<p>^If I take the BART, it will be about an hour each way (2 hours round trip). However, even if I do get housing nearby, there would still be some sort of commute - maybe 30 minutes with parking factored in (whereas the parking at my BART station is pretty easy to get).</p>
<p>However, since I know nothing about grad school life - what is a typical schedule? How many hours would I spend working on research and studies, if I want to do well and get my PhD in 2 or 3 years? Maybe you’re right in that it would be impossible to do, if the answer is something like 10-14 hours a day (although for book studying, or writing papers, I would not need to be on campus, so I could do that part at home).</p>
<p>And yes, I know I don’t need to worry about this now, but I’m a person who likes to plan things ahead, and I know for certain that Berkeley is one of my top choices for grad school. If I could commute from home, then assuming the stipends would be equal or near-equal, that would raise it to my first choice.</p>