Resort fee rip offs are nothing compared to college books

My niece is starting college and her 1st semester books cost over $1200 and that is buying used books where possible. The worst rip off is her freshmen calculus books that cost a little over $500. I mean what has change in this subject in that last 50 years that they couldn't use a 1960s edition of the text book.

 

Wow, digital books on the Ipad for say like 1/100th of the cost.

 

Wait until she gets the professor that wrote his own book for the class based on graduate student research which is required for the class and costs 75$ (1975 prices) but is not referred to during any class or exam. So 60 students per semester take the bait and 4500$ In books each semester.
Buys a few dinners anyway.

 

Ya it would be nice if they were available in digital form but they're not. That would make too much sense.

My daughter paid around the same for used textbooks. What's also annoying is using the textbook just once or not at all. It's such a scam but what can you do...

 

Funny you mention this as I checked back on my facebook history and 10 years ago today, I was taking my last college final. I was never happy about books and cant imagine how they have probably skyrocketed the last 10 years. I did whatever I could to find the cheapest book I could. Thats when book renting/used book websites were popular.

My only claim to fam (not really) is one year I bought a book used and resold it as a new book (bookstore had no idea) and made money off it. So in the end, Bookstore: 106 and Me: 1

 

When I went to college 100 years ago, we preferred the used ones in hopes that some "brain" highlighted all the important parts!

 

Yes they were brains when they began but you remember how those markers smelled. Hmmm?

 

lol. But eventually you ended up with one with five different colors of highlighter and 98 percent of the text marked!!

 

One thing, you have the professors who wrote books on their subject so you have to pay high prices to get his book.

Then you have the professors who feel the newest books are needed for his course. Even though the older books would suffice they feel the newest books are needed.

But yeah, I saw the prices of my nephew's college books a couple of years ago and was glad that I went to college in the late 70's. It was easier then too - I didn't need to keep my gpa up because IT was just in its infancy. Nowadays kids need to keep 3.5 gpa's to stay in business school or IT or engineering majors because there is so much competition and so many kids wanting to get into those majors.

Yes, I would recommend going the digital way with school books. Much cheaper than buying the hardcopy books.

 

I am getting this second hand, but it seems they use digital in a sneaky way, you must buy the hard copy book that has a unique digital key that unlocks the cloud portion of the book. This book costs $262 used UNIVERSITY PHYSICS,W/MOD.PHYS.-W/ACCESS You can buy it on Amazon for $119 used but it is an a la carte book with this important disclaimer. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable.

 

Secondary education has become nothing but a huge scam.

 

My son is starting his third year this coming fall. After his first semester in college, I started buying text books for him because I was paying for his college and he wasn’t too interested (for some reason) in saving money for textbooks.

1) I found buying the books from Amazon is cheaper than buying them from university bookstores.

2) Some books have international editions (same as US editions but thinner paper and paperback) that are cheaper

3) Some books have a Student Value Edition (same as textbook but not bounded and has 3 hole punched for putting in binder) that are ~$100 cheaper.

4) for some reason the schools usually want students to the buy the more expensive versions that include online access. My son has never used the provided online access code in any of his classes. You can actually buy the version (different ISBN but same book) without the access codes.

 

My son's classes have never used those features. If possible wait to make sure it is needed. One of his Physics class was connected to Pearson's but it was through the school's class network. He didn't need the access code from the book.

 

I don't know about other states, but unless Stanford comes a-callin', CA kids should think long about availing themselves of our excellent community college system, where the emphasis is on learning at a fair (sometimes free) price and preparation for a four-year school if that's the best option for the student. And completion of an AA (and some minimum GPA) gives access to CSU/CalPoly guaranteed.

 

Thornton Melon : Good... Hey! What's with the used books?

Jason Melon : Well, what's wrong with used books?

Thornton Melon : They've already been read!

Jason Melon : Yeah, and they already been UNDER-LINED, too. Get it?

Thornton Melon : That's the problem. The last guy who under-lined them, he could have been a maniac! Hey, get these guys some new books. Huh? Get some new books, will ya?

 

I’m currently back in school. And yeah, it’s such a f’in racket. My books have averaged about $1100 per semester so far. And the thing that pisses me off the most is that about 1/2 of my books are loose leaf. You have to buy a damn binder to put them in. And of course, the pages tear out and get all tatty...

Fortunately, I’m now starting to get to the second and third classes of a particular subject, so the books are the same as ones I already have. I guess I might only have to spend $800-900/semester going forward.

Yeah, this is pretty annoying. For pretty much all the science and math classes (and a handful of engineering classes) the homework is done online. So even if you can source a cheap book you have to fork over a big chunk of change (usually 30-50% of the cost of the textbook) for the key just to be able to do the homework.

I did get super lucky this summer with the statistics class I’m taking...free downloadable book! E-books suck (and e-books about statistics suuuuuuuuuuck!) but not as much as paying $200 +.

Whew, sorry for the rant. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Lol.

 

I bought a lot of my kids books on Abebooks.com. They was able to sell some of them to the school for more than I paid. International versions are also a good idea.

 

Not to mention you pay 1000 Plus for books then at the end of the semester when you "dont" need them you sell them back and they offer you 5 bucks a piece. Even 20 years ago when you could get a semesters books for 300ish i just kept my books instead of getting 20 bucks back.

 

Same memory here @smartone. What always cracked me up was that there always seemed to be about five different colors of highlighters used and inevitably previous owners had essentially highlighted the entire book.

 

My daughters nursing program was a bargain then since tuition included books.

Of course tuition was $53,000.........................................