I was in the Class of 2004 and I didn't hate it there. The school is new and has its problems, but trust me, every school does. I have been to 8 states doing rotations and I can tell you that every medical student, MD or DO, complains about their school for some reason. Here is my good vs. bad about TUCOM.
BAD: TUCOM is a new school and has found itself competing in the bay area for hospital spots against UCSF, Stanford, and UC Davis. As these are all well funded (even Stanford) by the state, it is a very tough place to start a school in. The campus is small and isolated on the island. Vallejo is not a cultural mecca, nor an educational one. The schools small number of total students limits the overall budget compared to huge schools like NOVA. There is no hospital directly attached to the school. There is little to no pt contact in the first two years.There are few DO's in the area(scarce in CA in general). The jewish overtone of the school( ie only kosher cafeterias, no school services on Sat, constant e-mails from the Rabbi) can be tough for some to get used to.
Now, I must say that it took a great deal of brain storming to come up with the general list of what our students complained about. Though the following list of good stuff may not be lengthy, it far outweighed the bad in my stay on Mare Island.
Good: I have to put the people first. Dr. Haight puts together some of the greatest people I have ever met. My classmates were so interesting, passionate, and gifted that it made me think I got into that school 'through a clerical error of some kind.' The instructors are excellent and gifted teachers whom we were able to steal away from some of our more prestigious bay area universities. Every single one of them will address you by name, from memory, on the first day. I still don't know how they do that. The campus is really pretty, espescially during the winter when everything is green. You can tell how nice it will be when they take the rest of the buildings over. The island is being redeveloped into an island for the wealthy. The houses out there will be in the millions. It is very quiet on the island and there are few distractions, which believe it or not is nice. When you leave the quiet island you are smack in the bay area with 8 million other people. SF is 45 min away and is a great study-then-party getaway from the school. Berkeley and the Napa wine country are right there for your studying/living/drinking convenience.
Since it is a new school you have a lot to say about what goes on there. You see the administrators every day. If you have a problem they don't have the excuse of having 'always done it that way'. If you aren't getting something done for you, call the Dean. Try that at most other schools.
The campus is finally functional and finished. The classrooms are nice, well lit, and the anatomy lab is the nicest and largest I've ever seen. There is a complete sense of safety around the campus because of its constant security and difficulty to get out onto the island percieved by the general public. Getting to the island from just about anywhere is easy because of the reverse traffic during rush hour. Most people lived in Benicia because of the relatively larger number of new apt communities there.
I really liked TUCOM for its flexibility during 3rd and 4th year. I was able to go to more places and do more auditions than any student I met from other schools during my rotations. You have the option of staying in SF or going to 6 other core training sites like Vegas, Pennsylvania, Denver, LA, NY, AZ, or Oregon(though I don't think Oregon is open anymore). After cores you can go ANYWHERE. Or you can do it all in one place if you have family etc. That was the flexibility that I think made TUCOM unique.
If you do stay in SF you tend to train mostly with MD's. Now don't get me twisted here, I am not saying thats better than training with DO's. What I am saying is that most of these MD's trained in SF or at least in Cali, so when they write you letters of rec, its usually to great opportunities in the west. We are a new school, but we have residents at UCLA,USC, UCSF, Stanford, Davis, and other great hospital training centers like Highland and Irvine. So if you are one of the many who want to stay out west I think that TUCOM creates many opportunities. If you want to go east like I did, well you can do that too. Our students are very well regarded and IMHO were better prepared for 3rd year than students from some of the schools we rotated with.
I am very happy with the education I got at TUCOM. Every school has its good and bad and I'm sure that this isn't a complete list by any stretch. I do think that what kind of Dr. you are going to be is based more upon who you are than where you went to school. That said I would go to TUCOM again. I got into my 1st choice residency. I made some of the greatest friends I've ever had. The people in your class will always be the people you went through hell with. Med school is not easy. And its not the 45000 pages of reading over the first 2 years that makes it hard. Its hard for reasons you'd never imagine. And it's the coolest thing you'll ever do. Make sure that you pick the school thats right for you.
Hope this helps,
