€ with the student discount) if you want an apple product. But any laptop really works.
If the funds allow it, an ipad definitely helps in certain subjects! It's nice to be able to write things down by hand for certain subjects like chemistry. But you can definitely just get some notebooks for cheap from flying tiger. (That's what I did because I'm a brokie)
Anki is a very useful app, and it costs around 30€ in the app store. I bought it, but found it rather useless, because I could just download it for free on my laptop and use it more anyway. But if you're a person who likes to do flashcards on-the-go you can buy the app on mobile. Beware, there's multiple similar apps in the app store. Buy the one called "AnkiMobile Flashcards" with a black-white-blue logo! It's a one time purchase. No monthly subscription. If you want to read more about how I use Anki in my studies, read these blog posts:
Labcoat and scrubs?
You need a labcoat for your first semester. You specifically need it for the courses molecular biology and medical chemistry, as well as anatomy. You don't need it for other courses like physics or latin/latvian. The course descriptions will have more information on what's needed in each course. You can find this information in e-studies. You can read more about the systems at RSU in this blog post.
You can get a labcoat from online or from the RSU main building. Many people warn that the shop at RSU might run out of labcoats at the beginning of the semester, but when I went there they still had them. If you're a very average size (like 38) you may have more troubles finding a size. If ordering from online, note: The labcoat should be long-ish, so it should go to mid-thigh. It's to prevent any kind of accidents in chemistry class.
So many people warned me that I'd need to iron my labcoat for each class... You definitely don't need to! I've never ironed it and it's all wrinkled and a little dirty... (don't judge) but it doesn't matter. No teacher really cares about that stuff. I think this may just be a little scary tale older students come up with to tease new students.
You don't need scrubs for your first year. Don't worry about those at all! You also don't need a stethoscope. The first time you need that is in your 4th semester (in the introduction to clinical medicine course).
Honestly, that is all you need for your first semester at RSU. I wish I had known this specifically what to look forward to when I started... But hey, now you do ;)
Good luck in your studies!
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