Pandoc was already mentioned, but I'd like to reiterate on it's usefulness. Markdown -> PDF is extremely useful, but when minimal formatting is allowed and professors require editable document, Pandoc can also export to .DOCX. This has been a real lifesaver for me. Similarly simple powerpoints can also be written in markdown.

If nicer formatting is required, you can also write/find nice templates for most formats.

It also often works the other way around: It's quite common that I'm sent simple Word-documents that are quickest to view by converting them to markdown.