High Cost of College Textbooks Essay

“Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study” is a paper by Lawrence S. Silver, Robert E. Stevens of Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Kenneth E. Clow of University of Louisiana. It was published in the Journal of Education for Business Volume 87. The first half of the paper starts off by explaining why the cost of textbooks is an issue. They go on to explain different competitors’ textbook have in the marketplace today and how publishers are trying to appeal new customers through professors. The second half of the paper focuses on a study that was done by surveying random marketing professors in the United States. The survey contained questions asking about the pricing of textbooks and how they

According to an article titled (“College textbook costs more outrageous than ever” from today.com by Herb Weisbaum), the College Board “estimates that the average student in this country now spends around $1,200 a year on books and supplies. A single book can cost as much as $200”.

With the rampant year over year releases and innovations in the consumer sector, computers and tablets are cheaper than ever. While one may argue that devices still remain more expensive than a simple notepad and pencil, students opting not to use a computer will accrue incrementally more costs for notebooks and/or paper, binders, the printing of class notes, and hard copy textbooks for each course. With PDF and online textbooks now available, at substantially lower costs, tech savvy students have additional cost and use advantages. Further, digital resources permit publishers to regularly update e-textbook forms. This is relevant for schools that utilize one text for multiple years and better ensures accuracy and currency. Beyond the economic benefits, computers have other practical advantages. They significantly reduce the amount of weight students carry in knapsacks, improve ergonomics, and ameliorate possible future absenteeism and medical costs due to back injury. Finally, reduced paper consumption and its footprint are more environmentally friendly and consistent with the University of Toronto’s sustainability

For decades, the options of renting apartments, cars, and movies. Renting allows the person in mind to enjoy goods while they need them and return them when they are no longer useful. However, can renting textbooks actually be worth it for students?

Students are struggling to pay for these expensive books and it is causing some of them to not be able to attend college. Most people already know that going to a higher level of school or college is important, it provides many opportunities and advantages. Attending a college will not only help people better themselves but it will help the person going to school in the long run. College helps with getting a future career, it helps with furthering a student's education, and it also teaches students valuable life lessons. When a student is trying to better themselves by going to school, they should not have to pay over $500 for textbooks every semester when they are already paying thousands of dollars on tuition.

Attention-getter: How much money have you spent just this year alone on college? Hold on now, did you include all the fees? Living expenses? Your meal plan? Obvioulsy the answer is going to be in the upwards of thousands of dollars. Depressing, I know! College should be a time where you are truly discovering who you are and what you want to do with your life. It shouldn’t be about how you’re slowly but surely giving your life away to student loans. Oh yes, student loans, the mortal enemy of any college student. The college tuition alone is already high enough to put you in debt with student loans for a majority of your life. There are many things that factor into the price of a college education, some reasonable, others however, are a different story. Today, I want to talk to you about the scam that is going on concerning the price of college textbooks. An interesting statistic by The Huffington Post tells us that the cost of college textbooks has increased 253% faster than the cost of college tuition over the decade. How come college textbooks are so expensive? And what can we do to stop this? Well let’s get into it shall we.

I. ATTENTION GETTER: Ian Ayres, a professor at Yale Law School mentioned in The New York Times how textbooks and school supplies account to 26% of all student fees in State Universities and in Junior colleges it is about a 72%. Just how much money do we have to put in textbooks in order to get an education.

The number one stress causer of most students is the cost of books. Books can range anywhere from sixty dollars up to around three hundred. In a survey it is shown that students pay up to $1,200 a year just on books! On books. Nothing more. Many teachers pick their books, not the school. Why do the teachers pick some of the most expensive when there are other books with the same information that cost almost half the price? Due to this, many resort to renting books but on some websites it cost just as much as the new price. Though financial aid is an option to help with this overpriced ordeal, it doesn’t always cover

Chegg offers solutions for students who can't afford overpriced textbooks. Their motto is “saving broke students one textbook at a time.” When a student begins their college experience, they're excited and full of hope. That is true until they learn how much it costs to purchase their textbooks. Even if they have a loan or financial aid for college itself, that doesn't cover the cost of books.

High costs of college tuition has been a rising concern for many future and former college students. There are college graduates who are concerned after graduation if they made the right choice paying for a college degree. There are also future students who are not as tempted to attend college because of how expensive it is. While there are certain majors that pay well, many of the majors in college do not pay remotely enough considering what it costs to obtain the degree it takes to do the job. This debt is harder to pay off for this very reason which creates difficulty for graduates to move on in life. To make this situation better for future college graduates, tuition needs to be adjusted based on a scale where what the students are putting

I do believe that high textbook prices is conspicuous because many students and parents around the country see that the price of textbook are ridiculously high and sometimes they have to take out another loan just to pay them. They also notice that not only do they have to pay thousands of dollars for tuition, they also have to drop another thousand a semester just to buy textbooks and maybe supplies.

`One reason college textbooks should be free is because how expensive they are. The price of a college textbook can start at a hundred dollars. Most students are required to have a few textbooks each semester. So the prices of each textbook will add up and may cost over a few hundred

Chapman, Gary. "Digital Nation: Push to Trade Class Textbooks For Laptop PCS Is A Misuse Of Technology." Teacher Librarian 26.1 (1998): n. pag. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

The seller of digital textbooks will also be saving money over producing hard copies. 32% of the cost allocated to paper, printing and editorial can be completely eliminated along with 22.4% of costs related to bookstore operations and personnel. Bookstores as we know them could become obsolete or transformed into stores that sell tablets, e-readers and software packages on campus. Publishers or sellers will now be able to tap into a more global market with electronic textbooks as the information can be translated into many languages quickly.

To start off, schools need to realize the amount they can save in the long run by utilizing technology and lean away from traditional, old fashioned, hard cover books. When books become outdated and used, schools have to spend endless amounts to replace them. To avoid this, schools can take the initiate and work proactively and replace hard cover books with electronics to avoid unnecessary expenses. An example of this occurred at Empire High School which recently made a switch from textbooks even though, “it wasn’t because of a funding crisis.” (Source A) Empire High School shows just how well technology can work. Not only does technology help in saving necessary funding, it adds a sure convenience factor to the students and teachers by not having to drag around large and expensive textbooks.