26 replies to this topic

[Eliam]

Oi, college. I ran up costs for my textbooks for this semester, and they're going to run me around $700. Sucks. =/ It's a new record for me.

For those of you in school, what are your textbook costs going to be this semester?

[Lallard]

HOLY CRAP did you have to buy your books from the university bookstore?

Mine ranges about 200-300 dollars per quarter, so roughly 600 at most in a school year.

[Waser Lave]

$700 for books... I think the most I've spent in a year on textbooks is like £60-70. It helps when you can just borrow books from the library whenever you need them.

[ShadowLink64]

Oi, college. I ran up costs for my textbooks for this semester, and they're going to run me around $700. Sucks. =/ It's a new record for me.

For those of you in school, what are your textbook costs going to be this semester?

If I buy them from the bookstore - about $500-700 per semester. If I buy International Editions off eBay and torrent whatever ones I can, maybe about $200.

[EmperoR]

Try abebook.com. I often get a cheap text book there.
I think I will have to pay $250 for textbook, even though I only take 4 classes.

[Celestial]

not into the college seen yet my sister paid about $400 for her science based classes.

[jcrdude]

If I buy from the bookstore....


Book 1: $137.75
Book 2: $159.75
Book 3: $114.75
Book 4: $45.00
Total: $457.25

My grant will cover all of that, but I'm debating on seeing if I can get the books elsewhere before the 1st

I would have to pay up front if I get them elsewhere, but I would get the leftover money from my grant refunded at the end of the term.

[EmperoR]

I get $500 per semester for textbook so I will save as much as possible. (So that the leftover becomes my earning.)
I usually borrow a textbook from friends if it is not worth buying (required class that you won't see it again).
The only annoying thing is that the textbook tends to come with new edition every year or two.
They are smart enough to rearrange the problems so that we "have" to buy the newest edition.
If you are college student in the US, there is free one year amazon prime feature. (Just in case someone miss it.)

[Frank274]

Mine are just about $350 or so. Nothing TOO expensive. They'll get more pricey when I start needing books for my direct major

[kadoatie]

About $300 total. Science and math textbooks are so exorbitantly priced.

[Trichomes]

To be honest, I haven't even registered for the fall semester yet, and classes start on the 31st.

Last semester, I managed to buy most of my textbooks used through eBay and Amazon, but I had to buy a couple in the school bookstore and the prices were insane. My school does buy books back at the end of each semester, but they give you nothing close to the original price and some books are already outdated by the time you're done with them.

[Raui]

Although I don't goto uni yet I'd get the international student versions off ebay. I bought 'The Art of Electronics' for $50 which can sell for as high as $300 (but most places $200) bit of a saving if you ask me.

[Elle]

live in australia, go to a public high school, and you pay $0 sum total for textbooks X)

[Code]

I don't need to pay for my textbooks yet.. since i'm in highschool xD
In china you need to buy your textbooks in all grades. But they are really small, and cheap

[EzioAuditore]

My text books for 4 classes were about $500.

[supermnstr]

I probably spent 300$-ish not that bad I guess. I probably could have saved more if I looked harder... Too bad there's no ab-er in real life -0-

[kcsays]

what the hell!? $500 for textbooks sounds enormous to me o__o. i'm doing a double degree in women's lit/japanese studies and i barely spent more than 100 euros for everything i needed and i could even afford a few extras. then again, i bought everything secondhand online and most of what i had to buy were novels. and there i thought my 40 euro japanese history textbook was a ripoff... gee.

[Ali]

About £30 over a 4 year course...

Extortionate amounts on violin strings though.

[Eliam]

OK, so these prices were if I buy through the college bookstore. I am going to be looking at other options. Already got one that someone it going to sell me for 50 USD used instead of the 70 USD used the bookstore would choose.

Japanese I requires a book that is 150 USD and includes CDs and such, but then also needs two other books.
Math has, naturally, an expensive textbook.

And then my three history classes.

[Paulster]

Engineering is like the worst for textbooks. They update editions and throw new information at us each year, effectively destroying the used book market ever 16 months. My books for this Fall came to around $350 or so, but that is because I am borrowing a Differential Equations book and a Physics book from friends for the semester. Borrowing saved me like 100 plus dollars.

The textbook market is the most crooked thing I have ever seen. No book should cost 200 dollars unless it is printed on gold-sheet paper with unicorn blood ink with a diamond cover.

The WORST is when a teacher makes a big deal about getting the textbook because you will "definitely need it for the class", then they never reference it after the first two weeks, and you wasted 150 bucks for a paperweight. It happens to me at least once a semester, and always pisses me off.

[Eliam]

Engineering is like the worst for textbooks. They update editions and throw new information at us each year, effectively destroying the used book market ever 16 months. My books for this Fall came to around $350 or so, but that is because I am borrowing a Differential Equations book and a Physics book from friends for the semester. Borrowing saved me like 100 plus dollars.

The textbook market is the most crooked thing I have ever seen. No book should cost 200 dollars unless it is printed on gold-sheet paper with unicorn blood ink with a diamond cover.

The WORST is when a teacher makes a big deal about getting the textbook because you will "definitely need it for the class", then they never reference it after the first two weeks, and you wasted 150 bucks for a paperweight. It happens to me at least once a semester, and always pisses me off.

Well, Engineering is constantly changing and new technologies are always emerging, but yeah, that sucks.

I mean, I understand where the prices come from, because oddly enough book companies aren't getting rich off of textbook sales. The companies that buy and resell them are, though.
However, yeah, it sucks when you buy a book and don't use it, or only use it very lightly.

[redlion]

I'll probably spend upwards of 400 USD on textbooks this semester. And that's for five courses.

Last semester was six courses and I think I broke the 700 mark.

Of course I'll be buying as many as possible through Amazon and related sites. But not every textbook is available through retailers.

[wtfints]

so ex.

just borrow from friends and photocopy.

[redlion]

so ex.

just borrow from friends and photocopy.

Works if you know someone in the class with you, but I don't always. Plus if they took the class last year or the year before, the books might have been updated. Or a different professor is teaching the course and now I've photocopied a book that I don't need.

I like your method when I can get away with it. It's just I can't always.

[erock]

It's sometimes worth it just to rent textbooks - especially for gen ed's since you'll never use the books again in your life. Plus you don't have to worry about a new edition coming out and getting screwed over by only being able to sell it for 5 bucks. That's what I did in college and it saved me a bunch. I'd recommend chegg.com.