According to a recent poll about the costs of textbooks at campus bookstores, the majority of respondents believe that the prices of books are way too high for the amount of use they get out of them. Jason Pieper, a student at Anoka-Ramsey College (ARCC) said, “I dread the start of every semester. The second I leave the bookstore after purchasing all my textbooks, I know that for the next few weeks the only food I’ll be able to afford is Ramen noodles.”
While everyone may not be forced to eat Ramen noodles after visiting the local campus bookstore, 27 out of the 31 or roughly 87% of respondents still believe that the costs of textbooks should be lower than what they are now. One of these respondents, student Jessica Williams added, “I think it is pretty ridiculous that I have to pay $225 for a single textbook when the class it’s for only costs about $400 to take.”
However, student Peter Lee doesn’t agree with Williams, saying that “Textbooks are quite valuable. If you’ve taken enough courses, you’ll understand just about everything you learn can be found in the book. So really you’re getting the same material for around half the price of the course. Most of the time there is stuff in the book that the class doesn’t cover, so that just adds to the value of the textbook.”
Benjamin Olson, one of the 31 ARCC students at the Cambridge campus polled, believes in just the opposite of what Lee said. Olson explained, “There’s been too many courses over the years that never once had me open the textbook I bought. All the information we needed was posted online or given out during class. What is the point of buying an expensive book if we’re never going to use it? It is a huge waste of money.”
Three out of the four respondents that thought the pricing of books was reasonable for their use all mentioned to some degree what Justin Lamb had to say. “I think the money invested in books gets outweighed by having the material you need to be successful in class. It is pretty hard to deny that books generally help improve your grade in class, as well as your understanding of the content. But also, they then provide a permanent source to turn to if you ever want to review the information you learned, that is assuming you don’t sell the books back,” Lamb explained.
However, in many situations students do sell back their books according to the poll. Of the 31 respondents, 21 of them sell back their semester’s worth of books to the bookstore. That is about 68% of the students polled. When asked why they sell their books back, all 21 respondents said they do it for the extra cash.
“When the end of the semester rolls around, I get excited. After selling back my books, I have enough cash to splurge a little. No more Ramen noodles for me, next stop McDonald’s Big Mac combo meal, super sized!” added Pieper.
Nice article, I wish it went into more why people felt the books were expensive, though. I personally feel it's mostly instructor's faults who list a book as required and then assign only a handful of assignments from it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting story. Especially interesting that some people believe that the books aren't too high priced. I think its ridiculous how expensive they are, and so does pretty much everyone I've talked to.
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