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blkplaguelmc
Joined: May 13 2009
Location: lowell, ma
Posts: 289
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So ridiculous, not only do you put yourself in debt just to attend classes but if you can't cough up 100 dollars a text book then your shit out of luck in taking that class. For some reason on my schools website it says 65 bucks for the book I need, when I get there it's over 100(and thats used). Fucking highway robbery. I wish there was a torrent for the book.
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Deadmau_5pra
Title: Amatuer film/podcaster
Joined: Feb 10 2009
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 1126
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| blkplaguelmc wrote: |
| So ridiculous, not only do you put yourself in debt just to attend classes but if you can't cough up 100 dollars a text book then your shit out of luck in taking that class. For some reason on my schools website it says 65 bucks for the book I need, when I get there it's over 100(and thats used). Fucking highway robbery. I wish there was a torrent for the book. |
Try Amazon or your local Flea Market.
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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I don't even buy books until classes start! I once bought a chemistry book for about $150, but I never read it except for like a few times for the first test. I never read it again for the next three tests, and I did fine.
Oh, and I made an A in the class. And I still haven't sold my book back because the bookstore will only give me, like, $10. BASTARDS!!!
I hate book prices, too. College in general feels like a scam at times.
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Thorton02
Joined: Mar 13 2009
Location: Arlington
Posts: 467
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The worst is when a new addition comes out so you can't buy a used copy. Usually a new addition is the exact same version of the previous copy only now it has 2 more case study questions at the end of a chaprter, updates to the cd-rom(fucking useless) and they add a few extra pictures so the page numbers are different than last year. If you're a really cheap bastard, you can almost always get away with using an older version of the text.
College bookstores are for shit though. It's like buying computer hardware at Best Buy.
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No, I don't think I will fuck Stummies. |
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blkplaguelmc
Joined: May 13 2009
Location: lowell, ma
Posts: 289
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| Dii Infer wrote: |
I don't even buy books until classes start! I once bought a chemistry book for about $150, but I never read it except for like a few times for the first test. I never read it again for the next three tests, and I did fine.
Oh, and I made an A in the class. And I still haven't sold my book back because the bookstore will only give me, like, $10. BASTARDS!!!
I hate book prices, too. College in general feels like a scam at times. |
It's absolutely a fucking scam, and your absolutely right. Most of the time you don't even need the book to do well in the class. Unfortunately this is the 1 class I will need the book for, since the first assignment is to read the chapter 1.
College to me is like our currency, it's not real but we need it. Who's to say that someone like me or you couldn't sit in classes at a college without paying them a dime and just pay attention and do the work. But no, you pay them money to get a piece of paper that says your smart. It's like you need a to be an A+ student or at the least upper middle class to even be able to attend college without struggling. Well i'm neither of those.
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LowEndLem
Title: Not Gay
Joined: Mar 19 2009
Location: Illinois
Posts: 966
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I bought a brand new english book for fall semester, $99.
I got %7 for it. I sat there and yelled at the teacher who bought it back, who incidentally was my english teacher.
That was fun.
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<docinsano>i beat off using save states
<Tako> But, brontosaurs ate plants. It wouldn't be a threat to Jesus.
Why? Fuck you, that's why. |
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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| blkplaguelmc wrote: |
| Dii Infer wrote: |
I don't even buy books until classes start! I once bought a chemistry book for about $150, but I never read it except for like a few times for the first test. I never read it again for the next three tests, and I did fine.
Oh, and I made an A in the class. And I still haven't sold my book back because the bookstore will only give me, like, $10. BASTARDS!!!
I hate book prices, too. College in general feels like a scam at times. |
It's absolutely a fucking scam, and your absolutely right. Most of the time you don't even need the book to do well in the class. Unfortunately this is the 1 class I will need the book for, since the first assignment is to read the chapter 1.
College to me is like our currency, it's not real but we need it. Who's to say that someone like me or you couldn't sit in classes at a college without paying them a dime and just pay attention and do the work. But no, you pay them money to get a piece of paper that says your smart. It's like you need a to be an A+ student or at the least upper middle class to even be able to attend college without struggling. Well i'm neither of those. |
People say college is a place for people to learn, but that's omega-level bullshit. I'm going to college to acquire skills and credentials to become a mechanical engineer technologist, which isn't what I consider the same thing as merely learning. However, the college requires 30 hours worth of core curriculum. Do I really need to take two sessions of history or political science in order to become an engineer? At my school, yes. They justify it by saying it helps us become productive people. I work hard, try to do the right things in life, and I even donate time for volunteer work. I don't need to spend thousands of dollars on core curriculum in order to become a fucking productive person in life, dammit!
Probably about 5% of registered students at my college are there for merely learning, but those are usually the people who already graduated college. One guy I know has multiple degrees and is a computer programming expert, but he wanted to learn some music theory at his college. If I wanted to JUST learn, I'd read a book that costed less than $700.
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Optimist With Doubts
Title: Titlating
Joined: Dec 17 2007
Posts: 5042
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I'm going to college to learn
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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| Optimist With Doubts wrote: |
| I'm going to college to learn |
Well, I wish you luck on that.
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blkplaguelmc
Joined: May 13 2009
Location: lowell, ma
Posts: 289
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| Dii Infer wrote: |
| blkplaguelmc wrote: |
| Dii Infer wrote: |
I don't even buy books until classes start! I once bought a chemistry book for about $150, but I never read it except for like a few times for the first test. I never read it again for the next three tests, and I did fine.
Oh, and I made an A in the class. And I still haven't sold my book back because the bookstore will only give me, like, $10. BASTARDS!!!
I hate book prices, too. College in general feels like a scam at times. |
It's absolutely a fucking scam, and your absolutely right. Most of the time you don't even need the book to do well in the class. Unfortunately this is the 1 class I will need the book for, since the first assignment is to read the chapter 1.
College to me is like our currency, it's not real but we need it. Who's to say that someone like me or you couldn't sit in classes at a college without paying them a dime and just pay attention and do the work. But no, you pay them money to get a piece of paper that says your smart. It's like you need a to be an A+ student or at the least upper middle class to even be able to attend college without struggling. Well i'm neither of those. |
People say college is a place for people to learn, but that's omega-level bullshit. I'm going to college to acquire skills and credentials to become a mechanical engineer technologist, which isn't what I consider the same thing as merely learning. However, the college requires 30 hours worth of core curriculum. Do I really need to take two sessions of history or political science in order to become an engineer? At my school, yes. They justify it by saying it helps us become productive people. I work hard, try to do the right things in life, and I even donate time for volunteer work. I don't need to spend thousands of dollars on core curriculum in order to become a fucking productive person in life, dammit!
Probably about 5% of registered students at my college are there for merely learning, but those are usually the people who already graduated college. One guy I know has multiple degrees and is a computer programming expert, but he wanted to learn some music theory at his college. If I wanted to JUST learn, I'd read a book that costed less than $700. |
Yea i'd say it's pretty near impossible to pay for college n your own if your just a normal kid out of highschool. Thats wrong, it's like they reserve the shittiest or most back breaking jobs for these kids and in my city I see it a lot. If people want to learn then they should be able to continue their education that was free to begin with. I'd say that there are millions of kids that want to go to college that can't and yea maybe if they killed themselves working and saving they eventually could but why should one have to work that hard just to put the money into more work. It's a fucking endless pit.
Well, off to class.
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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In summary, life is unfair. 
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SoldierHawk
Moderator
Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 6113
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| Dii Infer wrote: |
People say college is a place for people to learn, but that's omega-level bullshit. I'm going to college to acquire skills and credentials to become a mechanical engineer technologist, which isn't what I consider the same thing as merely learning. However, the college requires 30 hours worth of core curriculum. Do I really need to take two sessions of history or political science in order to become an engineer? At my school, yes. They justify it by saying it helps us become productive people. I work hard, try to do the right things in life, and I even donate time for volunteer work. I don't need to spend thousands of dollars on core curriculum in order to become a fucking productive person in life, dammit!
Probably about 5% of registered students at my college are there for merely learning, but those are usually the people who already graduated college. One guy I know has multiple degrees and is a computer programming expert, but he wanted to learn some music theory at his college. If I wanted to JUST learn, I'd read a book that costed less than $700. |
I completely agree. I felt the same way about taking four (count 'em) math classes as an English major. God damn I hated that.
In my case, since I want to be a teacher, there's really no alternative to college. For someone who wants to work in computers though, or with cars, or do an actual hands-on job, I really think we need to get back to the guild/trade school/apprenticeship model that most of the world had before higher education took over. That's not to say get rid of college, but college (fuck, even HIGH SCHOOL) isn't for everyone. Someone should be able to become a perfectly capable and reputable plumber, say, or construction worker, without having to go through four years of bullshit just to get a piece of paper that says "I'm a well rounded individual" or whatever.
Fuck, even teachers could get in on the apprenticeship model. I bet I'd learn a fuck of a lot more about working in a classroom by, I dunno, WORKING IN A CLASSROOM, with a teacher who knows what she's doing, than I am by two fucking years of sitting in a chair, writing papers about educational theory and pontificating about how students learn. God. 
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| William Shakespeare wrote: |
| Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. |
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TheRoboSleuth
Title: Sleuth Mark IV
Joined: Aug 08 2006
Location: The Gritty Future
Posts: 2739
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1.They're an effective way to get cash for a college. You gotta buy them, so why not charge equal to demand.
2.It costs serious cash to get professors to sit down and write these things. They're boring and don't advance you in academic circles, which is a huge detriment.
3.For certain books like art books, you have to pay licensing to every museum that owns that work.
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Ross Rifle
Title: Rock N Roll God
Joined: Oct 29 2006
Location: Chilliwack, BC
Posts: 4844
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| Quote: |
| 3.For certain books like art books, you have to pay licensing to every museum that owns that work. |
That explains why I paid 250 god-damn dollars for the TWELFTH edition of Art Through The Ages! God damn.
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SoldierHawk
Moderator
Title: Warrior-Poet
Joined: Jan 15 2009
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 6113
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually envy Ted Turner in some ways. Lucky rich man didn't even finish college!
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ReeperTheSeeker
Joined: Aug 26 2007
Posts: 2752
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As some one who has been going to college for a while, i know the safe and honest answer to this:
In a demonic voice:
BECAUSE MANKIND IS GREED AND MUST CONSUME YOUR FLESH AND SINCE YOU WILL NOT GIVE UP YOUR FLESH THEN YOUR MONEY WILL DO!!!!!!!!
Seriously i had a $30 book and the bastard at the book store would only give 2 bucks for it. I'd rather hang on to my books then not even get half of what i paid for the damn things. And a good % of your books, you will never uses again. Hell even some used books cost more then their worth.
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blkplaguelmc
Joined: May 13 2009
Location: lowell, ma
Posts: 289
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| ReeperTheSeeker wrote: |
As some one who has been going to college for a while, i know the safe and honest answer to this:
In a demonic voice:
BECAUSE MANKIND IS GREED AND MUST CONSUME YOUR FLESH AND SINCE YOU WILL NOT GIVE UP YOUR FLESH THEN YOUR MONEY WILL DO!!!!!!!!
Seriously i had a $30 book and the bastard at the book store would only give 2 bucks for it. I'd rather hang on to my books then not even get half of what i paid for the damn things. And a good % of your books, you will never uses again. Hell even some used books cost more then their worth. |
There you go, you got it right there.
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Dii Infer
Title: Boobie Engineer
Joined: Jun 01 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 653
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If I were you guys, I'd ask close friends/peers in your classes about what classes they plan on taking next semester. If one of their classes happens to be one using one of your books, ask about selling it.
For instance, one time I bought an economics book for over $80, but the bookstore offered $1 because a new edition had just arrived (NOT A FUCKING JOKE). This one girl at my church was taking the same class the next semester, and I offered to sell it for $60. She happily obliged, and it meant a $59 difference for me! 
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Burt Reynolds
Title: Bentley Bear
Joined: Apr 07 2008
Location: California
Posts: 1399
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When I was going to school, I used Amazon constantly. You could usually buy the book there, but if not you can at least buy it at your school and sell it to Amazon and get a decent percent back.
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Dances with Wolves 2 is gonna ROCK! |
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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Publishers must pay the authors for their books. Publishers must pay their employees to make the books. Publishers must pay to produce the books.
Still, some are very highly priced. I personally think they should make all books part of the tuition costs so that financial aid can assist more effectively against their purchase. You should simply show up to school and your books should be ready for you at your dorm. For fuck's sake, it cost enough at college to warrant that type of service.
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