my schedule is all over the place-- it's a nightmare since I commute and I have to just hang out around campus for like 4 hours at a time. do class times get more agreeable second year and beyond?

What kind of question is that? It will of course depend on what courses you take. If you choose to take courses you like then there will be no guarantee that you will have beautiful timetable. If you want a beautiful timetable then you may not be able to have the most beautiful courses.

Unfortunately not. I mean, you could definitely pick your courses with a desired schedule in mind. However, I have commuted since second year and I also used to think 4 hour gaps were bad. Last year I had 8 hour gaps 3 days a week, and this year I have 14 hour days on campus with classes split apart so awkwardly I couldn't go home if I tried. That is the downfall of being a commuter, unfortunately!

True, the only way you can ensure the schedule you want is to pick courses with that in mind.

That said, though, the further I got in my program(s), I definitely noticed that required classes seemed to fit together better and I had fewer annoying gaps in my schedules. May not be the case for everyone, though.

You will definitely have more options for electives, so if your main concern is the schedule, you can arrange it so that you only have school 3 days/week, and with classes being 2 hours apart at most (but you'll have to settle for some crappy electives), but like others have said, if you want the best possible courses in a given year, chances are, they'll be all over the place.

It also depends on your program. Everyone is saying that you can pick classes with the schedule in mind, but some highly specialized majors don't allow much (if any) choice in courses, especially in second and third year, so you're stuck with the times that you are given. I had one elective in second year (some students in the program had none, depending if they had taken physics 1B03), and one elective in third year, so not a lot of room to change things around. And then with thesis in fourth year, you'd be spending a great deal of time on campus anyways.

I actually thought it's easier to make a nice schedule in first year, because most courses have multiple sections. In upper years, that tends to happen less and less, so if you want a course but don't like the time it's offered, you have to choose between dealing with the time or not taking the course - switching sections isn't an option.

I would hate to be a commuter; I don't know how people do it. Of course, there are thousands of people who manage it just fine. To me though, it is 100% worth the extra money spent on rent to live near campus.