To add to what has been offered, print textbooks at least
can be "ported" in a resale market. Not so much with e-texts (which publishers, quite naturally, just
love-- wonder why that is?
).
I'll also say that the headline up there about college costs made me guffaw. Out loud.
The reason?
Well, because my DD's textbook costs are about the same as they'd be anywhere, and given her double (triple??) major, we're also accustomed to some STEM major courses having pretty extreme textbook expenses associated.
Still.
Tuition annually runs 15K
plus, even at modestly priced state public colleges these days.
Her textbook costs for the year are-- even in light of the factors mentioned previously, such as needing STEM texts and reference texts for several majors-- a mere 1500 or so.
That cost would not be significantly different at an institution where tuition topped 50K annually.
This also ignores the fact-- mentioned recently by Val and myself-- that faculty are now enamored of "pay-to-play" methods of submitting work for college courses, as well-- so THAT isn't going to go away any time soon, and there really aren't free versions of Pearson's massive industry (MyMathLab comes to mind here) there. That alone is several hundred dollars of costs annually.
So sure.
Save $1000. Off of annual costs of $65,000.
This is
not the way to "fix" spiraling college expenses. This is a bit like complaining about an annoying gnat whilst riding on the hind end of a charging rhino, to be frank.
My recommendation? Use ISBN numbers, and use Abe, Amazon, and the like to score a copy that meets your price point.
Shop EARLY.It
can still be done-- we've done price shopping for many years since DD's online school frequently failed to provide anything but clunky e-texts, and she (and we) feel rather strongly that in most instances, the print edition offers advantages.
