College Textbook rant...

[RedRocker]

You should have no trouble selling them at the end of the semester to get a big chunk of your money back.

NOT!! The story is usually, "don't need anymore used books", "not gonna use that book next year", "we'll give ya $5 bucks for your $150 dollar book".

 

[Bird]

Sounds to me as if nothing's changed in the last 50 years. Textbooks, especially college text books, were unbelievably high priced even back then. And I suppose the limited market resulting in very few of each book sold contributes to the cost. It was college professors who told me there was a saying among college professors to either "publish or perish"; i.e., if you wanted to keep your job and status, you had to write books. The next problem is, how do you sell them? Well, you can require your own students to use your own book in your class, but most consider that to be poor form. So, if you and I are both college professors and we've both written books, then you require your students to buy my textbook and I'll require my students to buy your book. That was the system long ago, and it sounds as if it hasn't changed. I only had one class in which the professor used his own textbook, and he was one of those characters who was convinced that he knew everything there was to know about everything. And of course, the rest of us considered him to be an idiot.

 

[BillyP]

I never went to college and I make 10 times what my Dad made.

Before anyone goes ballistic, college is the best investment in life that anyone can make. There's companies that won't hire you because you don't have a degree. But, they'll hire the next person that does, and don't know diddly squat.

I guess high tech has changed a lot of things over the years.

 

[Bird]

I never went to college and I make 10 times what my Dad made.

Just in raw numbers, or are you calculating for inflation? My pension now is more than 10 times the salary I got as a rookie cop.

 

[BillyP]

Just in raw numbers, or are you calculating for inflation? My pension now is more than 10 times the salary I got as a rookie cop.

Sorry Bird but I'm not smart enough to figure for inflation. I guess not much has changed since then though, for me anyway. Dad always said "You live on what you make or you can make a living".

 

[DocHeb]

Speaking of adjustment for inflation, check out Cost of Living Calculator

 

[Bird]

Interesting link, Chris. Just some trivia for the youngsters who haven't thought about the changes. I started work for the U.S. Post Office as a temporary part time letter carrier in 1957 for $1.88 an hour. In 1959, I went to work for the Post Office full time as a clerk for $2.00 an hour, and in March of 1964, I was working an evening shift, so part of my hours included a 10% night differential and I was making $501 a month when I resigned, mostly due to boredom, and took a big pay cut to become a police officer for $370 a month.

 

[Chuck52]

Most academics meet the publish-or-perish criterion with papers in peer reviewed journals. No pay for that, unfortunately, or I'd be considerably better off than I am. We only had one faculty member who wrote a text book so far as I can remember. He was one of the "Founding Fathers" in his area, so that was one reason. I don't know if he required that text or not in his class. What has often surprised me is that many of the more popular texts are written by people in relatively low power schools....the ones in the research power house places are probably too busy doing research and publishing that so they can get grants.

Chuck

 

[mjarrels]

It is laptops for me... spent about $2000.00 for son's laptop... no, its not what we use in this college, it needs to be this and that... with this and that... I took many PACE classes at sea in the Navy, instructor had to hump the books around the world... did'nt need to buy many books in those days. I live in a major college town... most positions require a masters or PHD for what I did for a liviing. Add in the paper for a data analyst this week 10 hours a week (my Navy career). PHD apply only. Colleges feed on themselves... I'll just stay retired at age 52.

mark

 

[Jstpssng]

Most academics meet the publish-or-perish criterion with papers in peer reviewed journals. No pay for that, unfortunately, or I'd be considerably better off than I am. We only had one faculty member who wrote a text book so far as I can remember. He was one of the "Founding Fathers" in his area, so that was one reason. I don't know if he required that text or not in his class. What has often surprised me is that many of the more popular texts are written by people in relatively low power schools....the ones in the research power house places are probably too busy doing research and publishing that so they can get grants.

Chuck

The required text for my soils class was written by the professor; we all chipped in and bought one book (THAT student helped us through the classs, anyways) then photocopied it for 1/2 what the book cost. 28 years ago copies weren't as cheap as now, but to us college kids it seemed like a bargain.


What I didn't know was that at that school a copy of all required textbooks had to be available at the college library; don't know if that was unique, but may be worth looking int.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

My daughter, a freshman this year, we spent $600 1st semester. This semester we spent $250, amazon.com has great buys for used and near new books. If we went the book store route again this semester we would have spend another $600!

As far as selling the books back, they give u pennies on the $, as others have said a total rip off. But then again it was the same way 27 yrs ago when I was in college. it just hurts more when u have to write the check!

 

[Chuck52]

College bookstores do kind of remind me of the refreshment stands in movie theaters. They often have captive audiences with few other choices.

Chuck

 

[KubotaSteve]

I never went to college and I make 10 times what my Dad made.

Before anyone goes ballistic, college is the best investment in life that anyone can make. There's companies that won't hire you because you don't have a degree. But, they'll hire the next person that does, and don't know diddly squat.

I guess high tech has changed a lot of things over the years.

Bill Gates didn't go to college and if memory serves me correct, he quit high school too! But that is not the norm.
As far as the books, we had a student hangout on campus with a bulletin board and people would list their books there complete with study notes. For example, if you bought a book for $100 and the bookstore only offered you $50 back, the student could post his book marked up and with notes for $70 or $80. I hated getting clean books. I always wanted the ones that were all ready marked up with highlighting and notes.

 

[moeh1]

If you Google something like college textbooks, you will find a large number of online used books. Just went thru that with my child for the spring semester. Certainly better than the college bookstore's used prices.

 

[BillyP]

Interesting link, Chris. Just some trivia for the youngsters who haven't thought about the changes. I started work for the U.S. Post Office as a temporary part time letter carrier in 1957 for $1.88 an hour. In 1959, I went to work for the Post Office full time as a clerk for $2.00 an hour, and in March of 1964, I was working an evening shift, so part of my hours included a 10% night differential and I was making $501 a month when I resigned, mostly due to boredom, and took a big pay cut to become a police officer for $370 a month.

Bird, your pension has done extremely well against inflation. By the calculator 370 bucks in 1965 would mean 2,368 in 2006 and you beat that by 50%. Of course you could look at it a million different ways but it seems you done pretty good to me

 

[Bird]

Bird, your pension has done extremely well against inflation. By the calculator 370 bucks in 1965 would mean 2,368 in 2006 and you beat that by 50%. Of course you could look at it a million different ways but it seems you done pretty good to me

Yes, Billy, as with a number of government jobs, they keep you because of the retirement plan instead of paying a good salary. But of course that $370 was just the "starting" pay. We got a $10 a month pay raise every 3 months the first year. Then most years, the city council granted all city employees some cost of living increases. And of course I worked for promotions for the higher salary and pension. The City of Dallas paid a flat $100 a month more for a college degree or I'd have probably never gone back to school and got mine. And of course I was paying 12.5% of my pay into the pension plan when I was working.

 

[BillyP]

Yes, Billy, as with a number of government jobs, they keep you because of the retirement plan instead of paying a good salary. But of course that $370 was just the "starting" pay. We got a $10 a month pay raise every 3 months the first year. Then most years, the city council granted all city employees some cost of living increases. And of course I worked for promotions for the higher salary and pension. The City of Dallas paid a flat $100 a month more for a college degree or I'd have probably never gone back to school and got mine. And of course I was paying 12.5% of my pay into the pension plan when I was working.

Bird, your last sentence is where most people go wrong, especially the ones just starting out. If the company or whatever has a retirement plan, put all you think you can afford plus 10%. It'll hurt for a month or two but then you won't miss it.

Even if you can't afford the extra, at least put in what the company will match. That's just free money, any way you look at it. If you stick around long enough to be vested.

What really gets me is the ones that gripe about what they make. For instance teachers, and I know I'll get a lot of flack over this but the truth is the truth. Every time you read the paper theirs something about teachers wanting, needing or demanding a pay raise. That they've been underpaid forever. That could be true but they knew it before they decided to be teachers?

 

[Bird]

Billy, I'll agree that it is true that it seems teacher are always looking for a raise (isn't everyone?), and I do believe that our school taxes are way too high. However, I'm one of those who feels that the schools waste far too much money on extra curricular activities, especially sports, and administrative jobs, and pay teachers too little. I think we have too few really good teachers because of the low pay. I think during my years in school I saw some of the best, and some of the worst, school teachers in the business. I guess everyone has different view points, but I know many people have told me they could never be a police officer. Well, I could never be a school teacher. Those folks have a tough job, and if they're good at it, they deserve every penny they're getting.

But I also agree with you that they knew what it paid when they started, so I do not believe in unions striking, work slow downs, blue flu, etc. In other words, I think it applies to everyone, not just teachers.

 

[EddieWalker]

When the football coach makes six figures and the math teacher makes $30,000 a year, there's a problem. I don't know if this is how it is all over Texas, but it's been a real shock to me here in East Texas.

Another one that really amazed me was the power to raise taxes the schools and Junior College has. They seem to be able to do this at will. Luckily the last time the Junior College did this, it was discovered that they had over 2 million dollars in there budget that they hadn't spent from the previous year. OOOPS. Seems they raised taxes when they didn't need to as a just in case tactic. They got caught, got in trouble, and had to refund money to everyone who paid the extra tax. I got back almost $200!!!!

Eddie

 

[Bird]

I don't know if this is how it is all over Texas, but it's been a real shock to me here in East Texas.

Yep, Eddie, that's the normal situation in Texas. And in my grandson's high school, they have fifteen coaches for one high school. You can imagine what that costs the taxpayers. And it's been that way for many years. About 30 years ago, the school district where our daughters were in school wanted to float a bond issue that was a really big one; considerably bigger than needed at the time, but they said they expected the area to continue to grow and the money would only be used for building "classrooms" and the extra large size of the bond issue would prevent them needing another one for many years. OK, we passed it. Then a couple of years later, they decided to use the money to build a really fancy football stadium and a natatorium. Since all the paperwork said the money was for classrooms, a few folks objected to the plan. So they decided to build two classrooms under the stands to get around that little problem. There was even a lawsuit filed to stop the stadium, but the judge decided with the sports fans (judges are elected in Texas, you know). They had a public hearing on the issue and it appeared to me that the crowd was about evenly split, for and against the fancy stadium. But those who spoke in favor of the stadium were allowed to speak, then cheered. Those who tried to speak against the stadium were shouted down by the rowdy sports fans. They also assured the crowd that building the stadium would not affect our school taxes. But the next year, my school taxes went up 25%!