Attending a college or a university is truly an exciting experience. As students begin to excel academically, just one particular roadblock appears out of nowhere. That roadblock is purchasing textbooks. As a college student, I perfectly understand the importance of purchasing textbooks, but purchasing textbooks is a financial burden for the students and parents.
Textbook prices range throughout the financial spectrum with, if you are lucky, $100 to $400 dollars for one textbook. Paying $400 for one textbook is just absurd — sometimes that is not even for a new edition. I am stating this from the prospective of a college student, but let’s get down to the facts. According to an article from USA Today, the price of college textbooks last year rose 82 percent at nearly three times the rate of inflation, and prices are estimated to continue to go up in the 2014-2015 school year. This statistic shows the damaging magnitude of textbook prices that overwhelm college students, which in turn hinder the overall quality of a college education.
Along with this alarming statistic, consumer group U.S. PIRG conducted a survey about students buying textbooks, interviewing 2,000 students across the U.S. The study found that 65 percent of the students said they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive. Nearly half of the students said the cost of books had an impact on how many or which classes they took, and 94 percent of the students who had skipped buying a required book said they were concerned that doing this would hurt their grade in that course. These statistics address the magnitude of this situation and truly show how ludicrous it is to purchase a textbook for a one semester class.
With all this said, there should be a different procedure to evaluate a textbook’s value — a procedure that can benefit students, rather than burn their wallets and checkbooks. Maybe in the future, there can be a system based on checks and balances so students get the best price for their purchases and returns. Obviously, with the technological age, there are alternatives to purchasing books, such as rentals, payment plans and e-textbooks read with a smart device or tablet.
Textbook purchases affect students immensely and the rising prices will eventually hinder them from obtaining an excellent education. Changes should be made to benefit college students. New programs should be implemented that collectively provide greater assistance with buying textbooks, like a buyers incentive program where you buy two books get one free. Until this happens, students have to keep their current textbooks as clean as possible, compare prices with different retailers and research to find the most affordable textbooks.
