When they were starting, I wrote a bunch of textbook descriptions for Chegg on Mechanical Turk during conference calls for 50c each based on the titles alone. They had little to do with the contents but the person managing MT apparently didn’t log in and they all auto-approved after two weeks.
I don’t grok this. You had college classes that didn’t have assigned reading?
I had a lot of classes like that. The professor comes in and teaches you the things you need to know, then assigns the homework you need to work on using a handout. The book is only there as a reference in case you need further help beyond his/her lectures.
I’ll vouch by proxy for the book rental option. I’ve never personally done it but know lots of others who have successfully. While it’s true you could theoretically save more money by buying a book new and reselling it later, that has a lot of variables and hassles involved (like, a new edition comes out and obsoletes the old, and there are always new editions coming out). Plus, I think this scenario is factored into rental pricing to make it more appealing.
Alternately, your son can try checking them out from the university library. Most universities have agreements with others that allow you to request books from others included in the agreement (e.g., since people have mentioned Ohio, all public universities in Ohio do this, so if you go to Ohio State and want a book that’s no longer available there, you can request it from, say, Miami University and they’ll ship it to an Ohio State library). It’s like inter-library loan, but much faster and efficient. This is probably dicey for large, general-ed undergrad courses with tons of kids needing the same books, but it saved me from having to spend several hundred dollars buying overpriced monographs from Amazon during grad school. I think it would work fine for graduate school and upper-level undergrad courses with small class sizes (or for most any class if your son goes to an LAC and acts fast).
When I went back to school a few years ago, Chegg was fairly new. But their delivery was fast and returns are easy, books were in good to great condition. I was pretty happy, considering I probably saved $1200 over three semesters.
Was Springer the people doing the subscription for the math materials? Sounds like something they would do.
That seems odd, but I took a lot of humanities courses and they were loaded with reading. I avoided science and math stuff.
SO many. The ones that did have assigned reading were either hand-outs or common novel books.
I’m not sure. The first semester we bought the “access code” for the math materials from Amazon for about $120, which was $30 cheaper than buying it through the university. This semester the class materials all came as an unlock code for $80 via the university, we couldn’t find them anywhere else. The two classes use two different systems I believe.
He did have one professor last semester (I think it was Business Communications) who told the kids on day one NOT to buy the $150 book, but to go to the campus bookstore instead and buy the $25 package of worksheets, reading materials and misc. stuff that the professor herself had assembled, as that was all the stuff they would be covering in class and that the book was a giant waste of money. That lady is now my favorite professor. ;-)
Well, I went to college back when we used typewriters for papers, so things have changed. I wonder if the universities assign less reading now because people read less now?
I think of it more as, the college required people to have textbooks for their class, and the professor’s lesson plan barely would use the book? I went to a private college, so maybe my experience was much different, but 90% of the classes barely used the book other than for references. Calculus used the book a lot, organic chemistry used the book a lot, but outside of the very specific hard sciences, textbooks were pretty rarely used heavily. Most professors had their own homework and quiz questions outside of the books, and any assigned reading wasn’t related directly to that homework.
It was much more important to show up to lectures to get the information you needed to do homework or complete quizzes and exams.
But maybe that is a factor of going to a private school with smaller class sizes.
A lot of it is because students are starting to refuse to buy the textbooks. When I went back to uni 10 years ago, that trend was starting because students knew it was a racket, and grade inflation meant you’d pass pretty much anyways.
My public university experience was the same in 91-96. So I don’t think it’s the private school part.
And I preferred it in most cases. When professors taught from their own notes rather than the text book, in my experience they usually did a better job of actually teaching you the material than reading the textbook did. I took mostly science courses though, so I’m biased towards those. The liberal arts courses I took like Philosophy, etc. didn’t use a text book at all. All the concepts like Utilitarianism, etc. were discussed in class with input from all the students. They were much more interactive courses than the science courses, where knowledge was only flowing from teacher to student.
Surely you had to actually read “Utilitarianism”, though, right? My lower level philosophy courses had tons of books because we were reading that and Republic and Critique of Pure Reason, etc.
Yes, it would seem odd to study a subject that is all about the written works of various philosophers without reading those works. The same with literature classes. I wouldn’t think you’d study Victorian literature without reading Victorian literature. Even history seems like it would be a text book and supplemental books. I remember taking American History in college and reading collections of essays by the likes of Bruce Catton, etc.
I didn’t do much with science and I took college Algebra and then shut the door on math forever. I guess I can see science being lecture, lab, and handouts, but wouldn’t you need a solid reference guide still? I think my Astronomy class was one book plus lectures and that seemed about right, but we still got assigned several hundred pages of reading over the course of the semester.
Thanks to everyone for your input.
The two books I rented just arrived. They were shipped in flimsy padded envelopes (aside: I hate when eBay people sell me a “collectible” book shipped that way). One of the books looks like it was only used once and is in good shape. The other looks beat to crap but is still intact.
Not sure yet what kind of packaging I’ll use to mail them back in a few months, but so far so good.
If you buy stuff from Amazon every so often, save those boxes and packaging material, as it’s likely one or more will be a decent fit for the books and the company won’t care what the box says when you return them.
I have a little stash of Amazon and other boxes and materials in the corner of my basement. My wife jokes that I’m a hoarder in training, but come Christmas gift wrapping time or whenever we have to return something, that stash is a lifesaver. =)
I need this book:
Java How to Program, Early Objects, 11th Edition
However, I am considering an eBook version. (PDF?) Can anyone recommend a reputable site that sells eTextbooks like this?