Would second my fellow TUCOM'er - most on the island, some nearby in Vallejo/Benicia, with some commuters from east bay. I live off the island--I would definitely get island fever if I lived 2 minutes from school. My 15 minute drive is wonderful to get away and decompress.
- Community is great--people are generally supportive of one another and band together. I feel like we have a pretty diverse class in terms of personalities, but we're all in the same boat here and that's what brings us together.
- I've quickly discovered that if I don't schedule my social life, I'm worse off and burn out. In the beginning I tried to maximize all of my time to just study study study... but it just didn't work. I take friday nights and saturday nights off from studying, and make sure to keep doing things I love. I also sleep 6.5-7 hours/night and 8 hours on weekends. Remember that TUCOM is now P/NP, and while that doesn't give an excuse to slack off, the pressure of getting a "high GPA" is significantly lower.
- Again, I'm only in my 1st year but I feel like it's pretty solid. The first semester is like undergrad 2.0/basic sciences. maybe my 4th year counterpart can speak for the integrated systems curriculum.
DM me if you have questions- I also don't check here often