College book publishers devise new way to scam college students! (masters degree, master's)

[North Beach Person]

Oldest son just looked at books for this semester UMDCP (2nd semester Jr.)- $817
Second daughter, second semester freshman Towson Univ.- $620

[PurpleLove08]

Originally Posted by Kereczr

I loathe the practices and prices of college books and bookstores. It REALLY is a scam and some kinda investigation should be launched into it. I am sorry but when I am required to purchase 500-1200 dollars worth of books per semester and I don't use HALF of them, something is wrong there.

Will you grade be affected if you don't purchase the book?

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by jabm67

In the 101 course I teach (Solar System astronomy), the publishers are producing new editions about every 18 months. At the 101 level, there is absolutely no justification for that. It is purely to suppress the "competition" from the used-book market.

This is ridiculous. There is not a sufficient amount of new information regarding our solar system that would warrant a new book every year and a half. Three or four years, possibly. However, as a teacher of the course do you require that your students purchase the new edition? Seems to me that older editions should still be applicable?

Originally Posted by anadyr21

And the only things they may change are additions of new research, removal of outdated information, or blatant errors. Yes, for most intro classes, it's ridiculous.

Well, this is generally why a new edition will be published, but in the regards to the post that you were responding to (the one that I quoted on top), yes, it is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by jeremy1234

My Calculas book is the exact same. My friend sent me this website though Skip The Buy Back - Used College Books - Cheap College Books BEST IDEA EVER AT GETTING AROUND THE COST OF USED COLLEGE BOOKS

Calculus is calculus and a text book from 1930 will still be just as relevant as one published today. The teaching method will be different, but math is math for the most part.

You should wait until your website receives some action before you start passing around a link.

Originally Posted by squeezeboxgal

The schools I attended all had student-organized "book exchanges," where students could sell books directly to other students, at whatever price was agreeable to both. If your school doesn't have such a program, you should organize one yourself. As KLuv says, instead of that $25 that the bookstore will give you (), you can set a sale price somewhere between that lowball figure and what you actually paid -- and both you and the buyer profit.

That sounds like a great idea, however students at my school just post flyers advertising what they got. You can also sell them on Half. I have never had a problem with them and someone has always came along who was willing to pay my price regardless of how old the book(s) was(were).

[RebeccaLeigh]

Never buy books the school bookstore. They mark up the prices by a lot. Buy on-line and most teachers will let you buy an older edition. By going one edition older you save a lot of money.

If I had bought my books in the bookstore they would have cost me $600-$800 a year,on-line I never spent more than $250-$300.

[Spazkat9696]

I never bought my books!!!! I made all "A's". Go to the school library. They should have at least 1 copy of all of the textbooks being used, or make friends in the class. I'm sure someone bought the book.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by RebeccaLeigh

Never buy books the school bookstore. They mark up the prices by a lot. Buy on-line and most teachers will let you buy an older edition. By going one edition older you save a lot of money.

If I had bought my books in the bookstore they would have cost me $600-$800 a year,on-line I never spent more than $250-$300.

I don't like to buy form my schools bookstore as they are more expensive, but they claim that the money goes to fund student scholarships, so I end up buying something from them each semester.

Last semester I bought an older 8th edition of a book, while the rest of the class bought the new 9th ed. I paid $12 + shipping form Half while everyone else paid $80 - $124 for their copies. It was the same book. The only difference was the cover (If there were any other differences I didn't notice).

It seems that most of the teachers that I have had were/are willing to point out the differences between editions if a student opts to buy an older edition.

Originally Posted by Spazkat9696

I never bought my books!!!! I made all "A's". Go to the school library. They should have at least 1 copy of all of the textbooks being used, or make friends in the class. I'm sure someone bought the book.

I have bought many books that I never opened for one reason or another. I usually try and talk to students who have taken a course (or professor) that I plan on taking to gauge whether or not a book is needed. I have found that everything covered in the lecture can be found online if I need to reference something or to find a supplement to my notes.

The three courses that I have had so far that assigned homework problems form the book only did so to give us practice, the homework assignments were never collected or corrected. They were purely for our own benefit.

[John23]

Originally Posted by Kereczr

I loathe the practices and prices of college books and bookstores. It REALLY is a scam and some kinda investigation should be launched into it. I am sorry but when I am required to purchase 500-1200 dollars worth of books per semester and I don't use HALF of them, something is wrong there.

It's a gigantic scam. It's like being locked in a movie theater for 4 years, and you're forced to buy $10 coke's, $14 hotdogs, $4 M&M's. Then they change the cups around, and the packaging of the hot dog...but it's still a scam.

I wonder how it's lasted so long.

Like other scams, consumer issues...people jump all over them, they're in the news. ATM fee's going to $2. Or something that gets people upset...like the airlines charging for food or for bags.

But it's funny...they just keep raising the book prices, and playing around with editions...what could be new in a math book?

And the weird thing...it's all sort of swept under the rug when you're in school. You don't really know the truth...just keep pushing those new editions every 18 months. Keep "adding" new sections. The college system suppresses lack of critical thought about what you're spending money on.

[cool_mommy]

And then when you go back to the school store for the "buy back" process they refuse to buy back your books. "Oh they aren't using that edition next year" or "we already have enough of those so we aren't buying back anymore" and I've heard plenty of other lame excuses. So in the end your stuck with them unless you can sell them online.

[PurpleLove08]

Originally Posted by RebeccaLeigh

Never buy books the school bookstore. They mark up the prices by a lot. Buy on-line and most teachers will let you buy an older edition. By going one edition older you save a lot of money.

If I had bought my books in the bookstore they would have cost me $600-$800 a year,on-line I never spent more than $250-$300.

I had to buy some of my books in the bookstore, I am on financial aid at my school and financial aid can ONLY be used in the bookstore.
Makes no sense....private bookstore depending mostly on public funds.

If we're using public funds, why shouldn't the students be able to choose where they want to buy their textbooks?
As long as students aren't out there charging pizza and soda on their financial aid, why not allow them to purchase textbooks from other sources? I would gladly show them the invoices from amazon.com, half.com, abesbooks.com, etc.
My financial aid would go a lot further if I was allowed to charge books at places other than the college bookstore.

[jessiegirl_98]

As a professor, a publisher suggested to me that I do a custom edition. In other words, I'd pick and choose the chapters I want. When I found out that it wasn't any cheaper for the students and there was obviously no way they could buy it outside of the bookstore, I didn't choose to do it.