College Books (rant)

[Nick B.]

Well this is the last week of the semester for me and I went to sell my books back to them. I feel like those Pokerstars players who took that deal and as somebody said paid $500 to take such a bad deal. I know I am going to get hosed, but how hard this time. So I returned my first two and got $84 for the two of them. These were probably two good deals as I spent over $400 for 4 books, and knowing what I normally get back. Next was my Corporate Taxation 2004 book that was bought brand new for $120. Of course they are coming out with the 2005 edition, it is currently May of 2004. 1 out of the 3 semesters in the year has passed and they are getting a 2005 edition! These textbook prices are ridiculous in the first place and then to keep getting new editions like this. I can't wait to get boned when I return the rest of my books. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it except rant. Oh, and my college tuition is going up $1000/year for the 3rd straight year. And paying $4000/year for a mealplan that I use maybe twice a week because the food is the same, day after day after day. I know there are other college students out there with the same rants, so let it out.

[Oski]

E-Bay.

[Chris Daddy Cool]

Call me a nerd but I just collect my school books, unless I really hated the class.

Also, if the book that you're selling back is going to be used the next quarter, sell it to a fellow student who's going to take the class next quarter. You'll make more money and he'll spend less money. Win. Win.

[Ed Miller]

Buy used/borrow books for classes instead of buying them all new. I figured this out sophomore year and cut my book-buying costs probably by 75%.

You need that money for beer.

Mealplans are a total crock, though. Thank god we didn't have one. Frankly, I'm surprised mandatory mealplans are legal... has someone challenged them in court?

[jdl22]

I'm going to shift the rant a bit. I'm a grad student in Economics (I just finished my first year). I'm studying Econ because I like game theory and experimental/behavioral economics. I figured that grad school would be better than undergrad because you don't have to take a bunch of stupid required courses that don't interest you, and you get to do research in areas that do. HA! The first year it's the opposite. You have to take a bunch of stupid classes none of which you like. Going all the way back to kindergarten (I'm currently in what I like to call 18th grade) I'd never had a semester where I disliked each and every one of my classes. I just finished the second consecutive such term.

Not only that, but the system is not setup for people that will do good research to make it past the first year. The first year it's all about getting past the comprehensive exams. One of the "best" students we have has admitted that she doesn't understand what's going on she just memorizes everything. Isn't that fantastic! Surely she will do Nobel prize winning research with that approach. What makes it worse is that it's an Econ department and economists are bloody obsessed with the idea of incentives and how they affect people.

Seriously if it wasn't +EV to be a grad student (what with the million dollar stipend we get) and I didn't have so much free time to play poker I would move on. Considering it anyway.

[paland]

[ QUOTE ]
1 out of the 3 semesters in the year has passed and they are getting a 2005 edition!

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm. Maybe I'm just being picky, but if there are 3 in a year, isn't it then called a trimester? If there are 2 then it's a semister. Unless the colleges have changed the definitions yet again.

[jdl22]

The wording is confusing in both cases because there is always a summer term that almost nobody goes to. That adds either a third term with semester scheduling or a fourth for the trimester folks. I have heard them referred to as quarters in the case of three terms everybody attend plus the summer, but don't recall hearing trimester system refer to fall and spring terms plus the summer.

[J.A.Sucker]

Dude, if you're that bitter in your first year at grad school, then you'll never make it (assuming that you're going for a PhD). Everyone goes through trying times in grad school (that's what it's all about) but it's a rewarding experience that makes you stronger. If you are doing a PhD, it doesn't really matter what you get in your classes; just survive them and learn what you feel might be useful. You said so yourself; if you are generating top-notch research, people aren't gonna give half a rat's ass what you got in your first-year classes. Conversely, if you get worked up about doing boring classes, then how are you going to react to doing research when you've been working on the same problem for a year and there's nobody who can help you?

In fact, I think a lot of the same characteristics that make a good researcher make a top poker player. Most of these people deal well with adversity (no results, running bad) and realize that things will eventually be better (you'll crack that nut and get the answer, the cards will break even for you) and you can learn a lot about yourself doing both. However, if you get steamed off by some stupid classes, then I think that you should be wary of dropping everything and being a high-stakes poker player. Realize that I make this post as a graduate student (chemistry) who plays high-stakes poker to pay my expenses.

[HDPM]

You are privileged to go to school in America. Those textbooks are necessary and reasonably priced. After all, they are wruitten by professors. Your whining shows that you are unpatriotic and a bad American. You should be ashamed when in Iraq they would kill to use your textbook as toilet paper. Back when I was in college, we thanked heaven everyday that we had the blessing of a textbook.



Oh, sorry. I have had a bad day fighting the establishment. They got into my brain there. The only prices I remember from college are the prices of the cigarette machine at the pool hall. I was bummed when smokes went from 1.25 to 1.50. That was a sad day and I felt violated.