College Textbooks are Expensive!
August 27th, 2007 by Ana
OK, so today was the first day of classes for the fall semester, which means I had to buy my college textbooks. This is exceptionally painful now that the only classes I have left are the science classes. I will be buried until December under organic chemistry and physics homework and studying! One of my coworkers and a couple of my classmates think I am doing the equivalent of academic suicide by taking these two classes together, but I really don’t want to drag out another year before heading off to pharmacy school so I will just have to survive and hope my GPA does the same.
The worst part of college is the costs are going in only one direction: UP! My physics book purchased USED is still $126.50. Ditto for the organic chemistry book, plus the bookstore sold me a “survival guide” to accompany the organic chem text for another $95 saying it was required for the course. The only problem was they sold me the 6th edition of the text and the 7th edition of the so-called survival guide. I still have to go to the campus bookstore to get the lab manual for organic chemistry, which was written by the professor and is only available on campus. Thankfully, the professor puts his foot down and tells the bookstore they cannot charge more than $31 or $32 for his lab manual, even though some in the class reported the bookstore charged them $45. Any wonder why most students try to buy their books off campus?
Now for the good news for today: Even though I spent $331 this morning on only three textbooks, I can now take two back! The survival guide is going back because it was simply the wrong book. The organic chemistry textbook is going back because one of my physics classmates took it last year and couldn’t sell it back for more than $0.25. So she kept it and after class gave it to me for free, saying I should just buy her a Pepsi on break one of these nights. I plan to give her at least $20, since she is saving me over $100!
Now, for my twice annual rant about college textbooks, and college bookstores: This is legalized highway robbery! I mean, give us students a break! The publishers change a few pages here and there to make a new “edition” every other year, which means we all h ave to buy new books at inflated prices ($186 for a NEW chemistry book this year). If that isn’t bad enough, the bookstores are in on the racket. They will sell you an organic chemistry book for $186 then 4 months later offer you $20 to buy it back, only to sell it to another student the very next semester for $126. No matter how you look at it, the student is getting the shaft financially here.
OK, I’ve got that out of my system until the next round of buying books. Feel free to add your own prices paid and rants about the whole subject. I know I can’t be the only college student who can do this kind of math.
Posted in Uncategorized |
August 28th, 2007 at 4:27 am
Have you tried half.com? It is run by eBay, and I found that to be one of the best places to buy/sell books and get the best value for you dollar. You determine the price you sell it at, not the bookstore. When you sell, it lists all current prices for that particular item and you choose the price. I always choose a price just under everything else so mine sells the quickest. You’ll get much closer to the actual sell price than you will with a college bookstore. You can usually buy books cheaper too. I know college books are crazy expensive! Good luck!
August 28th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I’ve purchased my graduate textbooks from Half.com. I can sometimes save over 90% on books that are in good condition. I know what you mean, though. And, of course, most classes tend to want the “new” books each year, so there are no used ones to buy…
August 28th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Thanks for the tip, guys…but I got an email from the professor on Friday afternoon that we are REQUIRED to bring that heavy book to each lecture class, including yesterday’s, so I had short notice. My usual trick is to go to the first day of class and see if I even need the book at all! I have even been known to borrow an older edition or extra copy off the professors also. Most of them in the science department know me know and know we older VA students have to wait for the GI Bill benefits to kick in.
August 29th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
It truly is sad how expensive books are! A good education is so important these days, and such high prices really deter people from getting one. I took a lot of literature classes last year which required around 10 books per quarter- even used, each cost about $12 which added up quickly. I buy used whenever possible, and what bothers me the most is that I don’t save THAT much and am never able to sell them back for even close to what I bought them for! However, I recently made a valuable discovery- the site BookRenter.com RENTS books to students at 50% off the standard price!!! By investing in the book rental service, I get half off my books and I don’t have to worry about being gyped when I try to sell back. You should try this method, I have a lot of faith in it!
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