Cost of books for 4 classes, $712

[Kroze]

This is outrageous. :'(

 

[lozina]

buy used

 

[shortylickens]

Less than 200 each?
Yeah, yur gettin a bargain.

 

[Kroze]

Seriously, wtf.

 

[gorcorps]

buy used

And I wouldn't buy at all until you're POSITIVE you need them. Everything is marked as required, but until class starts you won't know what the proff really uses.

 

[BurnItDwn]

that's fvckin insane ... hopefully the classes you are taking are going to help lead you to a productive career ... and not a useless degree that won't pay off.

 

[purbeast0]

after my sophomore year in college i rarely bought books. i realized at that point they were pretty much usless.

 

[Baked]

Share the cost of 1 book with a few friends, make copies, done. My friends in the computer science major did that. No way, they were going to drop a hundred on 1 book, that's madness.

 

[OutHouse]

my wife is taking 3 classes and her books were $470.00. fucking college text book rip off.

she tired to buy used but all the classes said she had to use the NEW edition...

 

[Rvenger]

Yeah, when I was in college it costed me at least $400+ every semester. I know how you feel. Pretty soon this stuff will be all on a tablet and no more books.

Cost will probably stay the same :\

 

[Dominato3r]

Biology textbooks are the worst. They cost like $175 each but are never used in class, referenced in lectures, or used for assignments.

 

[mnewsham]

Bookstore at school wants to charge me about $700 for 5 classes worth of books, found all the books i needed online for about 120 bucks. When I go into class monday I expect I will be able to return 2 or 3 of the books.

 

[Kroze]

One of the finance book cost $230. WTF!

I like the way some of these scum publisher don't even give you a hardcover for that price, they give it to you in loose leaf/binder edition so that you can't sell it back.

 

[darkxshade]

One of the finance book cost $230. WTF!

I like the way some of these scum publisher don't even give you a hardcover for that price, they give it to you in loose leaf/binder edition so that you can't sell it back.

It's a trap... if you buy the book, you fail the course.

 

[Pantlegz]

If it makes you feel any better I had to buy 2 books last semester for ~$200 each and read less than 10% of both of them combined. The professors said they were required and if you didn't get them you would suffer but I easily managed B's without using them much at all.

Similarly to your lose leaf issue, one of my professors published his own 'text book' that was lose leaf notes and said if you didn't have it he wouldn't pass you. We used ~10 pages out of probably 200 and he charged 75 just for that and it was considered supplementary reading...

I'm so glad this is my last semester

 

[IndyColtsFan]

And I wouldn't buy at all until you're POSITIVE you need them. Everything is marked as required, but until class starts you won't know what the proff really uses.

This. I remember when I was in grad school 17 years ago, the course listed a book to purchase. It was some flimsy, paperback book that was almost like an elementary school workbook and was $53 and was maybe 1/4 inch thick. I won't lie -- I took the damn thing to the library, photocopied it for a few dollars, and returned it. When I returned it, the bookstore clerk couldn't believe that book was $53 and double and triple checked. Anyway, we never used the damn book the entire semester except for one brief mention, so I felt like an idiot for even spending a few bucks to copy it.

 

[LookBehindYou]

I dropped close to 450 for 3 classes. And that's just the required books, I didnt bother with the "reccomended" books that were on the list for my cultural anthropology class, prof had like 4 more obscure books that were about 30-40 each, used.

If it werent for the the fact that I am still making money by going to school, I'd be more pissed.

 

[shortylickens]

If it makes you feel any better I had to buy 2 books last semester for ~$200 each and read less than 10% of both of them combined. The professors said they were required and if you didn't get them you would suffer but I easily managed B's without using them much at all.

Similarly to your lose leaf issue, one of my professors published his own 'text book' that was lose leaf notes and said if you didn't have it he wouldn't pass you. We used ~10 pages out of probably 200 and he charged 75 just for that and it was considered supplementary reading...

I'm so glad this is my last semester

This is the last semester for my associates, then I have the summer off.
But this fall (if I cant find a job with an associates) I need to start back up again on my bachelors. And its at a nice named college, not a shitty little CC. I am sure the book situation will be even worse.

 

[unokitty]

According to his biography, Steve Jobs wanted to 'destroy' textbooks. See:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ok-world-awaits-apples-education-announcement

Seriously though, has anyone has experience using online texts, such as those from O'Reilly's Safari Books Online?

If you did, did you like it? Would you recommend digital textbooks?

Uno

 

[Pantlegz]

According to his biography, Steve Jobs wanted to 'destroy' textbooks. See:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ok-world-awaits-apples-education-announcement

Seriously though, has anyone has experience using online texts, such as those from O'Reilly's Safari Books Online?

If you did, did you like it? Would you recommend digital textbooks?

Uno

I haven't liked any of the online text books I've used. If they had a system I could easily highlight/bookmark and use a search function on either the whole book or just a section they would be great but most have stupid limitations or shitty search functions and no ability to even book mark pages that you might want to go back to quickly for one reason or another. Done right I wouldn't mind even though I prefer reading off paper not a screen I would adjust or get a tablet just for that purpose.

 

[waggy]

college textbooks are a fucking scam. Why do you need a new mathbook every fucking year? same with history etc.

it blows my mind. they charge you $200 for the book pay you $15 (if you are lucky and they are using it again) then sale it as used for $150

 

[gevorg]

Find international versions of them, such as on Abebooks, in most cases you'll sell them at $5-20 loss to other students next semester. The worst thing that can happen is that you might need to xref problems between the US edition and the International edition. Still worth it to save $100s.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

International Versions are your friend. My Structures textbook was 200 bucks. I got it for 30. Exact same thing

 

[Pantlegz]

most international copies are in violation of copyright laws(if you or the university cares) and not always correct. I know someone had an international copy of a history of religion book last semester and it was all sorts of fucked up and about 75% there the other 25% was either just plain missing(huge chunks of pages just gone) or very very poorly translated. It was pretty funny, worst thing was the guy had to go buy another legit copy of the book.

 

[RapidSnail]

most international copies are in violation of copyright laws(if you or the university cares) and not always correct. I know someone had an international copy of a history of religion book last semester and it was all sorts of fucked up and about 75% there the other 25% was either just plain missing(huge chunks of pages just gone) or very very poorly translated. It was pretty funny, worst thing was the guy had to go buy another legit copy of the book.

I don't think that was a legitimate international version. International textbooks are released by the publishers to have the same, or nearly the same, content as the US version and to be published in other parts of the world. Typically, they are softcover, may be entirely black and white, and are much cheaper. I've bought a few international texts, and all have been exactly the same as the US version, but paperback. I would recommend looking for a legitimate international textbook source before throwing money away on an overpriced US version.