Paying for College

The planning for a college education.

Tuition: $3,000
Meal plans: $1,598
Books: $500

Initial reaction to your bank account statement...priceless

It was difficult to get into college, but it’s harder to stay in college. Reason being? Books.

There are a lot of things that you have to pay before you come to school: tuition, room and board, meal plans, etc. But the one thing that I’ve found to be extremely expensive in college are textbooks.

They are one of the most important things that a student needs (besides caffeine, of course) and they seem to be one of the most difficult things to obtain simply because of their costs.

The first time that I signed up for classes, I registered for 16 credits. I ordered all of my books online and specifically asked for used books. To my surprise when I was ready to pay, the bill added up to $500.

Something that I found quite surprising since in high school, the books were given to us to borrow for the entire year...for free. I don’t think I ever bought a book while in high school and if I ever did, I definitely never spent $500 on them.

So why are college books so expensive?

Well, according to MakeTextbooksAffordable, a Web site that focuses on campaigning to reduce the costs of books, textbook prices are increasing because of the inflation rates in all the finished goods.

Not only that, but the cost of all of those shiny, new edition books we are required to have actually cost 45 percent more than the previously used editions.

So what are we poor college students supposed to do if we don’t want to be broke for the rest of our college careers, work three jobs, and still not have enough money for books or a life?

Well, here are some pointers on where to get books for cheap and how not to be broke because of them.

1. Don’t buy your books before the first day of classes. This is a classic mistake most freshmen make. Because we want to be prepared for the first day of school, we like to buy things ahead of time but sometimes the books are not even required or of much use in the class, so make sure you get to class first and see what the professor says before you go out and spend all of your savings.

2. Bribe your friends for their old textbooks. If you don’t have nice enough friends that will just give you their old textbooks for no cost at all, then usually a nice meal, a 12-pack of beer, and a pack of cigarettes will do. Trust me, that’s still a lot cheaper than buying all of your books on your own.

3. Borrow books for service hours. This is something that not a lot of freshmen know, but you can actually borrow some of your books in exchange for service hours. You can do this by going to the Multicultural Affairs office, located above the Breezeway on the Boca Raton campus.

4. If all else fails and you must buy the book, then seek out the used and oldest version of the book that you can get away with. It will be cheaper and even though it might be a little different from the newest version, usually the difference is minimal and you can still pretty much figure out the context of what you’re reading.

5.If that’s still too expensive and goes over your budget, then you can always go online to Web sites like Amazon or even eBay, sometimes they’re a lot cheaper than buying them at the bookstore and they are delivered to you, so you don’t even have to move a finger...well, except to click on it.