How much travel is reasonable for grad school?

[Differentpaths]

I am looking into grad schools with TA/fellowships. I live in the NY region and I'm wondering which schools I can apply to without needing to consider relocation. How much travel to school is reasonable if it isn't a low residency program? An hour, more...?

 

Thanks!

[heliogabalus]

One thing to consider is that, depending on how busy you are (are you working, for instance), travel time will really cut into writing-time. During my MFA, I actually ended up writing less than usual because I was working, commuting over 2 hours (there and back), and spending a lot of time reading and commenting on others' work. The ideal situation is to live very close to where you are attending.

Edited February 16, 2016 by heliogabalus

[Differentpaths]

Thank you for that! Very helpful. I live an hour from NYU and I'm trying to figure out if I should even try to apply.

[TakeruK]

At my current campus, almost everyone lives within 15 minutes of campus. However, at some of my past schools, which were more commuter schools, grad students commute up to an hour. One even commuted across the border from the United States every day they went into work.

[heliogabalus]

DifferentPaths, would you be working full time while you go to NYU?

Traveling an hour for grad school is not a big deal--and even if you live in NYC, the commute to a school might be an hour, but when you add it to the commute to work, family commitments, etc. it can be a lot. Just take it all into account.

Edited February 20, 2016 by heliogabalus

[FalloutCoversEverything]

Commutes can be good opportunities to get reading done if you take public transit. So, if you treat it like "work time" the commute might actually be beneficial.

[Differentpaths]

I used to commute 35 minutes to school while working full time, but because I was P/T in college, it was really easy. My concern is that if I get a TA and I'm full time, I'd have to be on campus very often, maybe even once in the morning and once late at night, etc, and it would make a commute really time consuming. I do love reading on my way. I wouldn't get to it otherwise.

My question specifically is: how much time, on average, do TA spend on location?