[Oblarg]

Thank you all for your replies, they've been very helpful in my reflection over the past week.

A quick note, because my OP may not have been clear:

This coming build season, I will not be a student (graduate, undergraduate, or otherwise) - I graduated at the end of the fall semester, and grad school does not start until next fall, so I'm currently in a brief interstitial period of not having any major commitment. So, I really have two issues - how to preserve my own sanity during the coming build season, and how to determine what involvement (if any) I should have during grad school in future seasons. I am now erring towards the side of "none, unless I somehow find myself with a *lot* of spare time" (which I think is unlikely).