<p>The professor my son has for intro science sent his entire class an email telling them what the book for the fall class will be and to not buy it from the bookstore. He recommended that they get one of the previous four editions and has even sent a daily reminder with "finds" from Amazon, B & N and other inexpensive sites. With shipping, we bought the book for $17. The bookstore wants $180.</p>
<p>That is a great, considerate professor!</p>
<p>One of my son’s profs did this as well once she found the new cost for the book. Got it from amazon with points so free basically to me. It would have been $14 shipped. From the bookstore, $130.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree! In any case, it’s always good to find the titles of the textbooks you need in advance so that you can shop around online.</p>
<p>I dream that one day “custom edition” textbooks (you know, twice the price as the normal edition, only available new) will disappear off the face of the earth. Not likely to happen, I know, but just imagine!</p>
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<li>Soarer</li>
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<p>I think this is improving. D’s college lists the textbooks and ISBN numbers on a link attached to their online schedule. With an ISBN number you can purchase from anywhere: Amazon, B&N, Half.com, etc. </p>
<p>I believe there was a law passed that colleges/professors MUST provide the names, editions, ISBN numbers for all textbooks well in advance of the start of class. This will let students “shop around” and hopefully open the textbook market up to being a more competitive marketplace.</p>
<p>^^I would love to compare these "custom editions to the mass market versions someday to see just what exactly is unique to the university. </p>
<p>DD got all the books she could on-line and saved several $100 off the bookstore price. Unfortunately , 2 custom editions were on the list. Could have saved $150-$200 more if she could have gotten the regular edition.</p>
<p>I wish they would specifiy which previous versions are also acceptable - D1 had a calculus book that she used in HS and then had to purchase again for college but the edition seemed to change by the semester and of course at the end of her 1st year she could get no trade in value because they had moved in to a newer version. I really doubt much had changed but do know it can be hard to teach if the layouts/page numbers are different.</p>
<p>In my discipline the real financial pain for students is the technology package. It is one of the MyLabs, which are great - they include automated homework, study guides, videos, customized study plans (like automated tutoring for areas you are struggling with), etc. Students can find a deal on the text, but they have to buy the access code for the technology package at full price (actually it’s worse to buy it from a bookstore because they add a mark-up). My discipline’s access code buys access for 2 semesters so that students who take both semesters don’t have to pay twice, but some students only need the first semester. In my experience with all the major publishers, this is where they are putting their efforts to stay financially viable in the marketplace as e-books and other changes have changed their traditional revenue stream.<br>
To their credit, students who struggle with the subject can often use the technology to help them succeed in the course because there are features that appeal to all learning styles and it is certainly cheaper to pay more for the instructional materials and succeed than to have to repeat the course later and pay tuition a second time.</p>
<p>I do try to be sensitive to the cost of the book and wish my colleagues did that more often.</p>
<p>As much as I wish I could, I can’t usually order into a bookstore an older edition: the publisher usually makes one available and not the other. Although I agree that usually the content is usually not worth the change and its done solely for publishing profits. It’s usually BIG on superficial differences, which makes it very tough to work off of different editions yet tiny on pedagogical improvements. </p>
<p>So I let my students use older editions, but I make it clear that the burden falls on them to figure out the appropriate page numbers and such, and get any material missing from prior editions. But whether a professor says this or not, in reality, students have this perogative anyways. Just make sure you have access to the ordered edition so you can compare and keep up. </p>
<p>I will also outsource the book to anywhere but the university bookstore if I can (including, in the past, finding a book that could be ordered online directly from the publisher— that was such a bargain until a big publisher bought that smaller company out, sigh). </p>
<p>I’ve also moved to online texts in some cases which turn out to be less expensive. But in my experience, 99% of students end up wanting and getting the hard copy. </p>
<p>The customizing issue is tricky. I teach what I absolutely and strongly believe matters the most. I put a huge amount of time into that content and finding the supporting materials to go with it. Only some textbooks provide the content that matches what I need my students to learn; moreover, invariably some sections of books are excellent and others are total crap or missing key components. Being able to put together the best of the best is really important. Lordy no, not all textbooks are interchangeably as good! Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as your learning experience will be very different if you have a great prof and a poor prof, and going to a great university is important to students because not all universities provide the same quality…well the same is true for course materials such as textbooks!</p>
<p>Half.com is normal source of all textbooks to buy and to sell. D. is doing both.</p>
<p>Our son always bought earlier edition text books which saved him hundreds of dollars each semester. Content was typically identical to late editions with the only change being the numbering of problem set questions at the end of each chapter. His profs and friends let him photo problem set questions at the end of their current texts. He bought many text books for less than $10 including shipping on line.</p>
<p>^It does not always work. My D. had the same textbook for her Honors Bio in HS and first Bio at college. She said that earlier edition was way too different because of very fast rate of discoveries in Bio. She always stick to edition that class requires. But if you buy them on-line, you can sell for about the same price back on-line. She loves to keep some books though.</p>
<p>^ I can’t speak for this specific case nor biology but from my vantage point, this seems a bit odd for an introductory textbook which has to cover the fundamentals. Moreover, textbooks (especially introductory ones) are wayyyy lagged in the research cycle. Its just how it is. Though lots of intro texts these days are ‘spiced’ up with the latest bits, in pop out boxes, to give the feel of cutting edge and interest the reader, the reality is these are not covering the latest research at all (one has to go to recent journal publications for that)…</p>
<p>I’ve purchased extra copies of any textbook over $25 (sometimes out of my own pocket) and put them on reserve in the campus library.</p>
<p>^OOOH, good for you! I’m impressed by that!</p>
<p>Interesting little tidbit i have learned, get to know your professors. Sometimes they can give out information like this :)</p>
<p>What math textbooks tend to do is change the problems between editions. Therefore one needs the most recent version to do the homework.</p>
<p>How kind of the professor!</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons publishers are embracing eTexts. The greatest competipn publishers have is from used and older edition texts. Renting an eText means no competition for am assigned book and perhaps no middle person. There will be lower prices than purchasing a new text, but margins will be high and competition low.</p>
<p>starbright,
Odd or not does not change the fact that according to my D. editions of the same book were very different. She has always used editions that were required by class.</p>