Textbook Prices

[Susi]

Hey all my uni student friends ^^

Currently I'm going to the University of Toronto in Canada. So I was wondering what everyone else paid for books.

I paid around 540 euro+ (I stopped counting at that point...) for my books for this semester.

So please, elaborate on the situation where you are.

[svin]

I take them in the library for free.

[Cirrus]

Between 125 and 250, I think. I don't buy all my books, and try to borrow some of them from other students or libraries.

[Martín Zalacaín]

I've spent 280 euros thus far. For the whole year it would be around 350-400. This is my first year as well, that's why I'm buying all the books. Next year I'll try to buy just 2 or 3. Furthermore, the quality of the material from my university is mediocre at best. I prefer to spend my money on real books.

[Susi]

Unforunately for me, it is difficult to find the new editions of the textbooks in the uni library plus one can only look at them for 2-3 hours anyways if they exist.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Susi

Unforunately for me, it is difficult to find the new editions of the textbooks in the uni library plus one can only look at them for 2-3 hours anyways if they exist.

Book price inflation -- if I remember correctly -- has been about double the general rate for the last fifteen or twenty years. Generally the worst offenders are the big American publishers -- Wiley, Academic, McGraw-Hill. But some Euopean publishers are even worse (e.g. Elsevier, Kluwer). They have become gigantic "information services" behemoths whose huge profits come at your expense.

Try not to use new editions since this is usually another con trick of publishers -- they add some irrelevant content, jumble around the problem and exercise sets and presto! a new edition. You can buy old editions on the used market for 30-50% of the cost of a new one.

Try buying Asian low-cost editions when you can (often advertised on ebay and Half.com, among other places).

But often these measures will not work and you will be subjected to daylight robbery. Global capitalism in action.

[Susi]

Well I also work at a bookshop that sells textbooks. I get 20% discount so buying old editions does nothing for my pocketbook, I might as well get the new one for the same price.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Susi

I get 20% discount

So the average student paid 648 euros instead of the 540 that you paid?

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

So the average student paid 648 euros instead of the 540 that you paid?

Some of Kluwer's texts and monographs are going for 300 euros apiece. This places them beyond the reach of all but university and corporate libraries. Furthermore, university library budgets have generally been feeling the squeeze everywhere: lower funding, higher book prices, and an ever-increasing percentage going to exoribitantly priced journals (where a year's subscription to a single journal can cost 2000 euros). So books are either not available, or only older editions, or only for 2-hour loans. Information has become another commodity in today's predatory capitalism.

[Sifjar]

Originally Posted by Susi

Hey all my uni student friends ^^

Currently I'm going to the University of Toronto in Canada. So I was wondering what everyone else paid for books.

I paid around 540 euro+ (I stopped counting at that point...) for my books for this semester.

So please, elaborate on the situation where you are.

You're funny, I did not know in Canada you could go to university before turning 18yrs ? Wow University of Tronto send me the applications

Originally Posted by Susi

Mynydd: When I turn 18 I fully intend to run for the mayor of my city. And I'll win. And make things better. But now I have found out that my (soon to be) dual citizenship with Britain disqualifies my right to participate in the politics of Canada.

Hmm keep it up

[Menydh]

Sifjar, between this post and this other post, a full one year has passed since (notice the date of the post).

She *is* 18 years old now.

What about you? Have you considered about growing up?

[Sifjar]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Sifjar, between this post and this other post, a full one year has passed since (notice the date of the post).

She *is* 18 years old now.

What about you? Have you considered about growing up?

Yeah, In Sweden we still can't go to university at 18yrs, so sending an application is good

[Carnyx]

In France one needn't to be 18 years old to go to Uni. As long as you've got your final exam (Baccalauréat) which means that pretty much everyone can study there.

[svin]

In Russia it's the same.

Btw, our library allows me to take even expensive English books for a period of time I want. Only very rare and epxensive books have 2 days limit.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by svin

Btw, our library allows me to take even expensive English books for a period of time I want. Only very rare and epxensive books have 2 days limit.

You're lucky not to be living in the USA. And I don't know what I'm doing in this crazy place

[Susi]

Originally Posted by Sifjar

You're funny, I did not know in Canada you could go to university before turning 18yrs ? Wow University of Tronto send me the applications

To apply you must have finished highschool or the equivalent in your country. I started uni before I turned 18

But you will have to pay far more to go to U of Toronto than I, because you don't hold Canadian citizenship (my friends without pay something ridiculous like 20 000$/year in tuitions, I think I pay around 5000$).

Originally Posted by Sifjar

Yeah, In Sweden we still can't go to university at 18yrs, so sending an application is good

Different systems, different rules. *Shrug*.

Even within Canada it varies.

edit: @ Mynydd: Actually I'm off pretty well. Medical students can pay around 400-500 euros for one textbook.