Hundreds in college textbooks - what to do with them all?

[Shanna-like-Banana]

How in the world do under privileged kids get by when books alone are around $500 and they can't recover any of that cost???? WTH, its unconscionable

I am not underprivileged by any means, but I never buy new. never. Nor do we for our daughter.
There have been several classes that I have made it through the entire course without the book.
For example for one of my English classes, we have required a certain book. I worked with the professor and found out we were only going to be reading two of the essays within the book and found there were other free sources online with the essays. One essay was published in a newspaper with free views and the other was found through asking the school library to help find.
In a History class, the professor required an online code for quiz administration. Many sites have a free 14 day trial before purchase required. I did the entire course load of all quizzes required within the 14 day free trial.
Many of my schools' departments keep a text reference book in the library.

Many schools dictate that the professor uses an additional source of materials and there are many ways to go without or work around it. Several of my professors don't even touch the additional source at all.

 

[RamblingMad]

Most university book stores will buy them back. I guess you can try some used bookstores.

 

[aprilchem]

Selling old textbooks is almost a lost art. The problem is publishers constantly bring out new editions of the same book for professors to require for a class (kickbacks? I don't know!).

How in the world do under privileged kids get by when books alone are around $500 and they can't recover any of that cost???? WTH, its unconscionable

Professor here. Professors don't get kickbacks (or any other benefit) for choosing particular textbooks. The only benefit we really get is one free copy of the textbook for us.

The benefit comes to the author of the textbook and the publisher, because releasing a new version of the textbooks makes everyone buy from the publisher and not from resellers.

My department is solving the problem for our disadvantaged students by moving to open-source (free, online) textbooks. We just had a department meeting on Thursday where we talked about converting our last few courses to that.

 

[MrsPete]

Most important point is to sell the books as soon as you are done with them. When a subsequent updated text comes out, your book plunges in value.

Yes, textbooks have a short lifespan. If you don't sell them quickly, you're SOL. My youngest started at community college, and we rented books where possible, but we had to buy some, and about 50% of the time they were unsellable -- even immediately after the class ended.

How in the world do under privileged kids get by when books alone are around $500 and they can't recover any of that cost???? WTH, its unconscionable

Several answers:

Forget "under priviledged", I was a poor kid. Dirt poor. When I was in college I often "shared" books with fellow students; that is, we'd buy a book together and take turns with it. Convenient? No, but you do what you have to do. Some books were available in the library. I always went to the bookstore as early as possible to pick up the few used books (this was pre-internet, pre-rental). Sometimes I couldn't afford a book, so I did without. None of these were ideal, but -- hey -- you do what you have to do. Looking back, I honestly don't know how I made it through college financially, but I have two degrees and graduated with honors.

My kids all graduated from a college with THE BEST textbook policy: They say that textbooks are important, no student should struggle to have books, so they charge a $105 fee each semester ... and they provide no-charge textbooks to every student. Textbooks are replaced every five years (meaning they refuse to play the "a new chart was inserted on page 50 and now this is a new edition" game). By the time a textbook is "retired", 10 students have used it -- that's reasonable! Students who are in internships, student teaching, student nursing (or similar) can have the fee dropped for that semester. This is SUCH a sensible option. I mean, why isn't a 5-year old Chemistry or math book acceptable? My daughter's Chemistry 101 book alone would have cost $360; okay, it was a two-class /two-semester book, but still -- that's a lot of money!

I OFTEN suggest to my poor students that they opt for one of the three colleges in our state that uses this system.

One negative -- only one: Since all students get their books from the bookstore, the pick up /drop off lines are horrendous. I mean, students wait 2-3 hours to reach the counter /pick up their books. It's worthwhile though.