Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
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.
 
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 :D

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.
 
MovieCutter said:
I stopped buying books after my freshman year. I realized that I could either get by without them, or they were merely supplemental to what the instructor was saying in class. Ended up with a 3.4 GPA even without the books for 80% of my classes. Then again, I took one math class during my 4 years, so your mileage may vary.

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).
 
it's not just college...

i spent 270 bucks on my high school books this year, and that was after using eBay, Amazon, Half.com, etcetera to attempt to lower the cost from my school bookstore's quote of $430...

but yeah, college is expensive :p
 
zach said:
it's not just college...

i spent 270 bucks on my high school books this year, and that was after using eBay, Amazon, Half.com, etcetera to attempt to lower the cost from my school bookstore's quote of $430...

but yeah, college is expensive :p

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:
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.


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
 
yg17 said:
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.

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
 
beatsme said:
literature classes are notorious for that kind of thing...I had a Russian lit class that used about...jeez, 7 or 8. History classes can be that way too. I had a French history class that had 5 required books, and another European history class with 7 required.

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.
 
extraextra 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.

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...
 
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.

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
 
$80.90 for books. If I weren't in a Liberal Arts college I could get by with $0


Art supplies on the other hand...:rolleyes:
 
slooksterPSV said:
Like acrylic, and other kinds lol. Damn

looking back at how all my college buddies did, the art majors made the least money over the decades after college...but at least many still have their art supplies which they can still use and that has to be a small plus ;)
 
slooksterPSV said:
The Cliche's are true, and believe me, you better have scholarships if you want to go to college. Ok, so my books. I have most of them, I'm missing like 1 or 2 and here's the things. All together it cost 332.67, I paid $300.80 with a check the school issued me, $22.00 cash, and $9.87 from my debit - checking - account. The one book I know what will be in it - C++ how to program fifth edition. Here's the other books I got:
C++ How to Program (NEW) - 102.00
Patterns for a Purpose (USED) - 41.05
Calculus (USED) - 117.00
Steps to Writing Well (USED) - 53.05

WHAT THE F***! I'm a poor college student. Well, I thought I'd let you know how everything has went. Talk to you guys later.

? I'm had to pay about 260, and i already had half of my books(and the half i had were the big, pricey textbooks) it does indead suck.. i could have boughten SO many other things with 260.
 
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.
 
zap2 said:
? I'm had to pay about 260, and i already had half of my books(and the half i had were the big, pricey textbooks) it does indead suck.. i could have boughten SO many other things with 260.
lucky. i had to buy all my books and it was like 500+
 
wordmunger said:
As a former editor and current textbook writer, I can assure you that no one's getting rich off textbooks...

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.
 
xPismo said:
Riiight. Education Publishers are the most profitable in the biz.

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.

Its like the RIAA for education.

Not exactly. You don't see publishers suing their customers.
 
xPismo said:
Film School is big $$$. If it isn't, you are at the wrong school.

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! ;)
 
xPismo said:
Riiight. Education Publishers are the most profitable in the biz. Its like the RIAA for education.

that's truly one of the funniest things i have ever heard

and yes, at lunch, i saw elvis, really i did ;)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.