Friday, August 22, 2008

Why are textbooks so expensive?

Why are textbooks for my first graduate class totaling up to $150???

I guess being out of school for two years made me blank out how expensive textbooks tend to be.

Here are steps I plan to take to minimize the cost of textbooks now that I've learned my lesson that used textbooks never last long in my school's bookstore:

  1. Check the library at the begining of the semester to see if they have the textbooks I need
  2. Check websites such as half.com and amazon (anybody know of others?) for used books
  3. Ask other students if they are selling books for classes they have already taken

These steps may take more time than just putting down the money for new books, but it's worth the savings.

1 comments:

MoneyMaus said...

Ugh, textbooks. Such a rip off. The royalties on them are INSANE - some of my profs in college wrote textbooks and were obviously VERY well off from that coupled with their university teaching tenure. I think the high prices are horrible, especially with the high costs of good college educations as well. Here's to going back to school in a few years as well!