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Textbook Prices Just Add to the Wealth Insecurity of Students Trying to Chase Their Dreams
And those prices? They’re INSANE.
Have you taken a gander at any textbook prices lately? Let me prepare you: they’re not pretty numbers. Or even digestible ones. That textbook you’ll be using as a door-stopper someday may cost you well over a hundred dollars in the here-and-now. You may go into higher ed thinking that you just need the degree for better opportunities, but textbooks are the hidden cost nightmare for many students.
Full-disclosure: I’ve worked at a college campus bookstore. I know the prices are ridiculous. I even bought some of my textbooks through the bookstore (though, yes, of course, they’re cheaper online — if you can find them, given that some colleges and universities have specific editions and packets made for their class offerings). One good thing was that the ten-percent discount I received as an employee helped take care of the taxes on my book costs that numbered in the hundreds of dollars.
Often, I found myself going through a script of most-frequently-asked questions from prospective students. Semester to semester, these inquiries all came around like clockwork — and often rattled off by the same flustered students who had no idea about the world of higher ed textbooks.
