By Todd Boldizsar

For the Daily Titan

As if the pressures of adjusting to college and finally getting out into the real world aren’t enough, college professors of 100 – 200 level classes are dishing out finals in the form of long and short essays.

The era of multiple choice questions and treating these classes as what they often are – meaningless general education – is disappearing with each passing term.

One might think that with the recent furloughs and salary cuts professors have had to take, the effort they put into teaching would also be minimized. Students must be thinking they are going to catch a break. Yeah right! In your dreams, freshmen and sophomores.

Instead, young college students are now faced with studying extra hard because passing grades are getting harder to come by. A student can have a brilliant term, only to have it destroyed by one poor exam – usually a three or four page essay – which could be about anything from where babies come from to how people of ancient civilizations wiped themselves (I’m exaggerating of course, but come on, man).

Adding to the stress of studying for finals and writing term papers are the tuition increases, textbooks costs, the limitations on lab use and shorter office hours. I am only a few short weeks away from graduating and already I feel like I’m on Wall Street and paying for it instead of getting paid.

With the economy still down for the count (Oh yeah, you knew I was going to mention it), students who live on their own and work full time are also feeling the heat.

Professors of lower division classes are now requiring more out-of-class participation in the form of trips to historic venues, field research and video projects.

WTF professors? Seriously. I’m so frustrated I’m saying “WTF.” I hate “WTF,” and now you’ve got me saying it. What’s next? Don’t make me get to “OMG!”

Well students, there is hope. The holidays are coming (Man, I wanted to say Christmas right there). If we can make it through these last two weeks, we will be cruising straight to holiday cheer. Stockings will be hung, trees will be decorated and spiked eggnog are sure to follow.

So don’t worry about finals, term papers and other assignments because it will all be over soon. Then you can start worrying about shopping for all your friends, relatives and significant others.

One more thing: Good luck paying for all those presents, your rent and next semester’s classes.