College books are expensive, right?

[Chancie]

Alright, I figured I'd ask you guys about this since many of you seem to be around the college age.

So, I'll be starting college later on this month, and my older sister has made it seem like my books are going to wipe out my entire bank account. Apparently, she's just trying to say "worst case scenario" but I'm still kind of uneasy, which is making me terrified to spend any money. xD

For those of you who have gone to college and all that, how much did your books cost you (total) for your first or per semester?

EDIT: Ok, I'll be taking 4 classes if it helps. I've got English, Math, Psychology, and Spanish.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

It depends on how many and what kind of classes you take in the semester, but usually a college text book is between 65-150 bucks.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Damn right they're expensive. I once had to get a book for a physics class and an accounting class the total of both of them were about 400 dollars.

 

[Dags90]

My textbooks have cost anywhere from $70-240 each. Always ask the professor if it's OK to use an older addition if you're looking to save money. Some schools offer used books for a fairly substantial price drop, or you can look online. I know my school also has a policy stating that there must be at least one copy of any required text in the library.

I would say expect to pay around $300-800 per semester.

 

[Sterling|D-Reaver]

depends on the class and whether or not the teacher has to have the newest release.

but good deals on books are >$100 for most courses at least thats what I seem to remember. . . my books are factored into my tuition now.

 

[Applejack]

Books are fucking expensive. Do not buy from the college/uni. Best thing you can do is get second hand copies. I'm a first year, at a uni in Australia, and the average cost per semester for my books are at least 600+ AUS dollars. Four subjects. I dunno if you think that's expensive, but it is to me!

Yeah second hand copies is what you need! And you can sell them back so it's not too terrible. A college is a business unfortunately

 

[dfphetteplace]

$500 for my paramedic book. Bullshit, I say.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Alright, I figured I'd ask you guys about this since many of you seem to be around the college age.

So, I'll be starting college later on this month, and my older sister has made it seem like my books are going to wipe out my entire bank account. Apparently, she's just trying to say "worst case scenario" but I'm still kind of uneasy, which is making me terrified to spend any money. xD

For those of you who have gone to college and all that, how much did your books cost you (total) for your first or per semester?

Depends on what classes you take-- science textbooks are retardedly expensive. If your professor is extremely awful, like my astronomy professor, you'll have to get a book with a special software that is registered to each student, so you must buy a new copy of the latest edition in order to participate in class. Super gay.

Luckily I'm an English major, and most of the time I just get a list of between 4-7 novels that I can get used for next to nothing on Amazon. It's pretty sweet.

EDIT: Also, first semesters are probably the most expensive because most intro-level classes use textbooks, and they tend to be quite hefty (especially if it's a two-part class, which a lot of them are).

 

[Macheteswordgun]

$500 for my paramedic book. Bullshit, I say.

Agreed med school books..... man..... my back account went down faster than a drunk girl at a college frat party

 

[Kpt._Rob]

College textbooks are incredibly expensive, mostly as a result of the used book stores. There's a fair amount of discussion here about how damaging the used games business is to the games industry, but the used book stores on college campuses put that to shame. Publishers can really only print the books once, since they're getting resold every year, and so they have to jack the prices way up, then the college bookstores come in, buy the books from poor college students for a pittance, and sell them again and again for massive profits. I've never had too much of a problem with the used games business, even if they jack up the price of games, videogames are a luxary item. But the people who run the used college bookstore industry and knowingly take advantage of the fact that people have to buy these books for their classes (nonetheless, college students who are already strapped for cash)... If I was feeling charitable I'd just call them scum.

But yes, you're right, college books are incredibly expensive. If you're lucky you'll only pay about $150, I've gotten away with that a few times. But, well, that's only if you're lucky.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Yes. They are really expensive. Sometimes exceding the ?500 mark. All depends on the 'Supply & Demand' really.

I really think that a lot of college books should be on an e-book format of somesorts. It would cut down on the expenses used in thier manufacturing making it easier to sell them at a reduced price.

 

[boredkid]

I don't remember exact numbers, but I know my books have run anywhere from $50 to $200+ a piece. If you have 5 classes you could be looking up to $1,000 for books, and that's assuming you don't have additional (lab) books - which some freshmen classes have.

The best solutions to this that I have found are:
*Buying them used - a lot of campus book stores offer this
*Buying them online - you can find almost anything online, including the books that you will need for your class. Make sure it's the same book though, some books have multiple editions and if they don't match you could be missing information
*Borrowing/Buying them from a friend/upper classmen - This generally works best if you know people in the same major as you, as you will be taking similar classes
*Simply not buying the book - while this is not always recommended, it can be an alternative depending on the classes you're taking. Don't rush out to buy your book right away, speak to your professor, evaluate the class yourself, see if you can thumb through someone else's book and see how useful of a book it really is, talk to others who have already taken the class: did they use their book? was it useful for them? If it seems like the book is going to be a waste of money, chances are it is - if worst comes to worst, you can pick up the book later in the semester.

Good luck and happy shopping.

 

[Blue Musician]

Alright, I figured I'd ask you guys about this since many of you seem to be around the college age.

So, I'll be starting college later on this month, and my older sister has made it seem like my books are going to wipe out my entire bank account. Apparently, she's just trying to say "worst case scenario" but I'm still kind of uneasy, which is making me terrified to spend any money. xD

For those of you who have gone to college and all that, how much did your books cost you (total) for your first or per semester?

Not yet paying for books, since I do not get yet what subjects I am going to be viewing, and I haven't inscribed yet (results for the admission exam were today BTW).

But for my brother they could get to the 120 dollars (aprox. as I live in Mexico), plus another 90 dollars for the inscription, and do not make me count the Conservatory....

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Yes. They are really expensive. Sometimes exceding the ?500 mark. All depends on the 'Supply & Demand' really.

I really think that a lot of college books should be on an e-book format of somesorts. It would cut down on the expenses used in thier manufacturing making it easier to sell them at a reduced price.

The manufacturing has somewhere in the area of absolutely nothing to do with the price. The prices are so high because each edition of the book only gets sold once, then the greedy used book stores come in, buy the books from students who are strapped for cash for a fraction of the cost, and resell them for massive profits until the next edition is released. If students stopped reselling their books, they would actually be a lot cheaper, since the publishers could sell a lot more books to cover their costs. Instead, because of the used books industry, publishers are forced to sell books at very high costs, and to make backroom deals with universitys to switch to new editions every couple of years. The fact that students are forced to buy books from this system is one of the more disgusting examples of just what happens in a mostly unregulated capitalist system.

 

[Dags90]

Instead, because of the used books industry, publishers are forced to sell books at very high costs, and to make backroom deals with universitys to switch to new editions every couple of years. The fact that students are forced to buy books from this system is one of the more disgusting examples of just what happens in a mostly unregulated capitalist system.

On this note, I found it absolutely ridiculous to find out that my school has a policy which requires professors list a textbook for a class. I'd hesitate to call the used book sellers "greedy" because they're trying to make a profit same as the publishers. By offering paperless e-books at a fraction of the cost, the publishers could easily fight back against used book sales and some have.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Books are fucking expensive. Do not buy from the college/uni. Best thing you can do is get second hand copies. I'm a first year, at a uni in Australia, and the average cost per semester for my books are at least 600+ AUS dollars. Four subjects. I dunno if you think that's expensive, but it is to me!

I second this BUT if you want them fast then buy them from your school because you can get them pretty damn fast. Otherwise most schools have the books in their library.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Instead, because of the used books industry, publishers are forced to sell books at very high costs, and to make backroom deals with universitys to switch to new editions every couple of years. The fact that students are forced to buy books from this system is one of the more disgusting examples of just what happens in a mostly unregulated capitalist system.

On this note, I found it absolutely ridiculous to find out that my school has a policy which requires professors list a textbook for a class. I'd hesitate to call the used book sellers "greedy" they're trying to make a profit same as the publishers. By offering paperless e-books at a fraction of the cost, the publishers could easily fight back against used book sales and some have.

Yes, my university has the same policy. Some professors choose not to follow it. Some professors make you buy a book that they wrote. It's like a sick joke. To the extent that some of the people involved in the used book trade are not aware of the affect that they have on the industry as a whole, I suppose I would be too harsh to call them greedy... But most people who run a business try to understand the roles that they play in the industry in order to know what will be the best move for them. Even though e-books can be one solution to the problem, I actually do not like them on the whole.

There are some smaller problems I have with e-books, you have to be on a computer to use them, and it can be difficult to highlight passages that you need to highlight, but these are just nit picks in the greater scheme of things. A much bigger problem I have with e-books is one that I have with the used books industry as well. That is that you can't keep an e-book, they are available to you over the course of the semester during which you have a lisence to access them, after that you can't read them again. Just like you can't read a book that you sold again. With gen-ed classes that might not be a big deal, but the truth is that when we think of these books as "text books" that is a damaging attitude to take. These are not just text books, these are reference books. My senior english teacher in high school told us, and I feel I must agree with her, that we should not resell our text books, these books have information that we will need for our jobs for the rest of our lives. Perhaps one of the most damaging long term affects of the used books industry, as well as the e-books industry, is that the ability to have reference books is taken from students. Students who are financially well off may be able to keep their books instead of selling them (unless the class you're in requires an e-book, as a few of mine have), but most students need the money, money they wouldn't need quite as bad in the first place if the cost of books were not so high to start with, which brings us right back to the starting point of why I really really hate the used books industry.

 

[child of lileth]

Mine were under $100 each, but pretty close to that, I think. And that was just used.