By Laura Moran

Within the next two weeks, virtually every student not on co-op will be writing term papers, studying for exams and staying up until the wee hours of the morning. Some students are stressed out and exhausted, while others are taking it in stride. Freshman undecided major Sarah Mayor and freshman business administration major Sara Davidson expressed how calm and prepared they are for the upcoming finals week.

“I’m not stressed about my finals because I only have two and I have been consistently tested in both of the classes and so I know what to be prepared for and what kind of questions will be asked,” Mayor said.

Davidson’s outlook echoed a similar sentiment.

“I also only have two finals and a lot of time to study for them, because they aren’t until the end of the week,” she said.

In the meantime, Frank Giampa had a somewhat different feeling about the tests.

“Even as a senior,” Giampa , a senior mechanical engineering major, said, “finals don’t make me nervous because they are just more damn tests on specific days. I have taken them so many times that I have learned not to let myself get stressed out about them.”

However, unlike Giampa, some students are feeling stress from the pressure of finals week. Freshman international affairs major Kelly Rosencrans said a lot of her finals take the form of final papers, which can be more stressful than preparing for an actual test.

“I have a lot of papers to write for finals, which is really stressing me out, and they all seem to be due on the same day,” she said.

For students who are feeling the pressure of finals week, there is help offered on campus. Snell Library’s Peer Counseling Center offers extended help in the next two weeks, and review sessions are available for courses with many students. There are also some additional walk-in hours offered. Other students feeling overwhelmed about their finals are welcome to visit the University Health and Counseling Services, where they can talk to counselors about what is causing the stress and what can be done to help alleviate it.

For some, the stress does not come from the prospect of finals, but actually the thought of finishing up the semester, packing for their trips home and eventually heading home for three weeks and being under the watchful eye of parents.

“I’m more stressed about living with my parents for three weeks than I am about any finals I have to take,” said Alex Wiley, a freshman undecided major.