Today on Jack’s Rants, he goes over why going to class isn’t exactly the bulk of the college budget.
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Today on Jack’s Rants, he goes over why going to class isn’t exactly the bulk of the college budget.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Dunno how the system works in America but in England we have to pay course fees at University, at the moment they are just over £3100 (over $4500) but they are gonna increase soon. Lowering the cost of textbooks will not make the course 50% cheaper.
Still its another 5/5 episode, love the rants.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am
As said above, my course at University is £3100 per year = £10,000 when my course ends then textbooks and more simplY ravage my bank account! great video!
April 30th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Well said Jack. I go to university in edinburgh, scotland. It costs only fraction of what american college kids pay to get an education but even that is disproportionate to what it should cost. The irony is that any additional info I need has mostly been gleaned from wikipedia, with most textbooks being over convoluted.
In combo with your previous rant- I work really hard at university and am a mostly A grade student but the number of my peers I witness trying to get out of work is increasingly ridiculous. It’s insulting to me that they think they deserve a free ride when I’m slogging my guts out. Strangely their egos are so big they don’t even realise that they are useless wasters.
PS> I’m only 27 and I’m already a grumpy old man!
April 30th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I am so with you on this, Jack. It can cost me anywhere from $250-500 on books JUST for a semester!! Thankfully, my parents pay for my books - otherwise I would have been broke by the end of my freshman year - but they still have to pay that money. It is completely ridiculous!! We can “sell” our books back and the end of semester, but it is still only pennies on the dollar. Flippin’ ridiculous! Something seriously needs to be done about this!!!
April 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Higher education is for the elite now. It is only getting more expensive to live, love and learn. When politians talk about education, it is usally about K-12. Higher education is not included as part of the political promises, unless the state colleges and universities are listed as being included. Textbooks are not going down in price even in K-12 grades. A regular textbook costs around $50 to $100 even in the public education K-12 grades.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
THANK YOU!! i sold back my book today, guess how much they gave me…
$5. yeah thats right five dollars. its BS.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Agreed. School books are expensive but there is a VERY EASY WAY AROUND THAT….
SHOP AROUND!!!!!!!
http://tinyurl.com/czlc44
April 30th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I totally agree. I’m from Australia, and all of my University books cost around $100 and they are now just sitting on my bookshelf. Some we never even used in the subject, but we were told to get them. It’s a world-wide scam on students!
April 30th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I really agree with this. Thank You Jack. When I decided to go back to school this pat fall. I was looking up the prices of books. One of my books directly from the school would have cost $135. Luckily I have it on Barnes and Nobel cheaper with my membership I saved about $40, and with Upromise I got free shipping. But still cost me about $100 for the book I will only use one semester. I know I need the book, but come on. My tuition for the class was about $300, it should not cost half the class for a book.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
They say college textbooks are so expensive because they are printed in smaller numbers and have a limited audience. Insiders will tell you that textbook editors are encouraged to put out new editions of standard textbooks that aren’t really necessary to make more money for all involved. But good professors know this and only specify that the newest editions are required if they contain new material that is actually pertinent to what’s being taught in class.
That being said there are many online places to get used books now. Only lazy students or kids whose parents are paying for everything buy new nowadays.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I couldn’t agree more, Jack. Those books they sell for outrageous sums, and aren’t even HARDBACK, and are falling apart at the end of the semester are a huge scam. It’s disgusting, and as I was getting my degrees I remember wondering who was getting the money from all the overpriced textbooks. It would be one thing if they were at least hardback and lasted oh, I don’t know, for over a SEMESTER, but they aren’t. Ridiculous.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Books cost so much because of inflation. Seriously, it’s the cost of paper and all that other fun stuff. You’d be surprised how much printing costs alone will run a publisher. That, and some authors demand insane royalties for their books, even those not named Stephen King or Danielle Steele. I’m sure colleges jack up the prices to make it worthwhile for themselves, but please don’t shoot the “messengers”. The peons that help put those books on the shelves need to eat, too!
Love your rants, Jack, and I usually agree, but this time I gotta take the opposing side (mostly because I’m one of said peons who’d like to survive, thankyouverymuch!) That said, I don’t necessarily agree with the prices, but I fully understand why they’re as high as they are. But I never did understand professors making people buy books for reference only if they weren’t even going to be used in the class… That’s one thing publishers can’t be blamed for, even if the additional sales are appreciated by the little folks who end up with 5 dollars in the paycheck extra at the end of the year to go buy a coffee. (Nope, not entirely exaggerating on that, either…maybe we get $10, if we’re lucky.)
May 1st, 2009 at 9:39 am
I’m thankful I was nerdy enough to not have to pay tuition when I was in College because most of my money went to books (happy I , lab manuals (that were barely touched!) and the like. After finishing my PhD, and making room for my little girl, I realized the amount of money my parents (bless them!) and I have spent on books for 12 years of Private School, 4 years of College and 6 years of Grad School. It’s flippin’ ridiculous! GO BRUINS!
May 1st, 2009 at 4:34 pm
My roommate does the online schooling and he had to pay an extra fee for “books” through an online class…THERE IS NO BOOK! Its awesome that even online colleges are cashing in on this scam. Good Rant jack!
May 1st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
M…..I am all for everyone making the $$’s they deserve - but can you explain why, as Jack illustrated, the text book cost $150 and the other book cost $25? What causes that differential?
and I’m not even talking about the fact that one book is better than another!
May 1st, 2009 at 7:24 pm
When I went to college (late 80’s-early 90’s), Northwest Missouri State had a textbook “rental” program so we didn’t have to buy our textbooks and then sell them back for pennies on the dollar at the end of the term. At the beginning of each semester, we confirmed our registration and class schedule that we signed up for during the previous semester. We then picked up our brown paper bag full of our textbooks. At the end of the semester we returned them. Of course there were usually a few classes that had a lab book or a couple of supplemental reading books but even with those, I rarely spent even $100 on books for a semester. The cost for the textbooks was part of our tuition fees but at least it was hidden and didn’t smack us in the face at the bookstore.
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:05 am
I totally agree with you, Jack. When I went to school, the cost of books was outrageous. I remember waiting in line to buy the books and everyone in line was grumbling at how much these books costs (even the USED books cost quite a bit). Yeah, you get almost NOTHING when you try to sell them back at the end of the semester. It’s absolutely ridiculous!
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:49 am
I think that you should run for a public office.
Loved the rant and I totally agree with it.
I really don’t know how people can afford sending their kids to school, even in public schools, the cost of field trips, special projects, school lunches, year books etc.
I remember when my 27 yr. old Grand daughter went into high school(9th grade) she had to have a calculator for her math class that cost $100, I don’t even want to think what they cost today. I can’t imagine the cost of sending a child to college today, and if you have more than one child in any school. I really feel for you.
Again great rant, and I am serious about you running for an office. It’s ridiculous to have to spend over $100 for any book.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Half the stuff is sometimes wrong or outdated. There were whole chapters of books my teacher said to not even bother with so we watched a movie.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
example we watched Gone with the Wind for civil War information. Then again my history teacher was the one of the football coaches
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
learn, search don’t take what is handed to you
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I agree…my good friend is really tight on money all the time and is lucky enough to be on scholarship to college. However, the program she’s in won’t let her get a job so every time we go home on break she has to work the entire break just to afford money to pay for books at the beginning of the next semester. It really is ridiculous.
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
just a few quick comments.
first of all, most universities are regarded as private establishments, and publishing houses, as well as authors are DEFINITELY private organizations.
you say that the person in public office should reduce these prices. how?
force the publisher to sell it in a certain price range?
that is a clear, and utterly anti-democratic, attack on free enterprise.
they can sell at whatever prices, you do not have to buy it at that price.
it does not say “must be purchased at university bookstore” on the requirements sheet.
and second of all, the book itself may not take that much money to PRINT, but it takes an insane amount of time and money to get the information to include in the first place, licensing rights to print certain things by certain researchers (science research costs A LOT of money, grants notwithstanding), editing, as well as contact with the university itself.
and second of all, an large amount of textbooks can be found on eBay or other places, both online and in bookstores, for a largely discounted price if they are used books.
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
You said it Jack! My last semester of college, my professor made us write are name in a 500 dollar text book. THEN WE USED ONCE!!
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Amen brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:09 am
But Jack, if they lower the cost of the books then they will have to use that flimsy recycled paper. Don’t you want the books to have that glossy, thick paper? What, are you against education, jack? Are you against children? It sounds like it to me.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:11 am
When I was in college, I used to split the cost of a book with 2 or more other students that were taking the same class. It takes some planning, but it does work out just fine.
May 4th, 2009 at 9:53 am
I work at a community college and several of my colleagues totally agree with you, to the point that they refuse to have their students purchase the overpriced textbooks. They’ve written their own and published them as pdfs.
That college textbook scene is such a racket.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I agree college books are expensive, I usually spend about $300 to $500 in books. However, I stopped buying books from the books store and only shop on amazon or half.com. I could get books for about 15 to 20 bucks cheaper which saves me over all alot of money. Sometimes Students need to invest their time in buying book. Students… you don’t need new book. Half the time most student don’t even read the book.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
As usual, ITA. I remember many trips to the bookstore at the end of the semester only to be offered $0.25 for some of my books. 25 CENTS. Or like my calc text, they wouldn’t take it back at all.
I’m so glad to be done with school.
May 6th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I completely agree with you Jack. I can honestly say, I lost a little bit of myself each semester when I had to buy books.
May 6th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Tammy, the prices all come down to things like print run and the materials used to put the books together. Textbooks usually have smaller print runs and are hardcover, mostly for durability. The $25-and-under type books have a higher print run (5000+ in some cases) and are made with much cheaper materials. You’re essentially getting what you pay for. And some of the paper that’s cheaper than others causes a problem with ink bleeding through so you can’t really read the pages clearly. The books Jack bring up, though, are vastly different. The textbook covers several eras of history, while the McCullough book only covers one. Imagine having to get multiple books like McCullough that cover things as in-depth for a course? At $125, that would make the textbook a steal. Aren’t you glad teachers don’t do that?
College bookstores, though, do mark up their prices as well. Publishers sell in bulk to them at a discount and they then raise the prices to cover their own overhead. How much they raise it, I’m not sure. I haven’t exactly looked. (Not a part of this publishing peon’s job, thankfully!) But I suspect that it’s more than enough to warrant the frustration at the costs being so high. They’re also to blame for the prices set at buy-back. Don’t shoot the publishers for that one.
Tina, you mention books with outdated or incorrect info… I’m not sure if you’re talking on a high school or college level, but below the college level, the contents of books are actually mandated by certain school boards and they aren’t reprinted or updated as often, if I’m not mistaken. (I’ve only ever worked on books at a “higher” level, so my knowledge there is a bit fuzzy.) Publishers are very careful to have their books fact-checked, but some things do slip through the cracks. It’s also possible that an older edition is being used and the info has been updated, but the school board can’t afford the newer versions. Sometimes it’s worth mentioning these things to the publisher directly… people have been known to get freebies out of the deal.
Now having to pay an arm and a leg for bound copies only available at a college bookstore of what would essentially amount to a professor’s thesis? Or just of the class syllabus? I never understood that…and was the victim of that many times while getting my degree. And I don’t understand paying a book fee for a class with no books. That sounds like a greedy university to me!
May 7th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!!!!
May 8th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I concur! When I was in college, I paid $80 for my math book. When I went to sell it back at the end of the semester, they wouldn’t buy it back because they said it was already outdated…a BRAND NEW edition. The next year I had to re-take the class an guess what…they were selling the SAME book! Again for $80. Or you could buy a used copy that the students gave back for free because they didn’t want it anymore for $50. Sheesh! No wonder why I drank Natural Lite in college…
May 8th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Amen!!! I spent 200 bucks on a Math book that I never used the whole Semester, and when it came time to sell it back I got $20 bucks for it. What a complete rip off.
May 17th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
amen jack! speak the truth!
August 19th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Something you have to consider is that the John Adams book can appeal to a lot of people, the textbook is probably only used in one, maybe two classes, at a few colleges. While printing it may only cost them 3 bucks, they have to pay people to write the books, and the more copies a book sells, the less they have to charge per copy to go to the writing of it. I agree, it is outrageous, but that is part of the reason.