This was for only two of the three courses I’m taking this term.
One of my friends spent almost three hundred. Apparently I got off lucky this term. (We’ll have to see how much the books for my 3rd course cost.)
The andygirl college fund is currently accepting donations… please?
I feel your pain - my Engineering books were always expensive (but useful). My SO, however, would spend upwards of $1000 a semester for her Med School books - they fill three solid bookshelves now. Console yourself with this thought - they sure will look impressive on the wall of your estate 10 years from now.
I spent $240, for three courses. I think, although I can’t remember for certain, that this is the worst I’ve ever had it. 11 books, which I guess isn’t bad, but they add up.
Oh, well. At least I get it reimbursed. And I’m graduating this quarter, which is nice.
At the tuition here, I think an estate will have to wait until my great auntie Edna who thinks I’m the one good egg in my family wills me her worthless estate whereupon I can find a thought-to-be-lost Monet painting.
I’m fully aware that I hit what I headed for, though. anyone who goes to <affects snooty accent> Dartmouth, one of the finest Ivy League schools </accent> is more or less asking for poverty.
To be fair, though, my encounters with the old school folk have been few and far between. I’ve met fifth generation greenies who went to private prep schools and have 8 of their class here, as well as twenty in the other classes, but the vast majority of the place isn’t near as snobby as I feared.
I never did understand the logic behind “legacies”, btw. Regardless of how you got in, once you’re here, you’re on your own.
My, that was a tangent.
Wait until Grad school. I spent 350 dollars on books for one class. Almost ten years ago. 350 was worth more than ot was today. That semester I spent more on books than on tuition. And I was a lousy theatre major to boot. It wasn’t like I was having to buy technical manuals!
I feel for you though!
As a professor, I am now in the position of choosing books for my students. The publishers give us copies for our own use, but they purposely don’t tell us how much they cost. Professors that have been teaching for many years have no idea how much the price has gone up. A book that I used for one of my classes costs $50 now, when I went to school it was $18.50. Be sure that you tell your instructors how much books are now. It may not help this semester, but could save you or someone else bucks in the future.
The profs I hated were the ones who would require six or seven books for their class, but actually only use two of them.
$120, you definitely got off easy! FYI, there is a site called TextbookHound where you can search for the books you need from multiple online retailers with price comparison. I found one of my books for $10 less than our bookstore was selling it for. The downside is you do have to wait for the book to be shipped to you, but your library probably has at least one copy you can use till you get it.
Andy, give ecampus.com a shot. I bought my books from them my last year, and saved a bundle. Not only do they sell books super cheap, but they also ship for free. Nice deal.
I was an anthropology major, which means few big textbooks, and lots of little paperbacks. I rarely spent over $100/quarter, but I know I was lucky.
If you’re really into saving money, take a good look at your syllabi and check out which books you REALLY need, and which ones you’re only going to read a couple chapters from. If you aren’t going to read at least half the book, go to the school library and see if you can get it on reserves. My school would let us borrow reserves for a couple hours at a time - if you only have a chapter or two to read, it sure beats paying $20 for the book!
You can do what I did every year in high school, Catholic Schooling. I would not buy my books, I would ( me, the shy mousy girl that was invisible, really.) steal the books off the kid in my class that I just loathed. ( Which was just about everyone) Then, at the end of the year, I would sell them and the money I made put me in the bonus round.
Considering when I was a senior and had something like two classes per semester, but was a klepto off of a few girls that I just hated ( The Heathers, per se) I made something like $250 (this is 16 years ago) off reselling their books at the end of the school year. It was my best year ever.
My mom found out when the school called the fall after I graduated to tell me that I had a big fat check waiting in the office and I told her what I’d been doing for the four years of school. She looked at me and said, " So that’s why the checks for buying books never cleared the bank. You never used them. Here I thought I was getting lucking by the school losing the check every year…You shouldn’t have done that…"
However, this is probably illegal somewhere.
Two well-dressed businessmen get on the 5:38 out of Grand Central for Larchmont. They’ve never met each other. Standing next to each other in the bar car, they strike up a conversation over their Chivas-and-waters.
Two minutes into the chat, Executive Pat says to Executive Mike, “So…I can tell you’re a Harvard man.”
Mike says, “Why, so I am! That’s astonishing! How could you tell?”
Pat says, “Elementary…during the 120 seconds of our conversation, you managed to mention Harvard no fewer than five times.”
Mike says, “Hmmmm. And I can tell that YOU’RE a Dartmouth man.”
Pat says, “Good heavens! Yes, I DID attend Dartmouth! However did you know?”
And Mike says, “Equally simple…I read your class ring as you were picking your nose.”
*edges towards the fire curtain, and quickly ducks backstage
Revedge, I am so with you! I spent nearly £200 on course books in my first term (an experience to be repeated the next term, when the next batch of courses started). 10 books, and we used 2 of them, once each. And the information in them wasn’t very complete or helpful.
Next year one of the tutors recommended three of his own books…which we also never used, but I had stopped buying them by then.
The uni did run a second hand bookstore - if you give your books in, you get half of the sale cost, the students’ union gets the other half, and the next batch get the books cheap. A great idea, but people tend to hang onto them in the hope that they’ll be useful eventually.
Ukulele Ike,
That’s it. You shall face my wrath.
The Unholy Lesbian Vampire Army of the Night shall make you pay…
<degenerates into maniacal laughter> <chokes on altoid, recovers, makes sure no one was watching> <back to maniacal laughter>
My first semester in college, I spent about $300 on books, because I was hell bent on having sparkling new copies of everything. I then became cynical and purchased only used copies whenever possible for every remaining semester.
Most sucky bookstore moment: when they wouldn’t buy back my math text (which I purchased new!) because it had been discontinued or something.
Hey andygirl, can I have an Altoid or three?
Hah. You are POWERLESS before me. And do you know why? Because…
Betty Co-ed has lips of red for Harvard
Betty Co-ed has eyes of Yale’s deep blue,
Betty Co-ed’s a golden head for Princeton
Her dress, I guess, is black for old Purdue
Betty Co-ed’s a smile for Pennsylvania,
Her heart is Dartmouth’s treasure, so 'tis said
Betty Co-ed is loved by ev’ry college boy…
But I’m the one who’s loved by Betty Co-ed!
Students love used books. They cost less than new books, are usually in perfectly fine condition, and sometimes have helpful notes in the margins. Plus, they can be sold back to the bookstore at the end of the term, reducing the overall cost even further.
Bookstores don’t mind used books. They cost very little to buy back, and they can be resold for a very nice profit. Plus, books are durable, and can be sold over and over again for several years before beginning to wear significantly.
Publishers hate used books. They only make a profit of the initial sale of a new book; when bookstores buy and sell used books, the publishers don’t see a dime. So, they come out with new editions, often every year, to ensure a healthy cash flow. New editions frequently consist of nothing more than cosmetic changes, particularly in subjects that haven’t changed significantly for hundreds of years (calculus).
Bookstores don’t mind the new books, since they’re making a profit from the sale in any case. And, since the publishers tell the bookstores when new editions are coming out, there’s no risk that the bookstore will buy back an “obsolete” book.
And so, in the end, it’s the student alone that gets screwed. Oh, the heartache of book-buying…
Ah, one thing I don’t miss about school. I think my highest total for one semester was $560. I got back…$60 at the end of the semester. I hated buying books. At least my profs only required we buy books that we’d read all the way through. If we only needed a chapter, they’d put it on loan at the library. Small comfort.
Two men walk into a bathroom together, head to the urinals, and do their business. Thatcher immediately leaves; Baxter hits the sinks.
Back outside, Baxter says “At Yale, they teach us to wash after we urinate.”
Thatcher replies, “At Harvard, they teach us not to piss on our hands.”
(Subsitute “Dartmouth” for “Yale” as necessary.)
Ace:
Strange…I’ve always heard it the other way round.
<grin>
As in:
Two men walk into a bathroom together, head to the urinals, and immediately piss all over their hands. Thatcher leaves; Baxter hits the sinks.
Back outside, Baxter says “At Yale, they teach us to wash after we urinate.”
Thatcher replies, “At Harvard, they teach us not to piss on our hands…uh, God DAMN it!”
I got ripped for $550 at the Brown bookstore this semester.
I have one textbook that looks like it could take down a airliner.
Hernias here I come.
It is amazing how often the books for a course will not be of any use.
I rarely bought my books, and usually never opened those I did buy.
If you pay attention in classes you’ll be fine. In college written several papers on Herodotus’ histories, received 3s or 4s on all of them and have to this day never read a word he wrote.
So my advice is: Don’t buy the books. Pay ATTENTION in class. Don’t take notes, that just distracts from paying ATTENTION, and most people don’t take useful notes anyway. If you pay ATTENTION you will remember 90% of what you need to know and will be able to identify the other 10% for review at the library.
Just remember this: If 100% effort will get you a 4.0 GPA, then 60% will get you a 3.5 GPA and both of those will get you to the next stage of your life just fine.