College Textbook rant...

[BillyP]

The cost for his "required" textbooks for these 4 classes totaled $464.00 as new (used are hard to find, and not all that much cheaper). We did a lot of searching on Ebay and such, and were able to knock a few dollars off here and there.

Sounds pretty simple to me. Have him take care of the books and sell them later. If these used books sell "not all that much cheaper" you should be OK. If inflation hits just right, you might even make money

 

[Gatorboy]

We used to buy a copy, then reproduce it on the library photocopy machine.

Not much respect for a copyright, eh?

 

[Gatorboy]

this is just me venting about college textbooks and their cost...

You should have no trouble selling them at the end of the semester to get a big chunk of your money back.

 

[mathey]

Say he pays $100 for a new book...the MOST they will give him is $50, and that's in pristine condition (they are very picky)... and that's if the version has not changed - most of his from last year were worthless the last day of class (I told him to SPRINT over there the minute he got of class that day) since the versions changed. We managed to sell some of Ebay/Half.com, but still only getting less than 20% over what he paid

The bookstore in turn will sell the used books the next semester for $75/80 (hence the used books almost cost as much as new)

 

[scott_vt]

Same for me some 25 years ago (just celebrated 25 years with the company I work for, even though they changed names three times since). Remember though, it's not a painful expense, it's an investment. Sometime in the future, you and your son may look back on a successful career without a thought to the book costs. I kept many of my core textbooks from college. Haven't looked at them since, but they are something of a "monument" to my achievements back then.

Oh, and yes, it is a racket. But an investment none-the-less.

How true Rob,
The oldest boy graduated from Univ of RI 2 1/2 years ago with a degree in computer science and he is very close to making more than me Heck, Ive got 35 years in my trade and graduated from the school of hard knocks that must count for somethin ?

 

[dooleysm]

When I was in school, I quickly learned to never, ever, ever buy books before the class starts. I always went to a week or more of class before deciding if buying a book was necessary. I never bought a book on my own, always shared with someone else. After my freshman year, I don't think I purchased more than 5 books for the rest of my career.

 

[dmccarty]

When my son was in col. 2 of his proffesors required him to buy a book they had written. Talk about conflict of interest.
My biggest rant was one of his proffesors could barely speak english, I thought he was exagerating till I heard her speak, and I couldn't understand a word she said, and it was a required coarse.
later, Nat

My Dad was a Professor and required his book in some of his classes. If the guy wrote the book, seems like he could teach it. I had plenty of "professors" who did not know there a... from a hole in the ground much less write a book.

And if you think the Professor makes alot of money off a text book, there is a bridge for sale in New York. I doubt if my dad ever made enough in royalties to buy a cheap car. Only a few of the text books that are sold all over the country make huge sums of money for the author. The money is made by the publisher and the store. When I was in school the only place to buy the book was at the monopolistic on campus book store. Even if ordered from another store the publisher had set the price so there was no point.

I can understand a "high" price if the text book is on a subject that is rapidly changing. But basic classes are not teaching at the cutting edge. It really is a scam but it ain't the professors causing it for the most part.

I know that some classes are now taught without text books.

I had a French EE prof who would pronounce X as s..x. Given that the class was all about "equations" that used the X symbol with a line over the top, she constantly said,"X Bar" which came out in her French English as "s..x bar". She was constantly turning around to try to figure out why the class was laughing all of the time.

This was even more interesting because she would wear one of two types of outfits. One was a shear body suit and the other was a blouse that was made out of yarn in a web with holes about 4 inches across. She wore no bra. So between her saying "s..x bar" every other sentence, followed by tittering in the classes, which caused her to turn thus flashing the class which led to more tittering. Repeat all semester.

Oh, and it was freezing cold in the classroom.....

I had Profs that would pick their nose as well as eat what was on their finger in front of class. Profs that where stoned. Profs that where complete idiots. But at least they did not smell bad like some I passed in the halls. Well the bugger picker was kinda smelly.

College is an education.

Later,
Dan

 

[SpringHollow]

I run a chemistry department at a major university. In some of our classes, we develop our own texts and give them out for free. Most students really appreciate that they are saving some serious money. We do not sell any books written by our own faculty (I do see it as a conflict of interest). I realize that this is not the case in all departments or universities Our faculty get upset over the fact that the publishers keep revising the texts with very few changes. The faculty then have to switch to the new edition since the old edition will no longer be in print.

Near many major Universities is a book store or two that specializes in used text books. They are worth looking for. Also, if it is the same text as last year, maybe someone majoring in that field will let you borrow theirs from the previous year.

Finally, there usually are not major differences between versions of the texts. Normally, you can get away with using the previous version and just checking to see what problems have changed by asking someone if you can look at their book for a minute. But just realize that that process is not without significant risk - that is how my wife and I met 25 years ago

 

[Chuck52]

Student book exchanges, run by students for students, were getting common way back when I was an undergraduate. That helps with the used book situation, but doesn't address the frequent edition change problems. I hate to make the students buy the expensive and somewhat hard to find book I teach crystallography from, so I make hand outs on CD for them and suggest that any who are likely to actually use the arcane parts of the science consider buying that one or another similar text.

My son has had some success finding books online. I scrounged a copy of a Chemistry text for him once. Other than that, I get a whopping 10% discount at the bookstore, but I've found the same books cheaper elsewhere at times. Some semesters his book bill has been about a third of his tuition.

We sometimes get free cookies from the book reps. I don't know of any faculty who have changed their text requirement for the cookies. Pretty good cookies, too.

Chuck

 

[RobS]

A related development I ran into the other day:

textbooks

An interesting approach utilizing the web for subject matter that doesn't change much over time.