Textbooks College Cost

[randomnumber]

I just wanted to rant about how much college students are extorted. My main thought on how students are extorted are the text books. This is because this has affected me most. There is also the other forms of extortion at colleges, like meal plans.

What got me to post this was I have a class that requires the purchase of a book. This is a perfectly normal situation and is most of the time just an annoyance. The reason it is just a an annoyance is that the cost of the textbooks are just low enough that you pay it and go on with your life.

This class that I am taking requires a book that cost approximately $140. This is just one of the five classes I am taking. To add to the insult the book is the worst book I have ever seen in a college setting. The only reason we need the book for the class is that the homework assignments come out of the book. This class is the second of this subject and I already have the previous edition which cost me approximately $80.

I know that these textbook publishers do not come out with new editions to benefit students, readers or professors and that they only come out with the new editions to increase their profits. I got a chance to look at 4 editions of the calculus book our school required. Every other edition was alike. The chapters were arranged in the same order.

---
The meal plans are another form of extortion. At more colleges it is becoming a requirement of any first year student living on campus has to purchase a "meal plan". The credits can only be redeemed at the school, usually only for food items. The credits left over at the end are not returned to the students but are kept by the school. I personally believe that this is illegal in some way and if it is not it should be.
---
Another thing I see happening is that if i desired a soda on campus the soda costs about as much as it would at Disney World and that I can only purchase Pepsi products. It is apparent that Pepsi or their bottling company has sign an exclusive right contract. I guess I should not complain too much about this as it is my choice to purchase these items.
---
Parking at my school cost me approximately $40 a year with no guaranty of a place. I do not want to complain too much about this because my school is cheep compared to many. At USF is cost $200 per year or $100 per semester. Are these extra cost justified?

I would like opinions on this subject to see if I am the only one who sees these things in this way. Do you see that publishers are taking advantage of the college students? Do you think that required meal plans are a form of stealing or maybe form of monopoly? Am I posting something that should not be?

[spockrock]

lol I know its bad, in my embedded architecture class, we needed to get a 300$ text book, this thing was a big thick, mother of a text book (a serious back breaker with all your other texts). Guess how many times it was used ........ 0, :rolleyes:

Couple this with 5 other engineering classes, each text book ranging from 150$-200$ (errr...canadian)......

Luckily the class got a hold of a PDF copy of that text book, and it was sent around, that was the good thing about being in engineering, everyone knew each other....saved a whole bunch of us a nice sizeable chunk of money.

And yes meal plans and food on campus is down right ridiculously expensive, I spent alot of money on food on campus, a lot of late nights in labs........... I feel your pain.....

[euler_fan]

Insofar as books go, thank god for Amazon and half.com!

I'm a math major, and perhaps the only thing worse than some US$140 tome is a $140 book weighing in at under 200 pages. (No joke, it was my Real Analysis book. At least it got read.)

[meng]

I agree about meal plans. Parking you can't complain too much about, particularly at that price. The nice thing about textbooks is that you can sell them to next semester's or next year's class. And if the old edition is almost identical to the new one, well then you can buy the old one. BTW, even if a new edition has major changes, the chapter order is still almost identical, usually.

[randomnumber]

I did not mean to say that I had a meal plan, I did not. I only take the opinion that this required meal plan policy is wrong. I sympathize with those that are required to have it. I live off campus, with my parents, to save money. It is only those that live on campus that get screwed this way.

Thanks for the reply. Glad that I never had to get a $300 book but last semester I had two $80 books we never used. I really wish I knew that I was not going to use them, I could have paid my laptop off more.

[macogw]

Parking at my school would be around $1500 a year, because that's how much all the parking garages on/near campus would come out to. We don't have student parking. If you want to have a car, go find a parking garage and pay their rates.

We don't have meal plans either. We have $1400/semester (freshman....it gets less as you go up) that is for food/books/hygiene-stuff and can be taken in the bookstore, food court (no cafeteria, mall-style), and nearby restaurants and CVS pharmacies. As far as shopping at Safe Way or Trader Joes (both within a block of campus), they don't take our cards yet, but you can buy an AMEX gift card at CVS using your school ID/debit card and then the money's redeemable elsewhere from the AMEX. Oh, one other nice thing about those cards is that Dominos Pizza and Campus Snacks both take them. Campus Snacks is open 8pm - I think 4 am and they deliver to any dormitory in the District (free delivery if you spend $10).

DC's zoning laws require that all first and second year students live on-campus, so if you want to live elsewhere (like an embassy, such as one of my "roommates" did) you still are assigned a room that you're supposed to live in, but if you never actually sleep there, the school can't force you.

Most of my books I've been able to get for < $80 each so far because I hunt around amazon, abebooks, and half.com for them. Some have come out to $30.

[spockrock]

another fun thing I like to do is share textbooks with a school chum, if the exam wasn't open book of course..... that saved us cash, and seeing how we would have identical schedules, (another great thing about being a computer engineering student, everyone basically has the same schedule) we would work on opposing homework, or work together, doing assignments in groups was not discouraged but plagerism and copying was a no no.

Also about parking I know at our school we got free bus, and after 4 in the afternoon, the parking cops stopped checking for permits, so bus to school and in the afternoon some one would go back home, get the car, park. Then back to work and leave at 1-2 in the morning to start the day all over again. Well we would only get some to grab a car, if we expected to be at school past midnight (the time the buses stopped running).

[spockrock]

We don't have meal plans either. We have $1400/semester (freshman....it gets less as you go up) that is for food/books/hygiene-stuff and can be taken in the bookstore, food court (no cafeteria, mall-style), and nearby restaurants and CVS pharmacies. As far as shopping at Safe Way or Trader Joes (both within a block of campus), they don't take our cards yet, but you can buy an AMEX gift card at CVS using your school ID/debit card and then the money's redeemable elsewhere from the AMEX.


o_O omg your tuition is 1400/semester, mine was 2500-3000$ first two semesters which included dorm, and meal plan.

Then the next 4 years it was about 1500-2000$ per semester and the school had a legal right to increase my tuition 2.5% per year, and I believe they did that.....besides the 1500-2000$, that doesn't include rent, food, utilities........

*sigh*

[macogw]

another fun thing I like to do is share textbooks with a school chum, if the exam wasn't open book of course..... that saved us cash, and seeing how we would have identical schedules, (another great thing about being a computer engineering student, everyone basically has the same schedule) we would work on opposing homework, or work together, doing assignments in groups was not discouraged but plagerism and copying was a no no.
Yeah, that works too. I found a girl in my dorm taking the same Anthro class as me, so when I didn't have one of the books, I was able to take hers. There's no other CS kids on my floor though.

I found someone willing to sell me a whole crapload of Richard Stevens books in hardcover for $100, so I'm going to do that. Those books are as good as textbooks. I'm taking Programming for Unix next year, and APUE is pretty much the best book in that area. Given how much CS I'll be taking, I might be able to get away with reading these books and skipping out on a bunch of textbooks.

[macogw]

o_O omg your tuition is 1400/semester, mine was 2500-3000$ first two semesters which included dorm, and meal plan.

Then the next 4 years it was about 1500-2000$ per semester and the school had a legal right to increase my tuition 2.5% per year, and I believe they did that.....besides the 1500-2000$, that doesn't include rent, food, utilities........

*sigh*
hahahah That's not tuition! That's the meal-plan-ish (on which you can buy books and shampoo if you need to) thing. Tuition is $36,000/year + $8000 for rooms + that $3000 meal-books-shampoo-plan. Add in lab fees and all...$52,000/year USD (not Canadian). My school doesn't increase tuition yearly though. I mean, it goes up, but once you're enrolled, it won't go up provided you graduate within 5 years. Next year's students will have a higher tuition than I do. I wish that was tuition haha

[randomnumber]

ohh my god, where do you all go to school. My school costs approx 105 per credit hour. On avg a class has 3 hrs - $315. There is a min of 120 hours min for the 4 year degree which cost min of $12,600 to graduate. My school is UWF. That is only the class cost.

[spockrock]

well I am a Canadian student so the government pretty much pays for a large chunk of the tuition. But I went to the University Of Guelph......

[macogw]

ohh my god, where do you all go to school. My school costs approx 105 per credit hour. On avg a class has 3 hrs - $315. There is a min of 120 hours min for the 4 year degree which cost min of $12,600 to graduate. My school is UWF. That is only the class cost.
I go to George Washington University. They say they're not the most expensive college in the country because Galludet (a school for blind and deaf kids, not for the average college student, and therefore doesn't quite count) costs $1125 more. My tuition includes 12-17 hours/semester. If you go over 17, it's a few hundred per additional hour.

[randomnumber]

Florida pays a good portion of our tuition from what I understand, it just that they do not pay for all of it. If you were to take a class for the 3rd time the cost of the class is tripled. Also if you come from out of state( you have not lived in the state of FL for a year) you pay three time the normal cost. If you are taking graduate courses you pay 3 times the cost. These numbers are approximate.

Florida also has something called bright future scholarships that I know little about other than they are based on high school grades and I did not qualify.

Our campus has few students compared to most, 8000 was the last number i heard. Our campus is a commuter school with no foot ball team. It is, by far, not a party school even though we are in FL. Take a look at the satellite view on Google it want to get an idea of what it looks like, a campus in the middle of a forest.

[euler_fan]

Where I go to school (admittedly a private catholic college, but not at all a dogmatic one), the per credit cost for me is around US$675. Each class is US$2850 for four credits. We are certainly not the most expensive school mentioned so far, but certainly far from the cheapest. I think the total bill per year (including parking, meal plan, etc) is right around an even 30K.

But at 5600 undergraduates, in most programs there is not huge competition for additional resources and research opertunities (for those of us who like that sort of thing). And since there is no graduate math program, all the profs are free to do research with us :) . So, at least if you want to it is possible to get what you pay for here.

[spockrock]

wow,

/glad he lives in canada and not have to pay 30k a year to go to school.

[randomnumber]

You all should move down here, its warmer and we have white beaches. Ohh, and it is also cheaper. Admittedly, I thought that MIT would have been a very cool school to go to but I can barely afford the school here. Maybe someday.

[spockrock]

You all should move down here, its warmer and we have white beaches. Ohh, and it is also cheaper. Admittedly, I thought that MIT would have been a very cool school to go to but I can barely afford the school here. Maybe someday.

well I am done school now, so yeah I guess I could..........

[Polygon]

I know high schools and such are switching to just renting a laptop to every kid who attends and then they get all their books like preloaded on that.... maybe some day in the future everyone will just have a digital copy of the book that will "hopefully" be free for students to use (aka the college just pays for their students to use it and then its free or a lot cheaper then it is now)

but id still think they would charge a huge sum of money even for a digital version of a textbook that costs like no money to reproduce or distribute...

[randomnumber]

I know high schools and such are switching to just renting a laptop to every kid who attends and then they get all their books like preloaded on that.... maybe some day in the future everyone will just have a digital copy of the book that will "hopefully" be free for students to use (aka the college just pays for their students to use it and then its free or a lot cheaper then it is now)

but id still think they would charge a huge sum of money even for a digital version of a textbook that costs like no money to reproduce or distribute...

I doubt the publisher will willingly give up their profits.

[euler_fan]

I know high schools and such are switching to just renting a laptop to every kid who attends and then they get all their books like preloaded on that.... maybe some day in the future everyone will just have a digital copy of the book that will "hopefully" be free for students to use (aka the college just pays for their students to use it and then its free or a lot cheaper then it is now)

but id still think they would charge a huge sum of money even for a digital version of a textbook that costs like no money to reproduce or distribute...

I don't think we'll ever see free textbooks--at least any worth paying for :( . And as much at this might sound weird, I would rather pay US$140+ for a trully good book with handy examples, clear exposition, and excellent coverage of the material than any amount of money for some piece of a book (in any form) that I never use and which fails to compliment the material. Thus, I love my Real Analysis book (okay, I got it for US$60 on Amazon, my favorite bookstore on earth) for those reasons: the examples are pretty good (for the content area), the exposition is pretty clear, and it did a great job of complimenting the course.

[spockrock]

I don't think we'll ever see free textbooks--at least any worth paying for :( . And as much at this might sound weird, I would rather pay US$140+ for a trully good book with handy examples, clear exposition, and excellent coverage of the material than any amount of money for some piece of a book (in any form) that I never use and which fails to compliment the material. Thus, I love my Real Analysis book (okay, I got it for US$60 on Amazon, my favorite bookstore on earth) for those reasons: the examples are pretty good (for the content area), the exposition is pretty clear, and it did a great job of complimenting the course.

I agree, my robotics textbook was worth every penny.... there are some great texts that I wont mind paying money for.

[CCBalla10]

BOOKS ARE KILLING ME!!!!! spent almost $600 this last semester for books i rarely used. I'm gonna be smart this semester and wait to see what classes i actually need and which ones i can slide by without em.....damn democrats...sorry! just i'm a repub and lil angry u guys won! :P sorry again if i offened anyone with that comment

[euler_fan]

BOOKS ARE KILLING ME!!!!! spent almost $600 this last semester for books i rarely used. I'm gonna be smart this semester and wait to see what classes i actually need and which ones i can slide by without em.....damn democrats...sorry! just i'm a repub and lil angry u guys won! :P sorry again if i offened anyone with that comment

I can sympathyze: at $600/semester I would be tearing my hair out looking for cheaper alternatives. If only profs would just state its not worth buying a book and mean it or write good lecture notes for half the price :rolleyes:

Not to be a jerk, but have you tried Amazon/Half/you-favorite-used-online-bookseller? I can usually get the ISBN's for by books from a visit to the bookstore a few weeks before classes which makes search a snap, and my school offers an online bookstore with enought info (author, title, edition) to find the book that way too.

I will admit my other major is economics, and it seems like (at least in the markets for books I've watched) that there is a "sweet spot" about 2-5 (usually 3-4) weeks out from the start of a semester where the market is flooded with copies at bargain prices. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just my econ side in overdrive?

[IYY]

I buy all of my books used, and sell them at the end of the term. Sometimes I actually make money. :cool:

[riven0]

Yeah, you guys have book buy-back, don't you? Where your college will buy back your books by the end of the term? I can get at least 1/3rd to 1/2 of what I pay for them... and they cost a pretty penny. Rip off, big time!

[mips]

We have $1400/semester (freshman....it gets less as you go up) that is for food/books/hygiene-stuff ...

Why do you have to pay for hygiene-stuff ? Do people not bring their own stuff ???

[Brunellus]

You don't *have* to shell out a lot on textbooks. That all depends on the method of instruction and the course.

As an undergraduate studying history, I spent a lot on *books,* but not a great deal on "textbooks.* The University preferred to teach through large lectures based on long reading lists.

The size of the reading list (and the breadth of the topics) meant that it was highly unlikely for all of people taking a certain course to be studying the same topic *at the same time*. It was thus possible to get by with a combination of library use and judicious use of the internets--hooray for electronically-available scholarly journals!

Those of us who bought certain books on the reading list ended up buying them because we wanted to guarantee our access to them.

Other courses were less fortunate. "prescriptive" courses, with more rigid timetables, tended to require textbooks to a greater extent, if only because it was impossible to guarantee access to the relevant materials to all the students taking the course at the same time.

[macogw]

Why do you have to pay for hygiene-stuff ? Do people not bring their own stuff ???
What? I think you misunderstand that money. Our ID cards are debit cards, essentially, and they can be used for pretty much anything but cigarettes and alcohol. We are required to put $1400/semester and it is for food/"personal items". So, when you're in your dorm and out of shampoo, you don't need, theoretically, to have a job and cash to get shampoo, you can buy it on the school-money.

[macogw]

I will admit my other major is economics, and it seems like (at least in the markets for books I've watched) that there is a "sweet spot" about 2-5 (usually 3-4) weeks out from the start of a semester where the market is flooded with copies at bargain prices. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just my econ side in overdrive?
I checked the online bookstore 3 weeks before this semester started and the books weren't listed yet.

[otake-tux]

you got it light! most of my classes require TWO $100+ books!

my last math book cost $120 and it had............................maybe 200 pages and we never used it. the Prof made up the class and assignments. I don't even understand why he made us buy the book.................

the class was abstract algebra.

[EdThaSlayer]

Universities do get more expensive as the days pass. All education is getting more expensive(except for primary and secondary, that is if you get it for free).

[euler_fan]

I checked the online bookstore 3 weeks before this semester started and the books weren't listed yet.

I guess I've been more lucky than good. :( I was hoping it was the other way around.