College Textbook Costs

[alum]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines


I'm older than the hills, but I remember budgeting about $100 per class for books a couple of decades ago.

[GeekyPenguin]

The costs of books is just insane - for my constitutional law class last year we had to buy the text (around $110, I think) and then a supplementary book that was only 200 pages long and was $40. Ridiculous.

[Drolefille]

*cough* bigwords.com I get all my books from there

[KSUViolet06]

I'm an English major so I end up having to buy alot of books. There was one semester I spent almost $500 on books for 5 classes because every class had at least 5-10 or more books each.

[shinerbock]

I averaged about 400 per sem undergrad, so while law school first year was about 750, that was for the entire year. Of course, with supplements it goes to about 800.

[OleMissGlitter]

Well since I was on the 6 year plan....each year was different since I changed my major so much. I would have to say that my final major which my degree is in, was the most expensive. (English). I had a bunch of professors who would only have our books at the local bookstore Sqaure Books and they mark their books up big time. They did this since Barnes & Noble owns our bookstore on campus and they wanted to support their local bookstore. I probably would spend about $500 a semester and when I would go to sell my books back I would maybe get $20 bucks. One time when I was returning a book they told me the value was 25 cents, I was like I'll keep that one!

Check out this article:
http://www.thedmonline.com
Then go down a little and you'll see something about textbooks....I am not good at linking their stories because they usually don't work

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by OleMissGlitter

Well since I was on the 6 year plan....each year was different since I changed my major so much. I would have to say that my final major which my degree is in, was the most expensive. (English). I had a bunch of professors who would only have our books at the local bookstore Sqaure Books and they mark their books up big time. They did this since Barnes & Noble owns our bookstore on campus and they wanted to support their local bookstore. I probably would spend about $500 a semester and when I would go to sell my books back I would maybe get $20 bucks. One time when I was returning a book they told me the value was 25 cents, I was like I'll keep that one!

Check out this article:
http://www.thedmonline.com
Then go down a little and you'll see something about textbooks....I am not good at linking their stories because they usually don't work

I hate when professors do things like that to make a point when it's detrimental to the students. We had the same issue with a copy shop that had been on campus and then was replaced with a FedEx/Kinkos. Copies for university member were 3.4 cents each at Kinkos and professors still insisted on using this guy's copy shop for their course packets.
It's all well and good that you're supporting the little guy but you're not letting us make that same choice!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

The high price of books was an issue when I was a student. Fortunately, professors and other students tried to alleviate the expense for the students.

When I was in school each professor made certain that his or her assigned books were either in the library or in the reserve room. You couldn't remove the books from the reserve room, but you could hold the books for two hours a day to read or photocopy.

Additionally, we had a free student run book exchange. Anyone who wanted could donate their used books, and then borrow used books for the semester. I forget all the specific details. I know they didn't have every book for every class, but they had the textbooks for the big lecture hall classes. I remember that the bookstore (B&N) hated it since it took away their profits. B&N paid a student about $15 to $35 for a used hardcover book and sold the same book for twice that the next semester. Students hated that so they started their own free book exchange.

My friends and I also used to share books and lend them to each other. One of my sisters and I were in the same class with about a dozen books on the list. We each bought six books and shared them.

[KSigkid]

With history as one of my majors, book costs were somewhat of an issue in undergrad, although to be fair my scholarships covered most of the costs. In law school, it's been a bit rough though (around $400 for this semester, around the same for next semester).

[carnation]

Originally Posted by alum

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines


I'm older than the hills, but I remember budgeting about $100 per class for books a couple of decades ago.

Me too-- and as the mother of 5 college students, I think that the price of textbooks is obscene. But what kills me as a professor is when my students ask if we get kickbacks from the sale of the books and that's why they're so expensive. Yeah, right! We wish!

We rarely have much of a choice in textbooks--they're ALL expensive. Why do these companies include a CD in their Spanish book package? The students never have time to use them nor do we.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally Posted by carnation

Me too-- and as the mother of 5 college students, I think that the price of textbooks is obscene. But what kills me as a professor is when my students ask if we get kickbacks from the sale of the books and that's why they're so expensive. Yeah, right! We wish!

We rarely have much of a choice in textbooks--they're ALL expensive. Why do these companies include a CD in their Spanish book package? The students never have time to use them nor do we.

Most of my professors have written the texts we use, so they do get a kickback.

[alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

Me too-- and as the mother of 5 college students, I think that the price of textbooks is obscene. But what kills me as a professor is when my students ask if we get kickbacks from the sale of the books and that's why they're so expensive. Yeah, right! We wish!

Kickbacks, I mean royalties, only incur if the professors happened to have authored the books that they assign. I remember THAT happening a couple of times.

We just have one kid in college right now and her books were close to $700 for the semester.

[Munchkin03]

In college, I'd normally spend $300/semester and get about $80 back at the end of the semester. Granted, I only sold back about half of my books.

In grad school, we all had packets, so maybe I spent about $200/semester. I kept all of those books and use them regularly in my work.

[ufdale]

I spent around $650 this semester on books! (these are not books for the whole year, just a semester) I'm an English major and for one class alone I had 16 books to buy! They also were VERY uncommon books (middle english) that were super expensive. The teacher said that he's been teaching this same class with the same texts for 15 years. Too bad he could arrange a trade off where I give the next class my books or something like that. My three english classes had 41 texts and then I still had to buy for my other classes.
I tried buying books online, but I've had too too many bad experiences. This semester I recieved an "uncut book". I literally had to cut the pages apart because they were one big piece of paper that is folded into pages. I ended up not even reading the book because it was such a hassle.
I must say that I about cried when I recieved that credit card bill...

[sunnyhibiscus]

This semester, I have spent a total of $400 on books, but I have a feeling that it will get much worse because I've heard that many instuctors will use new books.

And the worst part in all this. When you do buy backs for your books, you get five stinkin' dollars for a book you spend $93 on. I understand that they will be using a new one the next semester, but still...