I can stand useless classes, crappy teachers, and the fact that attendance is a major factor in my grade. Whatever. But why does the university have to rape me once a semester when it comes to textbooks?
I'm aware of the fact that the publishers charge exorbitant prices in the first place. A standardized textbook for a class like economics, math, or computer science is just going to be expensive - because the publisher knows that hundreds of thousands of students will pay whatever they ask in a desperate attempt to succeed at their classes.
But why does the university have to play along? For the love of all that is good and cheap, the principals of algebra have not changed that much over the last two years. What could possibly justifying spending over $100 on a book to learn, say, economics - when you could be learning from a book dated (gasp) two years back - for $20?
The university doesn't move up to the latest edition when the books become dated. They have an equation based on the number of used books being sold versus the number of new books being sold. Once the ratio of used books sold to new books sold gets high enough, they move up to the next edition.
It's a good racket - hard to beat. I can get through my computer science classes without cracking the book, so I saved myself $120 on books for that class this semester. I don't feel optimistic enough to try my economics and statistics classes without the aid of books, though - I paid $20 for a $100 book for my economics class by searching used books on Amazon, but I couldn't find any worthwhile deals for my statistics books. I spent $190 on (USED) books for that class.
I still have to get some books for my history class, but since it's not one of the huge general classes (like American History after 1877, for example) it only has a few cheaper books - I should only end up dropping $30 to get the books for that class.
If I only knew that they would give me a decent price at the end of the year, it wouldn't be so bad - heck, I'd settle for 50% of the used price. But I know I'll be doing good to get 10% of the used price, if they decide to pay me anything at all. Once they move up to the next edition, they won't even give you a dumpster to throw your books in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I know exactly what you mean. You go in to sell your book back and they offer you $2.50 for it. All the time they've got a display selling identical used books in worse condition for $50.
The thing that makes it all the more frustrating is that I work at a printshop binding books. Some of the ones we've done are community college text books. They cost us about $5 to make give or take.
Post a Comment