i only bought one book last year on ebay, and i later found out the school gave us the wrong book list, so it was worthless anyways. in stuff like graphics and video, anything i need is on the free and wonderful internet, so i easly passed withoutn books.
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College = Expensive = "I'm a college student" cliche
- Thread starter slooksterPSV
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I never realized this, but, at my school at least, there's a lot of corruption surrounding textbooks:
1. The economics department. With one class, they require you to purchase an eBook for $30. Yes, 30 for a damn PDF. Written by the econ teachers, so they pocket all of that money. And your name is plastered on every page, so you can't sell it at the end of the semester. Now, anyone who's taken this microeconomics class will tell you, that you don't use the PDF. Ever. I never used it once. But, they keep a list of who buys it and who doesn't. If you don't buy it, you don't pass the class. Even if your grade is an A.
2. Again, the econ department with another class. All of the instructors wrote a macroecon book. I guess they decided that $30 wasn't enough, so this time, they printed it and charge $85 for it. But, they don't keep the list, but you actually use the book so you have to by it anyways. At least it can be resold. And, maybe macroecon this semester won't suck so bad, my instructor is liberal, hates Bush, and isn't afraid to say it 😀
3. My database management instructor will admit that the textbook we use has a ton of errors. Today, he even handed out a packet, several pages long, with nothing but corrections for the book. The book is on its 10th edition. 10 editions and they can't even get it right. So why does the instructor continue to use a textbook that sucks so bad? The author is his friend. I'm sure there's some kickbacks involved there, otherwise, what reason would he have to continue to use a textbook that sucks so hard? My only piece of mind is that I bought the international edition off eBay, so the author probably isn't getting any money from me.
1. The economics department. With one class, they require you to purchase an eBook for $30. Yes, 30 for a damn PDF. Written by the econ teachers, so they pocket all of that money. And your name is plastered on every page, so you can't sell it at the end of the semester. Now, anyone who's taken this microeconomics class will tell you, that you don't use the PDF. Ever. I never used it once. But, they keep a list of who buys it and who doesn't. If you don't buy it, you don't pass the class. Even if your grade is an A.
2. Again, the econ department with another class. All of the instructors wrote a macroecon book. I guess they decided that $30 wasn't enough, so this time, they printed it and charge $85 for it. But, they don't keep the list, but you actually use the book so you have to by it anyways. At least it can be resold. And, maybe macroecon this semester won't suck so bad, my instructor is liberal, hates Bush, and isn't afraid to say it 😀
3. My database management instructor will admit that the textbook we use has a ton of errors. Today, he even handed out a packet, several pages long, with nothing but corrections for the book. The book is on its 10th edition. 10 editions and they can't even get it right. So why does the instructor continue to use a textbook that sucks so bad? The author is his friend. I'm sure there's some kickbacks involved there, otherwise, what reason would he have to continue to use a textbook that sucks so hard? My only piece of mind is that I bought the international edition off eBay, so the author probably isn't getting any money from me.
andrew050703
macrumors regular
MovieCutter said:
I agree. I figured that i could get them from the library, and if they were any good, i'd buy them. Maybe I got out 10 books over my first degree, didn't read them at all, and still got a 1st class honours in Physics (top grade - don't know the US/international equivalent). Guys, you really don't have that much money, so don't waste it on something you don't need when you can borrow it/listen in lectures/see your lecturer on anything you are unclear on (that is what they're there for, at least in the UK they are).
zach said:
They made you buy the books? At my high school there was a fee of $50, they give you the books, and when you return them you get $50 back.
College.. I'll have to buy my first set of books soon, will have to see how much they end up costing.
Sathos said:
My HS didn't even do that. They just gave us the books, and we gave them back when done. The only things we had to buy were workbooks that a couple classes required
63dot
macrumors 603
yg17 said:
still 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times, raised to the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than microsoft press 🙂
i once had a high tech client, a microsoft press author with an english degree, with no knowledge of high tech but only of technical writing, who used to love to just yell his @ss off at me while i competently fixed his damned to hell computer that he couldn't fix
he didn't know that you had to plug your phone line into a phone jack to get internet access...and he got paid pretty well
the stuff i have seen in microsoft press in general as a tech for seven years is the most flawed, laughable shi* in the publishing world and this client of mine was probably one of the better writers from this company
...and i am not a windows or microsoft basher since i was a certified tech through them...but i used o'reilly press and others, but never microsoft press
...so any time a mac fanboy/fangirl feels like railing on windows, just check out any one of microsoft's books...it will make any version of windows look good
...end of rant and comic relief
extraextra
macrumors 68000
beatsme said:
Ah, I see. I took AP classes in high school and passed them, therefore I didn't need to take literature and a few other classes. I needed about 3 books for my history class, and then it was about 1 book for each of the others. I'll have to check to see what other classes I need for GE (general ed), I might need to avoid some classes, haha.
beatsme
macrumors 65816
extraextra said:
do yourself a favor:
if you can skip taking a college literature class, by all means do. They're generally depressing as hell and also really boring. Well, the Russian lit class was interesting. The French, Chinese, and African lit classes...dear god. If it was possible to slit my wrists with a ballpoint I would have...
ZoomZoomZoom
macrumors 6502a
Yeah, the computer science teacher at my school does that. She is the only computer science teacher for that particular level, and every business major (along with several other majors) have to pass through her class in order to enter their majors. She charges a lot of money for three workbooks that are pretty much unused. However, these workbooks hold a series of quizzes that you've got to take if you want to get the A. They're simply multiple choice that could be easily done and graded on looseleaf, but you have to rip them out - no photocopies accepted. The workbook is 'updated' yearly (probably mix around a couple quiz questions) so that further eliminates any hope of re-use/re-sale.
However, from the looks of the fall semester course sign up website, she's not teaching anymore... hmm....
Grand total $460+ for my books - then you add in laundry cards, taxes, lexmark jump drive, and somewhere over $500 now. COLLEGE = Expensive, do I need my PH.D. before I'm 30? no
wordmunger
macrumors 603
As a former editor and current textbook writer, I can assure you that no one's getting rich off textbooks, except perhaps a few star authors and the used-book sellers.
The most I've ever made writing textbooks was $30K in a year. I had a friend, a respectable mid-list author who's written more books than me, who calculated his lifetime hourly wage for writing textbooks. He could have made more working at McDonalds.
Used book sellers make the biggest profits: they buy books for less than half the cover price, then sell them for perhaps a 10 percent discount.
Book publishers are among the least profitable industries. Their average profit margin is less than 10 percent.
That said, books are still way too freakin' expensive. Unfortunately, I don't see any way around it. The surest way for publishers to make money is to revise successful books every 3 years or so, which drives up prices. If they don't update, they don't make any money, because everyone buys used books.
The most I've ever made writing textbooks was $30K in a year. I had a friend, a respectable mid-list author who's written more books than me, who calculated his lifetime hourly wage for writing textbooks. He could have made more working at McDonalds.
Used book sellers make the biggest profits: they buy books for less than half the cover price, then sell them for perhaps a 10 percent discount.
Book publishers are among the least profitable industries. Their average profit margin is less than 10 percent.
That said, books are still way too freakin' expensive. Unfortunately, I don't see any way around it. The surest way for publishers to make money is to revise successful books every 3 years or so, which drives up prices. If they don't update, they don't make any money, because everyone buys used books.
xPismo
macrumors 6502a
wordmunger said:
Riiight. Education Publishers are the most profitable in the biz. Its like the RIAA for education.
As for the 'get an arts degree for cheap' posts, sure you can skip on by, paying little and learning nothing, but don't expect to go anywhere after college.
Film School is big $$$. If it isn't, you are at the wrong school.
wordmunger
macrumors 603
xPismo said:
That might be true, but publishing as a whole is a very low-margin business. You'd be much better off investing in, say, oil, or computers. Plus, trade publishers have other ways to make money, such as converting novels into films, etc.
Not exactly. You don't see publishers suing their customers.
jelloshotsrule
macrumors G3
xPismo said:
hah, yeah my 40k/yr was bad. but at least i didn't have to buy a lot of textbooks! 😉
and it's all paying dividends now with my super high paying temp job unrelated to film in any way! 😉