Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

I'm a college junior. So i got 5 semesters under my belt, and i gotta say, for like 90% of my classes, i never once used the textbook. Now those rare exceptions were Statistics (cause the homework was in the book), Chem 110 (cause the professor gave shitty notes), and US history (cause the notes didn't carry all the info).

So for all my other classes i would buy the books, and over the course of the semester, would only open just to look inside, never once used or needed them. And then come the end of the semester, when i try to sell them back i get "oh sorry we're not buying this one back this year" "we're over stocked". Fucking bullshit.

It was even worse when it was an ebook, and the professor would assure you that you absolutely needed to have the textbook. NOOOOPE, didn't even use it once, oh an guess what, its an ebook, SO NO REFUND FOR YOU. And then there's the ridiculous prices they charge you for textbooks.

So im wondering, has anyone else had an experience like this, and do you agree with me that its utter horseshit?

Yes they are

The E-Learning guy at my school says the only way textbook publishers still make money is to include an online component that is locked unless you put in the code. If schools rent the same used textbooks each semester, the publishers only get paid once. If the school has to buy updated code slips every semester, the publishers make a bigger profit.

Absolutely agree. The only class of mine that actually gave assignments that needed the textbook was my English class, for the others I never once needed to use the textbook.

I'm still pissed at the fact I've lost over 150 bucks by not being able to return the books at my bookstore and am stuck with three books I'll probably never touch again. The one thing that really made me blow a fuse was when I tried to return one and was told they couldn't accept it because they already had too many of them, which just blows my mind that such a thing is even possible.

Why are people so salty about college professor's being able to put food on the table?

By scamming people out of their money when they already are expecting to pay the school $80000?

Since I live in Mexico and people don't give a shit about piracy it was common in my university that the teachers just give us the pdf containing the book we need for our studies/homework, if it wasn't the case we just had to go to bookstore and make some copies.

At least in my case books did help me to understand some topics particulary math and programming stuff.

like for real. If you're overstocked on a product then why charge such a high price for them.

As much as I'd like to tell you your textbook money is funding professors and teachers, it really isn't. We pay our educators the bare minimum we can get away with, and still have strikes and union issues every second month. The extra goes towards frivolous budgets or is outright wasted on pointless shit. Buying textbooks isn't the solution to our profs' incomes, increasing their pay is.

Textbook publishers are another story entirely, but at the rate they're becoming obsolete it's not really a problem for you.

And as one of those guys who helps people steal borrow digital textbook licenses: Nobody will notice. Trust me.

If you are in a course that needs a lot of reading like literature, translation or specialization on any given language, you will have to read a lot of books(entirely) , imagine if you have no Internet to get them on PDF or ebook format…

Ah, I see, never mind then

The entire process is a scam, friend.
Abandon ship and save yourself 50 grand, you're going to start as an unpaid intern either way.

And as one of those guys who helps people steal borrow digital textbook licenses

Go on…

So far I have 25 textbooks and I like my mini-library :). I would rather reference my books than question a shady website any time.

Are they scam? I don't know. My physics textbook is like 1300 pages and it covered 2 courses. To answer that you would probably have to convert all the money earned only near the beginning of a semester and all the time spent writing a textbook, making sure the information is accurate, and being informed with current advances into an hourly rate. Then you would probably have to subtract the publishing costs, photograph licenses, editing costs, if someone created the appendix, co-authors if any, etc.

Well i don't see myself getting a job as a microbiologist if i don't have a degree, so…

I sorta have no motivation to learn skills outside of school, probably due to some of my more personal issues, so I sorta need the trainibg ib programming from college.

I once spent ~RM40 on books that are never flipped open. Everything that's needed to be taught are prepared with printed material, almost a size of a retail book.
And we have to pay extra for that. After school year starts.

My mom was fucking pissed when she can use it to pay my bus coach fees.

Yeah, Textbooks are a scam.

For example, I am taking a 100-level World Religions class.My professor posts all of his powerpoints online. I currently have an A in the class.

I ordered the textbook online from Amazon; I have yet to take it out of the packaging.

It's even worse you have to buy a textbook and a key for online assignments.

Hope you don't mine me asking. But what is an RM40?

The teachers at my college are pretty understanding--several have even gotten really pissed when they found out how much the textbooks can cost. They'll usually go for the "you'll do better on the test" spiel (which isn't true for me) but I've never seen them make a big deal about not having it. They'll even usually reserve a half dozen textbooks in the library for students to use as needed.

Michigan History was the only class I've had that used the book nearly every session, US Government used the textbook in class on occasion, West Civ II took questions out of the textbook for the midterm and final, Intro to Computer Systems used the "case studies" in the textbook for the student power point presentations, and Comp I and II would use the practice essays and questions in the textbook as homework.

The real scam is with the "college editions" of textbooks that Pearson and the like make. Custom textbooks that you can only purchase from the college's bookstore and can't find online or at any retailer. I'm really surprised that Open Textbook initiative hasn't gained more steam from teachers or slacktivists. To date, I've yet to have one teacher or seen one student protest/newspaper talk about or use it.

TripleA9000 said:

But what is an RM40?

Google informs me it's the abbreviation for the Malaysian Ringgit, Malaysia's money. 40 ringgits is equal to $9.55.

Currently working for a company that buys back textbooks and does legitimately pay more than the college bookstore.
Problem is it's still a pathetic amount and there are sooooo many holes in their system (certain books are only worth $0.25 because it's either a used copy, older edition, or something else, and certain books are flat out denied).
They offered a better buyback deal for a textbook I bought for $260 by offering $27 over the bookstores $14.
It hurts so much :c

Some professors won't even let you use a pdf. Do you honestly think I have 200 laying around for a book I'll hardly touch? Not only that, but since they change editions, it makes them harder to sell, or they don't even let you use them. I've probably spend around 400 – 500 dollars on books during my Bachelor's.

So i just checked on the bookstore website, and not a single one of my textbooks are available for buy back. And thats put me a in a exceptionally bad mood since not once did i ever need to use them, and they all costed a total of over $100 (not even counting the expensive e-books, which i also never needed to use).

A complete and utter scam, a waste of my money.

I think how much you use your textbooks is heavily dependent on your major and what courses you're taking. I recently switched from engineering to psychology and I can definitely say there's a difference. In engineering literally the only time I used any of my textbooks was for homework questions, and half the time the prof would assign homework from a source other than the text book anyway.

On the other hand, now that I'm in psychology, I'm finding myself using my textbooks far more often. Almost half of the material covered on tests is only found in the textbook and isn't mentioned in lectures and on top of that the textbook often adds a lot of important details for what we're learning.