Student Stories
What's your experience with textbook costs? How has buying textbooks impacted you?
- It was incredibly expensive even with scholarships. (Junior, History/Anthropology)
- Crazy expensive for all my classes (Junior, Exercise Science)
- The cost of textbooks far outweighs the actual use and value gained for classes needed. In some cases the material purchased is barely used at all. (Freshman, Plant & Soil Science)
- I wasn’t financially prepared. I have to get two jobs just to pay for the books. (Junior, Supply Chain)
- Horrible, I was in shock that I had to spend $260 on online textbooks where I don’t even have the book! It was literally just a 4 month access that I got and that’s it. At least give me a physical copy or the book or something similar so I can at least say I got something. (Freshman, Construction Management)
- My books this semester cost about $300 - $350. I could have used that money for gas, groceries, and savings. (Senior, Anthropology)
- It’s the 21st century. Every textbook should be available as a pdf for less money then the 100 dollar printings. (Freshman, Audio Production)
- Sometimes I have to prioritize textbooks over groceries. (Sophomore, Biology/Anthropology)
- It made it really hard because I pay for everything myself and having to spend an extra almost $500 on books makes it so much more difficult. (Freshman, Biochemistry)
- They are so expensive. If I bought my books brand new, they would have been almost $400. I could have spent that money on so many things, especially because I’m not working. So it is a lot of money I spent! (Sophomore, Nursing)
- Too much. It made me broke (Sophomore, Entrepreneurship)
- Textbooks were easily a couple hundred dollars on top of my tuition. Scouting out cheaper options was time consuming and stressful, and sometimes they didn't even work!! With many courses requiring access codes too, you are almost forced to buy new. Overall, 10/10 would NOT recommend. (Freshman, Marketing)
- Personally, textbook buying has been very stressful as some professors do not give clear instructions on where to find certain textbooks or manuals, either that or the books just do not appear anywhere on any website. Alongside this, the steep costs that educational monopolies set make my financial situation very uncertain at any given moment. (Freshman, English/Writing)
