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For the past 16 years of his life, Matt Ayers has spent about six hours a day at school and several more doing homework and other school-related business.

But as graduation day nears, Ayers, a third-year economics student, will experience alternating moods of anxiety and excitement – like most seniors whose routine school days will be forever replaced by plans to enter the workforce or specialize in a specific field.

The psychological state of seniors as they prepare to graduate is very much dependent on the student’s post-graduation plans, or lack thereof, said Connie Hammen, the director of the UCLA Clinical Psychology Training Program.

Hammen, whose expertise is anxiety and depression in humans, said she has spoken to seniors who have expressed feelings ranging from anxiety, if the student has no clear plans, to feelings of enthusiasm if they have received the job they always wanted or will be attending the graduate school of their choice.

For Ayers, Hammen’s predictions hold true as his plans have some direction but are not definite.

He has been offered a job at Smith Barney, a global stock brokerage and investment banking company, and has interviewed with Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, retail broker and credit card company, but is not sure which one he will take.

“(I’m feeling) nervous, anxious, a little scared, but at the same time excited with a sense of accomplishment,” Ayers said, whose bag of mixed emotions are shared by others who are graduating.

Ayers cited “uncertainty” as the main cause of his emotions.

“It takes discipline to make it to graduation or even to a top university, and when you are about to graduate without any prior knowledge of exactly where you are going to end up or if that job will fulfill what you have been working toward since high school – it’s a scary thing,” Ayers said.

Similar to Ayers, AJ Secrist, a fourth-year business economics and accounting student, plans to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation to work for Goldman Sachs, an investment banking company.

Secrist said he feels thrilled, and not at all nervous, about leaving UCLA.

“After having a great time in college, I’m ready to move on and see what else is out there,” Secrist said.

There exists uncertainty when seniors will have to relocate, going to places that are sometimes unfamiliar and also distant from friends and family.

Jeremy Jacquot, a fourth-year marine biology student who will attend dental school at UC San Francisco, said though he is not worried about living in the Bay Area, he has feelings of anxiety stemming from the greater distance separating him from his family.

“I’ll be living farther away from my parents, who currently reside in Orange County, which will undoubtedly result in bouts of homesickness,” he said.

Though some students will need to face the reality of leaving and the change that accompanies it, others will opt to stay close to what they’ve enjoyed for the past four years.

Like Jacquot, fourth-year neuroscience student Beata Pezeshki also has plans to attend dental school, but her classes will still be within the same zip code. In fact, they will be on the same campus.

Pezeshki will continue her education at the UCLA School of Dentistry, which, upon her graduation from dental school, will mark her 20th year of schooling in L.A. County.

Though the thought of harder classes makes Pezeshki nervous, she said she still looks forward to continuing her higher education.

“As for staying in L.A., ... it does add less excitement for me because of the lack of change, but accepting change is difficult for me, so I would rather stay in L.A. where my family and many of my friends are,” she said.

Whatever the emotion, Hammen says the issue of what to do after graduating is clearly something students will be thinking about as graduation nears.

But for those students who do not have finalized post-graduation plans and are now trying to find answers in haste, Hammen warns against putting a lot of self-induced pressure because the solutions will not come as easily.

“I’m confident those students (who do not have plans now) will figure it out eventually,” Hammen said.