HOW much for a piece of printer paper?!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Too mild for the pit.
I just went to one of the office supply stores for a ream of paper to print a thesis onto. Has to be 20 pound, 100% cotton. I’m expecting it to be expensive, like, even 8-10 bucks a ream.

Oh my god. I feel violated.
Forty-two (42) bucks (American dollars) for 500 pages of white paper.
I am SO only printing out one copy and submitting the other copy electronically.
I feel ill. Don’t they know that college students are supposed to be poor and starving?
I need to go lie down.
I feel like I’ve been mugged.

#2

Wow. Just make sure all your settings are correct before you print that puppy out. You don’t want to be wasting almost a dime a sheet!

#3

Capybara, have you already bought this? I might be able to find someone to get it for you much more cheaply up there.

#4

Been there, done that. Isn’t grad school fun?

I had to print 3 copies of my thesis. I numbered the pages wrong, so I had to reprint the whole thing. Oh, well, at least I had plenty of paper. And it feels sooooo good when it’s all over, and you’ve handed it in, and you’re finally graduating!

#5

Shibboleth; yeah, I already did it. I guess it’s just another firm paddling on the big initiation path to graduating.
It was sort of exciting applying the insane margins they want for microfilming and watching the document get really long. Now that I’m paying for that length, I’m less enthusiastic.

I can’t wait. “Wah! Your page number on page 173 is less than .75 inches from the edge!”

#6

Not to be a dick, or anything.

#7

Pardon my ignorance, but what does it have to be a specific kind of paper? I would have thought that content would be the most important thing about a thesis. Why is plain white paper unacceptable for such an application? Is it all a game??

#8

FairyChatMom, if I recall, the reason is that the printed copy is supposed to last forever, and there are (or used to be) some papers that would deteriorate too quickly. I can only imagine that the days of universities permanently stocking hard copies of theses are numbered, though.

#9

I wouldn’t count on it!

#10

The paper does need to meet certain specifications to be put in the school’s collection, not only so that it doesn’t deteriorate quickly, but so that the chemicals it off-gases don’t contaminate other things in the collection over time. Yes, it does happen, and no, ordinary printer paper does not meet the requirements.

Count yourself lucky you don’t have to submit 8 printed copies like my sister did (3 for the library - 1 circulating copy, 1 for the archive, 1 to microfilm - and 1 for each of the 5 members of her committee). She had to bind 7 at her expense, plus she bound one to keep for herself as well. She also submitted an electronic copy for the digital archive. Luckily the unbound copy that was to be microfilmed could be put on cheap paper, but that was only 1 out of 8 copies.

For a typical doctoral thesis specification, see here.

#11

Ye gods. What would they have done if she couldn’t afford to make that many copies on that quality of paper? And why do the copies for the committee members have to be on that quality, if a separate copy is going into the archives?

#12

Should’ve tried a local copy shop. They ought to have that kind of paper in stock, and you can print it out there.

(Former copy shop employee)

#13

(er, my point being that you only need to pay for the sheets of paper you actually use, rather than a whole ream. Unless you have a really big thesis, that is.)

#14

I’m not sure they especially care if you can afford it or not. They probably figure if you’re hard up financially it means you’re not budgeting your stipend in the wisest manner.

#15

Oh - and the department gets to set their own rules for the committee copies, separate from the university’s requirements for the library copies.

#16

Have you tried your uni’s printing services. I know ours prints out a thesis according to uni specifications for as cheap as you can get. Why go to a private printers?

#17

When I finished my thesis, we were required to get the uni copy shop make all the copies (some sweetheart deal, huh?) because they had the right paper, knew the blocking rules etc. It actually worked out pretty well…they were cost competitive (surprisingly) and checked everything over pretty carefully for nothing; brought a couple of formatting errors to my attention before committing the final copies.

I still vividly recall walking across campus with 4 crossleaved copies at 250pg each, in one tall stack, covering the quartermile between the copy shop and the grad office. I had spent literally my last $1 on these copies (in terms of what I could take out of the bank that day) and was having visions of the wind kicking up and throwing my work all over the quad. I think if that had happened, campus security would have found me curled up into a ball on the ground, giggling and playing with my own feces.