I start class on Monday 09/29 and have all my books and am ready to go. The thing I find unusual is that I had to buy my books at the school bookstore, at full price and brand new. This is because my school is getting books published exclusively for them and cannot be found anywhere outside of their campus.
I understand that school bookstores have been suffering a loss due to the internet sales of textbooks. I am also thankful that the new book prices are fairly reasonable for text books. My Algebra book is a mere $100 brand new. I purchased my last math book for $75 used, so this seems like a reasonable price for a new book.
But there is just something about this situation that is bothering me; am I getting as good of material as is found in more common texts? Maybe the info is harder or easier than other college students are getting. I don't know yet because everything is shrink wrapped and was advised to not open the books until the instructor has confirmed that we are going to use this material for the course. If I remove the shrink wrap I cannot return the books for a full refund, but only a partial refund.
I guess I do the best I can with the material I have. I'll check out other text books from the libraries in the area just to confirm that I'm getting good information.
This is frustrating from several standpoints:
1. School is expensive as it is, taking away the option to purchase used texts will cause a lot of students to drop classes due to inability to pay.
2. Financial aid is getting harder to come by.
3. I have to accept the schools buy back program. I don't have the option to use amazon or half.com to resell my books.
I was curious if any other schools are doing this? This is the first term that the school has forced students to buy exclusive texts. My writing class has no text required. I have a feeling that teacher is a maverick that disagrees with this new practice. Writing classes in the past have had required texts.



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