Neeko,
I live in Belmont Heights and commute to Irvine 5 days a week. I work adjacent to the UCI campus, so our commutes would be remarkably similar. It's awful! Without traffic (Sunday 11am ) the commute is as little as 24minutes, though usually about 28. With traffic it's much worse. To arrive on campus by 8:50, you'd have to leave at 7:50. If traffic gets bad, you might be late. I'd say 90min of traffic is about two standard deviations away from typical, so it'll happen to you a few times too. Traffic to Campus in the mid afternoon won't be bad, but the 405 will be completely jammed when you leave after a 3pm class. The traffic can linger too, I've sat in a sea of red lights several times when leaving at 7pm.
There is a bus, but it's not too convenient and you'd have to bike the last few bikes.
However, the benefit of not living in creepy Irvine is worth it. Long beach has character, is walkable, has great independent restaurants and coffee shops, interesting people...