I got lucky this semester. Only $200 on books, but I haven’t gotten everything yet. One book was going to cost $100 but the prof is letting us use the old edition. I found it on half.com for $15. Of course I had to buy about 15 books. I’m not going to get anything for returning them at the end of the term.
The Business Associations class I have this semester requires the same book for BA1 and BA2 and cost $85.15. The syllabus doesn’t require this book all that often. The professor downright told us the first day of class (in not so many words), “sucks to be you, but you’ll get your money’s worth when we use it a good deal more next semester.”
I won’t be there next semester. I’m not going to take BA2.
So I went to Kinkos last night and copied off the relevant portions. Today, I returned the book for a full refund.
Part of me feels guilty despite my ability to rationalize it as non-copyright infringement.
After all, I’m using it for an educational purpose, I made only a single copy of less than 8% of the book, and I’m not profiting off my copies. Granted, I did get my money back, but that’s a zero sum, not a profit. So I guess I’m in the clear.
Or going to hell. One of the two.
16 books for 3 classes.
Total: $237.55 + tax.
Arrrgggh,
Sorry, I was REALLY really unclear in that post.
This is a book that was written by the PE director and another fitness instructor at the school. It has articles and worksheets in it, designed to be torn out and used.
Generally the book is requested to be required for the students. Many of them will buy the book before they come to class, some don’t.
They’re allowed to share articles, assignments and such from the book to turn in.
Also, our “student center” has this book on reserve to be used or checked out".
For many books, parts can be photocopied for use in this way, as long as no profits come of the use of th copied portion.
This is one of those books. You might want to read the copyrights in all of your books. Sometimes you can get by with just specific pages of a book and just check it out of the library periodically for reading assignments and such.
Of course this definitely depends upon what sort of class it is.
If it’s Engineering Level 9000, or Human Anatomy, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it.
But for some of the basic requirements and less “text heavy” classes (such as my PE class), you can get away with it (legally :D).
Sorry for my blurry explanation!!!
:smack:
Now why didn’t I say it that well???
Thanks mhendo
It’s almost 2 years since I’ve been to college, but I know what you all speak of. Why does being a college student seemed to have to include getting fucked in the ass on books?
I remember paying $25 for a book in 1980 and having a ministroke over it. I wonder what that fucking book would cost today.
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Ugh!
20 years!
20 years!
My college graduation 20 year class reunion is next July.
Depends on the book. If it’s a textbook-textbook, it’d be a minimum of $50, more if it’s one of the hard science textbooks. And that’s the price for a used copy. If you have the misfortune to take a science, you have to buy the $50+ textbook AND the 50+ Lab Thingie, which in my case is a crappy binder filled with some random sheets.
Sorry, but as a student, I can say: Fuck that.
I’m lucky enough to be in a field of study that doesn’t require expensive textbooks. And in any event, I just go to the library to study. But I think it’s perfectly reasonable for an accounting or engineering student to photocopy the pages he needs.
UnuMondo
I’ve seen the specialty-level CS course books cost over 200CAD, I guess 'cause if you can write a book about that you can name your price. OTOH, all the business courses require books that cost 150+. (I’m guessing 'cause of the pretty pictures).
My friend saved a bunch by only buying the books the library didn’t have. I recommend this due to the sad fact that the resale value of course books is about 50% for the next year or two, and 0% after that. For 25 cents at a garage sale I got this huuuuuge physics text that cost the owner 150 at the University bookstore only 6 years before. I betcha the questions were in a different order than this year’s version. 
I was in college in the late 70s - engineering major. I recall having a minor coronary when my Flight Controls class required a text that cost $85. What was even worse - the damned book was falling apart halfway thru the semester!! The binding was about the worst I’d ever encountered, and despite my care (and I do care for books) it was little more than a pile of pages by the end of the semester.
Even worse, the book wasn’t to be used the next term, so I was stuck with it. And I was mightily ticked off.
My firstborn is taking a dual enrollment College Algebra class, and her text, workbook, and CD came to $100 (thankfully, the county school system paid for it) I just smiled and said “Welcome to the world of college texts!” She’s in for unpleasant surprises next year when she starts at the university.
I came home from my first night at class last evening knowing that the $109, June 2003 edition of the required textbook was sold out at the university bookstore (with a two to three week wait for new ones to arrive). So I took a gander at Half.com and Alibris.com, and managed to find a brand-new one for–including shipping–$76.
I would have grabbed a used one had the prices been any better, but those who were selling the used books seemed intent on getting as much of their money back as possible; so they kept the prices high. Not that I blame them, mind you.
It does depress me a bit to realize that one almost has to take out another loan just to afford the books. The last time I attended college, though, I didn’t have the advantage of ordering the books from the internet, so I’m better off now.
You know what pisses me off most about this? It’s not so much that books are expensive, or that we need to buy a lot of them. Rather, it’s the fact that my grad school (expensive private university–thank og i’m not paying tuition), in awarding the on-campus book store contract, made absolutely no effort to get a decent deal for the students.
I mean, the university is in a perfect bargaining position here. They are effectively handing the winning bidder a captive audience, not only for books but for all the crappy school merchandise (t-shirts, flags, etc.) that the store sells. The least the university administration could do is make it a condition of the contract that the store:
a) offer discounts on regular retail price to students
b) have a reasonable used-textbook pricing system
c) actually provide decent service to the students
But no, they give the contract to Barnes & Noble, and we get a store that, except for the fact that it stocks course texts, is no cheaper and no more efficient that any other B&N. It doesn’t even have a coffee shop. In fact, it’s selection of books other than textboooks is very poor. Not only that, but when an independent bookstore wanted to rent some university-owned space off-campus, B&N pressured the university into refusing the lease, despite the fact that such exclusivity was not part of B&N’s contract with the university.
The used textbook policy is a joke. They pay half the cover price no matter what condition the book, and charge 3/4 of the cover price, no matter what condition the book. So, you might have kept your textbook in perfect condition, and you’ll get no more for it than someone whose copy is all dog-eared and highlighted. And, if you don’t get in early, you get to buy that dog-eared and highlighted copy for the same price that someone else paid for a perfect copy.
As for providing decent service, the staff themselves are all very nice. It just the policies. For example, any unpurchased texts get returned to the distributor weeks and weeks before the end of semester, meaning that you have to fork out for your books in one big hit. For students on a limited income, it is often easier if you can buy your books as you go, but if you try this at my university you’ll likely find the shelves empty.
When i did my undergrad degree in Sydney, Australia, the bookstore that won the campus contract had to give a 12% discount on all new books to students of the university. It had to maintain sufficient numbers of the texts for the whole semester. And the university itself ran a separate consignment book store on campus where students could place their textbooks, with whatever price they thought they could get, and the store would sell the books and take a 10% cut. That’s how things should be.
Here endeth my rant.
I love Alibris, and i also get stuff from independent book-sellers like Labyrinth books (NY) and Green Apple books (San Francisco). Alibris is excellent for getting cheap prices. I use the other when i can’t get a book used or cheap, but still don’t want to hand money over to the fuckers at B&N, Amazon, etc. I have bought a few books on Amazon.com, but generally as a last resort.
Hah! I get it from both ends ( :: leer :: ), I’m a Computer Science and Humanities dual major. I’m quite familiar with getting 10-15 books for one class that add up to a shitload of money, and I’m also quite familiar with getting one damn book that can cost up to $150. I get screwed both ways!
Thank God that a lot of the time I can network with people. I bought a friend’s Physics 1-2 books for $40 total (the bookstore wants $80 EACH, used); I bought another friend’s Comparative Programming Languages book for $50, and I’ve borrowed books for Data Structures, Differential Equations and Automata Theory. On the other hand, I never borrow Humanities-courses books, those are ones I’m more likely to actually want. 
I ended up at about $500 this year for my books. 20 of those books were for one class (20th Century Drama). The thing is, though, the administration at my school–and probably the administration at many other schools–could give a rat’s ass about what’s more convenient for students.
There are the normal things, like a 5 - 15% increase in tuition every year. There are the stupid things like the bookstore, which charges an arm and a leg for books, even when they’re use. There’s even the fact that we don’t get Labor Day off. I used to think it was that the administration didn’t believe in days off; then I found out that the teachers get to take their Labor Day holiday any day that they want to.
I could go on, but I won’t. Basically, it boils down to this: the school probably doesn’t care about your comfort or your financial situation. We’re stuck paying, and it would take an insanely large amount of crap to get us to STOP paying them, because we need our degrees, and a transfer would almost always set us back in that goal. In other words, we’re a captive audience. It doesn’t matter how much we hate paying for books; we’re not going to up and leave because of it.
This is one reason why buying books for courses doesn’t worry me too much. I keep all the books i buy, and can always go back to them later on for enjoyment, or as a reference source. The only downside is that shelf space is at a premium right now, and i need a new bookcase.
Organic Chemistry Textbook and Study Guide: $213.35
Organic Chemistry Survival Manual: $52.00
Organic Chemistry Lab Manual: $24.00
Microbiology Textbook: $125.00
Microbiology Lab Manual: $31.20
Physics Textbooks, Vols 1 and 2: $166.35
Physics Lab Manual: $40.70
Realizing you just spent $685.23 (tax included) on three months of material: Priceless
:rolleyes:
A thought from the faculty side of the textbook issue: Don’t assume your instructors are aware of how outrageous the prices are. Publishers send free “desk” copies to college faculty - many of us get swamped with the things.
It’s a natural reaction, when you finally see a new text that actually fits your lesson plan, to jump at it. But these desk copies don’t usually come with price stickers. So faculty seldom know the exact price of any particular text. We just fill out the little form the bookstore sends us, and they take it from there. So it might be worth a polite word to the instructors.
I’ve been appalled once or twice to find out (from students) that a text I had selected was running twice the average cost of books in my field. I changed one such text the following semester (irritiating some of the students from the current semester who therefore were unable to sell theirs back to the bookstore). I have another class right now with a $95 (paperback!) text that I would love to replace, but the half-dozen cheaper replacements I’ve reviewed all omit 25-33% of what I consider to be essential topics for the course. As vain as I might be about my own teaching abilities, I know down deep that some of my students will need to have that material in print.
Rave on.
I am the sole “Benefactor” of a student at Auburn University.
The books required for courses are revised EVERY year so you can’t buy used books.
You can’t sell last terms books because they are obsolete!
Blame it on the book publishing companies that have a captive customer base that they exploit it for all it’s worth.
Blame it on the educational institution because they require the latest edition.
Depends on where you’re at. My psych book, used, was $38. My bio book was $78 used, but as I’ll be using it for 2 semesters of biology, it’s not quite so bad. And no expensive lab thingie – the general bio professors put together their own packet that cost $9. One of my other professors did the same sort of thing – no required textbook, just a $16 packet.
All total, I’ve spent $180 on books and materials so far, but I still have a few other things to buy. I’m lucky, my father is willing to pay for them since virtually all my other costs were covered by financial aid.
And checking my financial aid information online, I note that a $2000 scholarship has magically appeared for me out of nowhere. Why can’t I get random money like that in the mail?