Shop around: Dealing with pricey textbooks

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BY MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

First there’s her major, biochemistry, which generally means piles of pricey textbooks that can cost $100 or more apiece.

Then there’s the CDs and tutorials and lab materials and other extras that often accompany the textbooks.

Then there’s the fact that scientific discovery moves so quickly that texts are continually being revised.

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UNL senior biochemistry major Heather Mitchell paid between $600 and $700 for textbooks for this fall semester. (Gwyneth Roberts)

UNL senior biochemistry major Heather Mitchell paid between $600 and $700 for textbooks for this fall semester. (Gwyneth Roberts)

Did we mention Heather Mitchell pays out-of-state tuition on top of it all?

Paying for college isn’t easy, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior from St. Joseph, Mo., admits.

She knows she’s luckier than many: She has a small scholarship at UNL, and her parents help her out with bills. And as a child, she received birthday money from her grandparents that went straight into a savings account.

But that pot won’t last forever, especially when a single semester’s worth of books can cost the Mitchells anywhere from $300 to $700.

“I’m reaching that point where it’s dwindling,” Mitchell said as she picked up a physiology book that seemed downright cheap at $26.95.

Mitchell, like many college students, has had to find creative ways to save money as the pricetags of textbooks — along with higher education in general — climb ever higher.

Chief among students’ strategies is buying used textbooks whenever possible, which can slash about 25 percent off the price.

Students also search online for books, split the cost of books with friends and borrow or buy from students who have taken a course before them.

Mitchell said she’s diligent about hitting the Nebraska Bookstore, University Bookstore and sites like half.com before buying.

“I always compare prices,” she said.

UNL graduate student Wade Howles, also from St. Joseph, Mo., does his homework, too, looking for used books or going online to save money.

As he perused the University Bookstore shelves recently for graduate studies and music theories texts, Howles, who’s studying saxophone performance, said he expects to pay just $50 to $60 for his books this semester.

That reasonable price tag is thanks in part to his efforts to save money, he said.

Howles’ advice to students: “Do your research. It’s definitely worth it.”

Professors at other universities have been known to write their own textbooks, then put them online so students can access them for free.

UNL biology professor John Janovy isn’t sure that’s the best solution to soaring book prices.

After all, Janovy noted, all students don’t have equal access to the Internet.

“One thing about textbooks is they are very democratic,” he said. “You can carry them around everywhere. They don’t require electricity. They’re really mobile. …

“Once you put stuff online that’s required, you introduce an unevenness into the student population that you might not otherwise have had.”

Janovy understands textbooks are pricey, particularly for areas of study like his.

There’s a reason, he says.

“It takes an enormous amount of effort to write them,” said Janovy, himself the author of a parasitology textbook.

Costs for revisions, illustrations, editing and more add up quickly, he said, pushing the price for many science books into the triple digits.

“This goes on and on and on,” he said.

So Janovy doesn’t mind if students use an old edition of a book to cut costs, or even if a student decides he or she doesn’t need the textbook altogether. As long as students learn the course material, Janovy’s happy.

Helping students better manage their money is a top priority for student body president Emily Zimmer, whose administration is launching a financial advising center where students will be able to get one-on-one coaching on crafting a budget, managing debt and spending wisely.

Textbooks are a significant chunk of the overall cost of education, Zimmer said.

“Lots of students have parents who help pay for tuition, and if there’s something that’s going to fall upon the students, it’s textbooks,” she said. “That makes it a real cost. It hits students in a real way.”

Zimmer and student senator Matt Pederson are working with UNL leaders to implement a “textbook adoption” program that would require faculty to alert the University Bookstore by a certain date what books they’ll need for the upcoming semester.

That way, the bookstore would know in advance which books are going to be reused and thus can place a higher “sell-back” value on those books.

Students would get good money for selling those books back to the bookstore, and incoming students would be able to save money by buying the used books, Pederson said — a multi-layered wave of savings.

If the program launches, students should take advantage, Zimmer said.

“We’re doing everything we can to reduce the cost of higher education. … But students need to do what they can to be proactive.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.