Just a little update (and a book endorsement)

So for the first month here at Baylor I am supposed to learn string theory. (sounds unlikely, huh?!)
Well Dr. Cleaver (my adviser here and academic 'son' of John Schwarz!-see this wikipedia article), has me working through Zwiebach's "A First Course in String Theory." If I knew how good this book was, I would have gotten a long time ago. It's really geared for advanced undergrads and so with a knowledge of GR this is ideal for me! It builds upon the principles taught to you in your undergraduate experience layer by layer in a logical progression. Zwiebach offers great explanations for difficult concepts and his homework questions are insightful. You're not expected to have a working understanding of QFT either. Just the other day I was able to see how E(r) and the gravitational constant, G, are different in higher dimensional spaces and how a compactified extra dimension changes the solution to the infinite square-well problem in QM. Sure I am only a hundred pages into the book, but I am already having my questions answered about string theory; I also get to answer these questions for myself through the homework problems.
Honestly, for those interested in learning string theory, then Zwiebach actually makes it exciting. Maybe that's just the nerd-in-me talking but I think that you will all understand.
It's also pretty excited to be taught by 'second-generation' string theorist!