Which Rutgers campus is it? If it's New Brunswick, then I'd opt to go there vs NJIT. At Rutgers, I would speak with the professors in the Physics dept and see if I could do some grad coursework and assist on some projects/etc since you have grad school as your focus. They're really good about assisting any students who go out on their own to seek experience/knowledge/etc.

100% this. The DMV is always understaffed, which leads to unnecessarily irate customers, who humanly piss off the employees, which then keep the vicious cycle going.

Hoboken/JC would be fine. Based on your info, you could definitely do it for the liberal/vegan/mass transit experience for the short term. As you stated, easy access to the city. Lots of parks/stuff on the Jersey side. Sample it for a year or two to see if you like it. Lots of NYC folks have moved out to those areas themselves to get more space while still be connected to the city.

Utterly amazing! Looks fantastic! Unfortunately, it's nothing like it was a 10-15 years ago (bustling, jammed with humanity/carts/trash). I remember when they'd stack the empty wood slat chicken wire crates right on the sidewalk/street after they had unpacked their vegetable wares. Made navigating that corner fun.

I was walking in the park yesterday, and the exact same thing happened (woman was also walking, had the ran on the smartphone running on speaker, almost like a religious background chant for the daily constitutional). We were in the middle of nowhere and there might have been 20 people total in an area about 20 acres in size midday.

Fantastic painting! I knew exactly where you were when you took this picture. My cousins went to the church behind you so many moons ago...