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I'm not sure what goes into the cost of a textbook but I do know that academic literature has always been and always will be significantly higher than that of fiction. Used textbooks are not necessarily that much cheaper than regular textbooks, and wouldn't be if they are still relevant and professors are still asking for those titles. The whole point of academia is to pay the cost and find creative solutions to problems, not to forgo it because of the costs of entry.

If you play your cards right you can get some of the cost of your textbooks deferred by your financial aid anyway. There were times when I got enough money to cover my costs and had something left over I could pocket. Now looking back on it I would have put that money aside somewhere, because you do have to pay it back, when you are least prepared to but that is another article about the lack of financial responsibility today's students have.

There is a lot of time and money, and research, that goes into creating these textbooks so no the costs are not about to go down any time soon. There are also other resources available to students, not everything is in the textbook and a good professor will use other resources themselves to teach the material anyway, rather than simply rely on the textbooks for everything.

Used textbooks may be the best answer you have; depending on how many classes you are taking we're talking a difference of hundreds of dollars. But if you are only taking a class or two going to school part time you probably will not see that difference. The real issue is if you can find used textbooks to begin with. Private schools often do not want to use the same books everyone else does and so you're stuck with whatever resources you have on campus to find books. You can't go to the used bookstores everyone at the public universities in town go to. The Internet has made some of this a bit easier but that is no real solution either.

The real issue is that you have the means to go to school and get the degree; one thing I have learned about college is that while they do give you the resources to make the best of it, they most certainly are not going to go out of their way to make sure you see it through. When they do you're ill prepared for life in the larger society anyway, and when they don't it gives you the resolve to work that much harder than everyone else, that much "smarter", which always pays off.

Learn more about this author, Christopher Kendalls.
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