poliscigrad

I think all programs had their recruitment/interview weekends the same weekend. We had ours the weekend the university put on several events for prospective graduate students.

In regards to the working from home thing, definitely. As long as I am around for the necessary things like seminars, meetings, TAing, etc., it would not matter if I did everything else at home. Some of the faculty don't even live in Merced and end up working from home sometimes. People do not really use bikes around campus, it is a fairly small campus. Using a bike to commute to campus is somewhat common but if people use anything on the actual campus it is usually a skateboard.

Depending on where you are coming from, Merced the city can be quite the disappointment. There is not much to do, good restaurants are few and far between, and in some places it is obvious the city has struggled with unemployment rates on the higher end. That being said, you still get California weather and are 2 hours from the Bay Area and Yosemite and 4 hours from the LA area. The fact there is not much to do here is actually probably beneficial for graduate students because you have less distractions. I'm indifferent about Merced but I love UCM. Everyone in every department seems to be exceptionally motivated and I have yet to encounter someone who is just flat out unpleasant. There seems to be a support system and resources available to graduate students here that does not exist most other places. Within the last couple of months a plan was approved by the UC board to expand the university (to double its current size) by 2020 so things will be rapidly growing within the next several years. Along with the poster above, I am also happy to answer any specific questions.