College Nerd Brag!

It wouldn't really be difficult. There is no reason to have textbook A used for Freshman Biology at the University of Missouri, textbook B at Missouri State, textbook C at the Universtiy of Central Missouri, and textbook D at Southeast Missouri State University...and so on and so on across the nation. The program or subject doesn't really have anything to do with it - nor does the integration of new material...all textbooks have to be updated periodically. The problem is worse with specialized courses - obviously more Biology 101 texts are printed than upper class Biology texts. If a professor wants to cover something not in a text, the additional material can be covered by lecture and outside reading - no different than it has always been, but there is no reason to have different basic texts.

There is no reason for every college in the country to not use one textbook for Freshman Biology, for example. Using different texts merely increases the price. It costs far more per book to print 5,000 books than it does to print 50,000 books.

I went to college a long time ago, and don't know if things have changed, but what used to kill my budget was the outside reading. Some courses required as many as 12 or 15 books beyond the basic text. I think one semester I had to buy around 45 books for 5 courses. One question I would have of contemporary students would be are a lot of these books available to read through Kindle or other on-line sources that would reduce your cost? Just wondering as I am not up on the latest technology...

Lol yes, I sometimes go the first week without the text. Usually the first day the teacher will mention how often he expects you to read the book, I've found. Some say "pay more attention to my lecture" or things like "I don't like the way they do this in the book"...or even "Don't buy the book if you haven't already".

That's when I either don't buy or buy the older edition just for reference.

And lucky you...I still have to sort out grad school X_X

Hehe

You can buy JumpBooks, which are normally around $20-30 that are just online access codes to the online version.
I hate them because you need internet access to open them, they are large files if there is an option to download it directly onto the computer, have to read off the computer screen (killer headaches for me) and I don't carry my laptop with me or have internet access on my phone, so there is no mobility.
But I can see the potential for others. There could be better set ups through other universities, but that is what my school goes through.

And 12-15 books extra? Nope, never even heard of something that extreme. Well, English courses but then it was go rent it from the library and have it read by such and such date. Most I have had was 3 books for one course.

I've never seen/heard of that many books extra either. The one teacher whose reading was OUT OF HAND was teaching a grad school level course...and he just gave us the files he wanted on .pdf. I killed a lot of trees....

Can't stand reading texts online. Ugh.

Well, school isn't what it used to be, so there is evidently less outside reading. There wasn't too much outside reading required in the natural sciences, but English and American Lit., Economics, Philosophy, Poly Sci., and similar courses were ridiculous. It enhances your education, of course, but it can sure bust a budget. I was on a dual athletic scholarship my first year, but took my life in a different direction and dropped out of sports for a few years, so was on my own. Book buying time usually meant living off of those little 10 cent belly bomber "burgers" from Krystal, and the 29 cent boxes of Kraft macaroni...

haha I hear you! The classes of mine that DID require multiple outside books...were Ethics and Religion!!! Yeek! But luckily there were only a few of those...like four...and I could get them used at a decent rate. No one reads paper books anymore =/ so you can get them pretty cheap used.

That being said, the "reference" list for this Chem course...is over half a page long.

I'm sticking to the required and recommended four, I think...

Oh book buying still means crappy, cheap food. I dropped an entire 80 hour pay cheque on text books this semester. And that wasn't even a part time crap job, that was when I was a manager. Coulda cried haha.

Demonwolf, that's what a lot of my profs do, send out the PDF files we needed or use free sources like library documents or online sources. I'd go completely broke otherwise as I have at least 1 case study to do every week.
But man have I gotten good at finding articles in all shapes and forms, which I find a way better skill than being able to purchase an extra book. So yey extra bonus.

And I don't know about lucky..I am not the most educated on the difference between school in Canada and the States, but I'm only an undergraduate student. Going for a Bachelor's degree so 4 years. Grad school to me is a Graduate degree, so like a Master's which is an extra 2 years. Is that similar down there?

Yes, it's the same, only I've been stuck in undergrad mode for WAY WAY too long. Grad school for me is two more years, but ONLY IF I get my thesis done and published in time...otherwise, it pretty much takes completing that to graduate. Yay...research.

My school rents every textbook needed. We've got a big huge book warehouse that you print your booklist, head to Textbook Services on campus and check out all the books you need. At the end of the semester, you return them.

I didn't know QUITE how good I had it until I DID have to buy a textbook or my summer EMT class through a community college... Ouch!