College Textbook rant...
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Bird
Rest in Peace
Sounds to me as if nothing's changed in the last 50 years. Textbooks, especially college text books, were unbelievably high priced even back then. And I suppose the limited market resulting in very few of each book sold contributes to the cost. It was college professors who told me there was a saying among college professors to either "publish or perish"; i.e., if you wanted to keep your job and status, you had to write books. The next problem is, how do you sell them? Well, you can require your own students to use your own book in your class, but most consider that to be poor form. So, if you and I are both college professors and we've both written books, then you require your students to buy my textbook and I'll require my students to buy your book. That was the system long ago, and it sounds as if it hasn't changed. I only had one class in which the professor used his own textbook, and he was one of those characters who was convinced that he knew everything there was to know about everything. And of course, the rest of us considered him to be an idiot.
BillyP
Veteran Member
I never went to college and I make 10 times what my Dad made.
Before anyone goes ballistic, college is the best investment in life that anyone can make. There's companies that won't hire you because you don't have a degree. But, they'll hire the next person that does, and don't know diddly squat.
I guess high tech has changed a lot of things over the years.
Before anyone goes ballistic, college is the best investment in life that anyone can make. There's companies that won't hire you because you don't have a degree. But, they'll hire the next person that does, and don't know diddly squat.
I guess high tech has changed a lot of things over the years.
Bird
Rest in Peace
Just in raw numbers, or are you calculating for inflation?
My pension now is more than 10 times the salary I got as a rookie cop.
BillyP
Veteran Member
Bird said:Just in raw numbers, or are you calculating for inflation?
Sorry Bird but I'm not smart enough to figure for inflation. I guess not much has changed since then though, for me anyway. Dad always said "You live on what you make or you can make a living".
DocHeb
Veteran Member
Speaking of adjustment for inflation, check out Cost of Living Calculator
Bird
Rest in Peace
Interesting link, Chris. Just some trivia for the youngsters who haven't thought about the changes. I started work for the U.S. Post Office as a temporary part time letter carrier in 1957 for $1.88 an hour. In 1959, I went to work for the Post Office full time as a clerk for $2.00 an hour, and in March of 1964, I was working an evening shift, so part of my hours included a 10% night differential and I was making $501 a month when I resigned, mostly due to boredom, and took a big pay cut to become a police officer for $370 a month.
Chuck52
Veteran Member
Most academics meet the publish-or-perish criterion with papers in peer reviewed journals. No pay for that, unfortunately, or I'd be considerably better off than I am. We only had one faculty member who wrote a text book so far as I can remember. He was one of the "Founding Fathers" in his area, so that was one reason. I don't know if he required that text or not in his class. What has often surprised me is that many of the more popular texts are written by people in relatively low power schools....the ones in the research power house places are probably too busy doing research and publishing that so they can get grants.
Chuck
Chuck
mjarrels
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It is laptops for me... spent about $2000.00 for son's laptop... no, its not what we use in this college, it needs to be this and that... with this and that... I took many PACE classes at sea in the Navy, instructor had to hump the books around the world... did'nt need to buy many books in those days. I live in a major college town... most positions require a masters or PHD for what I did for a liviing. Add in the paper for a data analyst this week 10 hours a week (my Navy career). PHD apply only. Colleges feed on themselves... I'll just stay retired at age 52.
mark
mark
Chuck52 said:
The required text for my soils class was written by the professor; we all chipped in and bought one book (THAT student helped us through the classs, anyways) then photocopied it for 1/2 what the book cost. 28 years ago copies weren't as cheap as now, but to us college kids it seemed like a bargain.
What I didn't know was that at that school a copy of all required textbooks had to be available at the college library; don't know if that was unique, but may be worth looking int.