I've been down most of this week with a neck that refuses to turn to the left and some kind of funky sinus thing that has been making focusing on anything more difficult than HGTV exhausting. Tonight if can finally sit and type without feeling like my head is going to just float off of my shoulders. Weird feeling . . .
Danny has survived his first round of classes at SCC. I'm more than disgusted right now with the whole thing. The website and all of the paperwork I've seen so far states that tuition and books for dual-enrolled (high school kids) students is free. Well, it's not. After many agonizing phone conversations, I think I finally understand that this only applies to 'some' public-schooled kids and never to homeschoolers. Fine. I figured he's taking basic classes, how bad can it be?
Ummm ... $468 worth of bad. Yes, you read right - $468 for THREE classes. WHAT about pre-calculus has changed significantly in the past 100 years that requires the newest edition text book for this course? There are NOT suitable used options available. I find it hard to believe that the ONLY book for this class is the $137 text. Really? On to English Composition. Again, English writing 101 is a pretty basic course. I'm not sure what kind of paybacks this teacher is getting that has her insisting that her students need a $300+ bundle of books for this semester. Of the bundle, I can find one book used for a savings of $17. I'm guessing Danny's Humanities teacher lives here on planet earth and might even have kids. Her books are solid texts and used copies are abundant. I don't hate her yet.
I'm grateful we do not have to pay the tuition. If we were, I would be beyond outraged. So many people who use community colleges have families and are working and trying to get ahead. These are not people who have that kind of money to spend on text books. It's insanity. Sure, if you are taking medical classes or law classes, you might truly need the newest book, but there are not a lot of courses in the first two years of college that fall into that category. Gaahhh ... See that? My headache is back and my head is immobile just from typing that out. It's going to be a lean September here. Send your best bean recipes quick!
I'm going back to my little cave on the couch. You guys have a great Friday. I'll be back when I can be nice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I pay a ton for my books. It is always frustrating.. I should have been a text book writer. Someone is raking it in.
Have a great weekend..
The cost of college text books is one of my hubby's pet peeves. We've had kids in college since 2001 (24 year old daughter, dual enrollment) and it amazes me how much we get bilked for books every year! Believe it or not, my son has had classes where the instructor tells them they don't need the book. So why even have it listed in the syllabus? He has learned to wait to buy text books, sometimes as long as a month.
Florida dual enrollment laws require that the public schools pay for the books for their students. The law is actually fairly nebulous regarding students from home school or private schools. I have heard that parents of HSed kids in Osceola County can go to the county school system and look through the books they have there. Apparently there is a room where they keep the texts from semesters past.
At least we don't have to pay tuition. Florida is one of the few states left with free tuition for dual enrollment/early college.
Have you checked on Amazon under Books>Textbooks-used? There are some pretty good deals according to my son and you can also offer used texts for sale to others.
Thanks for the semi-clarification, Karen. I'm going to pay for Danny's books, but I'm not going to let this drop. At the very least they can clarify the website . . .
Linda, I've checked half.com and several other sites that are popular with college kids. The problem is the teachers demanding the brand-new editions - they're brand-new, there are no used. I'm hoping this year is an anomaly.
Hopefully you can recoup a bit of this 500.00 on half.com to help with text books for next semester.
Sean and Alexander have an aunt who has been giving them 50,75 and 100 dollar savings bonds since birth (for all occasions)...I have been saying they will be used for text books as they mature into full value. I am thinking they will only put a small dent in the cost of text books if they continue to increase the cost of text books...the only thing I can hope for is that in 7 years that maybe something can change in the text book industry and you get some sort of electronic textbook (Kindle, website, disc, something) and that the cost some how stabilizes.
Pure insanity~
AND if you can sell it back at the end of the semester for a $137 book you might get $15. It sucks!
Or how about the texts that instructors require that THEY have authored. Really sucks.
Post a Comment