Although students attending
Bucks are passing on the costly
tuition prices by staying home
and not attending a four-year university,
the price of the books still
remains the same.
Some students may only be
purchasing one book per class,
others are forced to buy multiple
books for every class they have.
This can leave students buying
over 20 books per year (two
semesters) in many cases.
Furthermore, used textbooks
that were originally sold with
CD-ROMs are not resold with the
CDs, forcing students to have to
purchase the new version of the
book in order to have access to
the CD.
While some students and parents
would like to point their fingers
at Bucks for the price of the
books, Willy Coleman, director
of the Bucks bookstore, urges
people to understand that the college
has little say.
“Everyone agrees that the
prices are high, they’re high at
every college, but the prices are
not set by the college, they are set
by the publisher,” said Coleman.
“The CDs are not sold at the publisher’s
request. You could go
online and purchase the access
codes but at the point it would
almost be cheaper and more convenient
to pay full price.”
The prices of the books are relatively
the same at most colleges
and universities, said Coleman.
Chris Puzo, current Penn State
student and Bucks alumni confirmed
this. “The prices at Penn
State were slightly higher than or used,” said Puzo. “I rely on
websites and libraries for the
books that are really expensive or
that I can’t find used copies for.”
The fact that students are purchasing
books that they hardly use
is another factor that has them on
edge.
“It annoys me that I pay for
books that I hardly use all semester
and when I go to sell them
back to the school I don’t get the
money that I spent back,” said
Alyssa Rapoport, 19, of Newtown.
For example, if a student purchases
a new book for $170 she
may receive about $100 of that
back when it is time to sell the
book at the end of the semester.
“We can’t control how much the
professors actually use the textbooks
of course, we only sell the
books the professors request us
to,” said Coleman.
As many students know, books
can be purchased online from various
websites. There are even sites
that they can rent books from and
return them upon completion of
the semester.
One solution to beating the high
prices is a scholarship that Bucks
offers.
This book scholarship is for
students who demonstrate financial
need. There is an essay that
students have to submit describing
how the bookstore fits into their
educational experience and how it
would aid
their pursuit
of a higher
e d u c a t i o n
degree.
S t u –
dents must
have a minimum
of six
credits and
should be
returning for
the following
fall or
spring semester
and
also enroll
in at least six credits. They will receive
from $100 to $250 to help
pay for the books.