My School in the Paper

[trunks2k]

Text book costs $100
Text book rental costs $60

But if you rent you don't get to keep the book. If you're not keeping the book anyhow, take it to the used bookstore. Used bookstore sells it for $80. You get 85% of that, so your total cost of the book was $100 - 0.85*$80 = $32.

Except, in my experience, the amount you get back is rarely every that large. Most I got back on a book was $25 for a biology book that I barely cracked open. Seriously, the binding still made that cracking noise that new books make. $68 back on a textbook is unheard of where I went to school.

You can get more back if you sell it yourself, but that takes a lot more effort.

What I hated most was that when the department would decide a certain book MUST be used, even if the prof wanted to use something else. I had a class where the CS department said a certain book must be used. The book SUCKED. It was the most confusing text book I ever had. The prof wanted to use a different book, but they wouldn't let him. What's worse though that the confusing and disorganized style of the book matched perfectly with how confusing and disorganized the prof was.

It's really best to buy the books online. Much, much cheaper. Only problem was I had classes that didn't have a book assigned until a couple days before class started. So there was no way to get the book in time for class.

[Sapphire Silk]

Tell me when the last time algebra changed? I have to buy a FIRST EDITION of an algebra book sometime this semester.


We have a reserve, but not closed. You get 2 hours with your book. if no one wants it when you give it back you can check it out again immediately though. Its something.

I hear you. For some classes, I didn't even bother to buy the text book, and it didn't affect my grades one bit (A's). If I knew I'd never use the book again, I didn't buy it.

Things got a bit more complicated in grad school . . . I had to have the book to do my assignments, especially since my program was online I had a financial management text book for nurse managers that was only good for putting my pizza on . . . and I told both my instructor and the school so. Still got an A in the course, but boy did I have to work for it with a text that was no help (it would have helped if I'd been required to take Accounting 101 beforehand, too).

I get what you say about the algebra book . . . algebra doesn't change. However, in the nursing courses I teach, things are a bit different. Nursing is constantly changing and evolving, and the info in a nursing textbook is often 3 years behind when the book is published.

Even so, the changes usually aren't enough to justify the frequency of new editions.

What really has me steamed right now is the nursing textbook I am forced to use in our new conceptual curriculum. The entire program has to use this "conceptual nursing text" that is anything but. The text is lifted, literally word for word, from other textbooks from the same publisher . . . it's just arranged by concept (example Oxygenation) rather than content (Respiratory).

The text is a two volume monstrosity. Vol 1 is thick enough to be classified as a dangerous weapon . . . $350 in our college bookstore. Vol. 2 is pretty thin (maybe 200 pages) and costs $180.

One of my students came to see me last night to ask if she could just use the old OB book I used before the curriculum change (she is a readmit to the program). I told her I didn't have a problem with that per se, but that I could no longer use that book if she wanted to challenge a test question, and that she'd need it for the rest of the program.

Then I looked it up on Amazon and found Vol 1 for $170

But she didn't hear that from me

[smileyeagle1021]

With the changing books, I am glad that I am in a major where the constantly changing books are done for valid reason. Yeah, people joke, how much could accounting actually change in a year... well, how many laws can congress pass in a year?
In the United States accounting is regulated by the government through the SEC and internally by the industry through FASB and IASB. FASB was introduced when my mother was in college, and I'm older than the IASB. Both organizations are constantly making or altering rules. Hell, a text book from two years ago wouldn't even have the correct number of board members for FASB, and from three years ago will teach you how to account for stock options incorrectly (well, correct for the time). Hell, go back one year and all the tax rates are wrong. Yes there is a lot in the field that hasn't changed in centuries, and the lower level courses do keep textbooks for longer, but once you get into higher level courses where it does start making a difference in the nuanced changes (and this will apply in the profession too, accountants are required to keep up to date on law and regulation changes, my mother buys a FASB guide every year) then yes, having a two year old book is next to worthless.
So, not every new edition of a book is just a publisher trying to screw students over.

[Sliceanddice]

the last big book i bought i bought the e book because i spent 50% and could print 150% of the book.
if i wanted too i could print it all out and copy it and sell it to the other students.

[Magpie]

Except, in my experience, the amount you get back is rarely every that large. Most I got back on a book was $25 for a biology book that I barely cracked open. Seriously, the binding still made that cracking noise that new books make. $68 back on a textbook is unheard of where I went to school.

You need to run for student government and overhaul the used-book store. I kid, but seriously, bio textbooks tend to be expensive, so you're getting 10%. Is your used bookstore consignment or buyback? If it's buyback that really would explain why you're getting screwed, but even then it sucks. I have a friend who managed to make money on his books one term. (Resale prices are set based on what the new books are sold for, so the price went up, the friend had bought them directly from someone who charged less than what the used bookstore charged).

It occurs to me that, given how badly you folks are/were getting screwed over by your used bookstores, my university then is looking at statistics from other places and using them to set up something that costs students money. Transfer students, or those who had siblings go elsewhere, etc, will likely get screwed over by this system. (As will those who can't do math.)