Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,180
Likes: 0
From: Sunnyvale, California
Bikes: Bridgestone RB-1, 600, T700, MB-6 w/ Dirt Drops, MB-Zip, Bianchi Limited, Nashbar Hounder
Congrats on the Grad School!
Some info might help like distance you plan to commute. Paved/non-paved segments, and general terrain.
I find that for flat-land commuting, a single-speed is the most worry-free and reliable bike out there. 700x32c or x35c tires are very comfortable for us Clydes and provides a good balance of speed and support. My commute is around 17 - 18 miles rt per day and a flat bar road bike with rear rack works great.
I used to haul lots of books in grad school, but that was 25 years ago. These days, curricula and texts are far more digital. I'd get a smaller waterproof commuting bag and something that would hold an iPad-sized tablet PC, thin note pad and small set of tools and first aid. I'd look for removability of the panniers if on-campus security is a concerned. I used to park in a Police monitored bike lot and pay a fee each semester when I went to Cal. But Berkeley was hilly and my commute was 28 miles oneway over 3 pretty steep and long uphills, totally over 3000 feet of climbing daily. So I used a hard-tail/fixed fork mtb with drop bars with wider range gearing for that ride. And since grad students tend to work/study through the summers, the heat in California could really be a drain. I used at least 2 water bottles always on a hot commute day.
I could eat 5k - 7k calories a day in grad school and not worry a thing about putting on weight. I even started losing weight when I first started post-doc'ing in Japan. Food there is outrageously expensive! But a clunker was fine. Not many hills there in Tokyo where I rode. And not many hills in Santa Clara/Silicon Valley area on my commute either.
So it really depends on what you're looking for. I have a colleague, who's son just started school at Wisconsin, Madison. It's pretty flat around campus and he needed a beater bike to get from apartment to class and get food. I recommended the Nashbar Hounder. Fairly affordable and pretty much bomb proof. So far, so good. Not stolen yet. And it's been working great. It's not a Masi steel frame, but heck, it's transportation.