Avoiding The Sting Of Textbook Pricing
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As if tuition weren't enough, last year students at public colleges forked over $1,168 for textbooks and other course material, up 3% from the year before. It's expected that this fall we'll see another price rise. But, things are changing.
At Barnes & Noble, Spanish for Business and Finance costs $81.34 new, but $19.68 as a rental, a 76% discount. Some publishers are creating online homework supplements to go with textbooks and a growing number of professors are using open-source textbooks, which are free on the Internet.
According to the National Association of College Stores, all of its 3,000 members will have their own rental programs this semester, up from 1500 in 2010. Booksprice.com and 20mm.org will give comparative prices.
Buyer beware: there are fines for excessive highlighting, some time limits to the number of pages you can print and sometimes needing a code to buy.
Read more in The Wall Street Journal, "Avoiding the Sting of Rising Textbook Prices."
