<p>
[quote]
Filling a book bag with a course-load of college textbooks will weigh not only on a student's shoulders, but on his or her wallet.</p>
<p>On average, college students shelled out $900 a semester for textbooks, according to a 2005 federal report. In some cases, a single science book can cost $200.</p>
<p>The situation has led Congress to step in, and on Thursday it passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Among its provisions, the bill requires publishers to share pricing information with professors and forces them to unbundle packages of textbooks and supplementary materials so students can buy only items they need. President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bill.</p>
<p>"It's a critical step," said Nicole Allen, textbooks program director at Student Public Interest Research Groups, a consumer advocacy group. "Textbooks really can be the difference between affording higher education and dropping out."</p>
<p>Government intervention isn't the only way cash-strapped students can improve their odds of affording their textbooks...
<p>I'm skeptical. When the govt lowers any component of the cost of going to college, the schools will come up with increases to take away any new found savings.</p>
<p>At the community college where S2 took dual-credit classes, they kept the textbooks behind a counter so that you couldn't look at them and find out the title, author, edition, etc. You had to pay before they'd give you the books. That oughta be illegal.</p>
<p>^^That sucks. My school's bookstore doesn't make the ISBN numbers available online, but they do tell you the title, author, and edition, which is plenty for me to buy the textbooks from other sources online and save a boatload of money. So far for this semester I've bought $363 worth of books (bookstore prices) for $116 online, WITH shipping. Haven't seen the quality of the books yet, so I have to withhold judgment a little bit on how fantastic my shopping skills are, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. </p>
<p>The only spot where I've run into trouble is books whose newest edition has very recently been published--books are harder to find period and sold at higher prices. Still, even if I only get $30-$40 off of my final textbook ($175 new in the bookstore, eww), I'll still come out way ahead. </p>
<p>I am pretty surprised that the average semester bill for textbooks is $900, per the article. I've spent less than $300 each semester so far and even had I bought everything new from the bookstore (colossal waste of money) it would have been more like $500/semester. On the other hand, we only take 4 classes/semester, so maybe that has something to do with it.</p>
<p>Our son, a compsci/cogsci major rarely spent more than $100/semester for books. After 1st semester he never bought another book at the college book store. He occasionally checked out a required book from the college library, not texts but books reqd for supplemental readings. Texts he bought on line, buying earlier editions and international texts exclusively when available. Most he then resold on Amazon.com.</p>
<p>Torrent websites will take a huge chunk out of publishers' profits in the next couple years. They're just getting started on pirating textbooks but I'm sure that's one thing that'll be hopeless as soon as it really gets going.</p>
<p>Letting professors know the costs is a good idea, they may use that information when debating between two texts. Unbundling also sounds good. Son's public school doesn't own any bookstores, therefore they don't make any money on textbook sales. They posted a suggestion to get info online from the local bookstores they name, with all of the professors requirements/recommendations- ISBN available- and buy however cheapest. One text is actually lower in price at the bookstore near campus - son gave us the list he researched so H could spend the money online for him.</p>
<p>At Brown, the student-designed website used to select classes started last semester listing the required books for each class. The site gave 4 sets of prices: New from the bookstore, used from the bookstore, new from Amazon and used from Amazon. I thought it was a great idea. My daughter bought all her books used from Amazon and saved a lot of money.</p>
<p>advantageous that's a good idea, I've done it a couple of times as well. I've even gotten teacher's manuals that way when there were no books available. You can save as much as 2/3 sometimes.</p>
<p>It is instructive to look at the cost of textbook in my son's community college. Let us look at English 1A, the basic first year writing course with lots of sessions. Every single instructor has a different textbook list. The highest has a total new price of $232, the lowest is $14. 40% of them do not yet have a list for fall. My son took some other course during the summer, and the list did not come out until the Friday before school starts, forcing him to buy new from the school bookstore.</p>
<p>So the professor can often have a big impact on how much the students pay for their textbooks.</p>
<p>The problem is that my son's small LAC doesn't register freshmen until during
orientation- so there's really not enough time to order books online.</p>
<p>^^That was the case for my first semester as well, but I still ordered my books online for the most part. If you get on ordering them right away, the school library can probably tide you over until the books arrive. In case anyone was wondering, I've had good luck using Amazon marketplace, Alibris, Abebooks, and Half.com. The nice thing about Amazon marketplace that I found out this time around is that they seem have the shipping pegged at $4, which is great because shipping definitely adds up if each book is from a separate seller.</p>
<p>I've been slightly annoyed that my school's bookstore doesn't provide ISBN numbers, but clearly it could be a lot worse from the anecdotes on here. To me some of these textbook prices are like prescription medicine prices--highway robbery because they've got you over a barrel. Luckily there are ways to get around it when it comes to textbooks.</p>
<p>If it's a class that had several books (like an English class), you can buy the ones you need immediately from the bookstore, and the ones you need later in the semester online. You get the syllabus the first day, and can figure that out.</p>
<p>cornmuffin: Am I mistaken, or do we not even have our SU students schedules yet???? Seems like that would be helpful b4 orientation, but who knows....</p>
<p>Thanks to this thread I went online today and ordered my d's books. I saved a little over 1/3 from $319 (I know cheap this semester!) to $198.12 with shipping. Froogle works for me, 3 of the books were from the same site & the other had free shipping, so good deal! They will be waiting for her when she returns to school in her mailbox there, with other goodies that I send throughout the summer.
Obviously, I couldn't do this Freshman year, but the kids should definitely know their schedules by now I would think...Check the website, ours has a section that has grades/schedules/requirements etc, if you don't have the password...shame on you!</p>
<p>We use overstock.com for my DS's non-science books which is cheaper than amazon in all cases. (We also get money back through Upromise for purchases through Overstock.) Science books we usually purchase from half.com but have used many other sources as well. Especially with Half.com you can see where the book is being shipped from and can speed up delivery by picking vendors with excellent ratings who are in close states. S's bookstore also doesn't publish ISBN's, so frequently S has sent email to professor requesting ISBN before semester starts; this year he had a friend still at the school who actually went to the bookstore and looked up the ISBN's for a few of the students. </p>
<p>The biggest problem has been newish science books (I'm thinking of a $150 anatomy book in particular) which don't have easy solutions. If my son doesn't expect to want to keep the book after the course we have occasionally purchased the international soft cover edition (book cheap, shipping expensive) which has saved a lot of money.</p>
<p>What about things like access codes to web sites that come with new science books? Teacher wants the kids to have this. How can you tell if the used books will have this?</p>
<p>IMO - science majors should "splurge" and get their books new. My daughters chem books will be $200 each from the school bookstore - the good news there is that it's a two semester course and will continue with the same book in the spring. Lots of science courses are like this.</p>
<p>The biggest rippoff is with English and history books. My d's English prof wants her to buy the "50th Anniversary edition" of Death of a Salesman - gimme a break.</p>
<p>If it's any consolation to you kids - this problem has been around since before you were born. Back in the day my parents and I would complain about what a ripoff college text books are. For liberal arts classes - never buy a book before the first day of class. Never buy "recommended" books.
I had classes where the prof would list 6 "required" books to buy and the first days would tell you that 3 of them were for your "personal" enjoyment.</p>
<p>Dbwes: If a used book is put on half.com or other sites and does NOT specifically say that it has the codes assume it does not. Many times the seller does indicate that the code comes with the book.</p>