Orientation...... Finally

**** Pics On The Way ****


15 months ago I took the DAT
14 months ago I submitted my application to aadsas.
9 months ago I interviewed at University of Washington
8 months ago I was accepted to the University of Washington
5 months ago I was accepted into the R.I.D.E program

3 Days ago we started orientation - Hurray!

So the years off to a great start. There are 8 of us dental students in the program and we are combined with 20 medical students from the UW Wammi program. We take some of our classes with the medical students such as Histology, Anatomy, ICM, ect. I have met some really great people and I can tell some great friendships are bound to be made.

Day One:

What you would expect. Free food, introductions, and explanations. Toured the facility and then had an excellent BBQ catered dinner


Day Two:

Rafting and Team Building: We spent the day floating on the Spokane river. No rapids but a very fun time and pretty much non-stop water fights. It was a good way to get to know our classmates and faculty.

Day Three:

Immunizations, Financial Aid Interviews, and introduction to ICM. I had to get the Hepatitis, Tetanus immunizations and a TB test..... it wasn't too bad though.

Then I had about 20 min alone with Carol Brown (financial aid). Can I just say that Carol is awesome. I was pretty stressed out about financial aid. I didn't really know how much money I was going to get or how I was going to get it. Trust me when I say that Carol has her students best interest in mind and she is an advocate for our group. One awesome thing that I learned is that we can get additional loans (on top of Government Help) from the UW school of Dentistry. This loan is at 5%, with no interest accruing while in school. This is a HUGE help, because our other options would have been Grad Plus loans @ 8.5% or private loans @ even higher interest rate.

ICM - Introduction to Clinical Medicine: We will be doing physical exams and taking patient histories on each other and patients at Sacred Heart Medical Center. I beleive the class is also based on learning ethics and professionalism in the medical field. This is a class where you have to show up, participate, and do what your told in order to pass.

On the Side:

One thing i'm trying to get used to is the fact that I am a WSU, EWU, and UW student all at the same time while at riverpoint campus. So far this has been pretty confusing, but i'm sure with time it will be no biggy.

Sorry this was such a long post - I'll try to make them much more concise in the future.