It's a whole bundle of emotions! I'm excited, but also a little scared. I've been out of school for a while, and I'm diving into a graduate program where I have very little background experience, and it's a great engineering school (and it's extremely competitive). I'm not looking forward to the stress, the unknown, the failed experiments, the possible all-nighters. It's going to be a major change - change of cities, lifestyles, day-to-day, change of friends...
I'm excited, but I'm not jumping off the walls because I'm realistic. This is going to be difficult! Having a job seems so easy. All I have to do is show up on time every day, do what I'm told, and I get rewarded with a paycheck. I'm about to throw my current lifestyle upside-down...
I don't think we're alone. Have you noticed other gradcafers posting how they wish the book list would be available so that they could get a jump-start on reading? That could be pure excitement and love for their subject, but it could also be nervousness and anxiety!
I also don't want to point fingers (cough cough) but some schools are really great at psyching up their future graduate students, while other schools are more laid-back in the spirit department. This could have a major effect when we see other people's excitement level.
Hopefully once I start to see everything fall into place (apartment, class schedule), the anxiety will wear and I will be giddy as ever... until I actually start graduate school.
Hope my rant helps