Tanner Conley
Staff Writer
“You can lead a kid to college, but you can’t make them learn,” is a quote by philosopher Elbert Hubbard. While an obvious play on the old adage describing a horse that is well hydrated and refuses to continue drinking, this quote is representative of a paradigm of the old guard that simply no longer applies to our generation.
It is in college where we learn to deal with scenarios as adults; like learning how to juggle three research papers and an opinion essay that are due the next morning, how to manage our time by completing math problems at light speed and the true value of attendance points. Not only that, but we learn to budget our money effectively, and the importance of keeping gas in your tank for those late-night Walmart runs. The biggest lesson that every student learns, however, is how quickly the costs of ‘furthering your education’ can stack up.
The University of Wyoming website estimates that Wyoming residents will pay $16,768 for the Fall 2020 – Spring 2021 terms. Non-residents are estimated at $30,508 for the same time frame. In tiny font underneath the infographic are the words “Books, travel, and personal expenses not included is estimates above.” Aside from a typo that one would hope the university would be well aware of by this point in time, this quote places extra emphasis on the distinct lack of added book costs for prospective students. This is with good reason.
The average amount of credit hours for undergraduate students is 15 hours. This balances to roughly five classes per semester with eight semesters constituting the traditional route to a bachelor’s degree. For all you math experts out there, this adds up to 40 classes spread out over four years. In my experience, it is not uncommon to be asked to buy five individual textbooks for a semester, with each class requiring at least one, if not more. Granted, this can change given an individual’s choice of degree, professors and willingness to succeed in the course. Therefore, for 40 classes, you may very well need at least 40 textbooks. It is the cost of these textbooks that are the hidden threat to any budget based around affording tuition.
According to the most recent College Board survey, the average college student spends $1,290 on textbooks. Multiplying that number by four to represent the average number of years it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree leaves you with $5,160. This raises that $16,768 for an in-state undergraduate student to $21,928 with out of state costs increasing to $35,668.
All of a sudden, those low tuition costs do not look so low. Not to mention the aforementioned travel and personal expenses mentioned on the UW website, but those numbers would still rise when considering how “personal expenses” can include rent, gas and food costs.
Now obviously there are ways to work around those ridiculous textbook costs. The use of e-books, textbook sharing, buying used books or not buying the textbook at all if you are feeling particularly dangerous, have all been suggested as potential solutions. However, all of these options, excluding not buying the book, merely saves pennies off of the dollar.
The truth of the matter is that students are being exploited by the textbook industry in a sort of blackmail situation. You either buy the $200 textbook or you fail the course. This goes double for professors who use their position to require textbooks which they wrote and therefore derive profit from. Tuition already pays for their salary, but this action is like adding a gratuity on an online course.
Furthermore, in my experience, classes that require outside textbooks to be purchased generally only end up using them as supplemental texts or for ten-point quizzes worth 20% of the final. To me this seems cheap. If I could have stayed at home and simply read that book to glean the same information that is being lectured to me, then you better believe I would have kept my money and just bought the book. I go to class to hear from an expert who is qualified to guide my thinking about a specific subject. If that professor chooses to pawn me off on some dusty manuscript, I feel cheated.
Without mentioning the numerous risky websites and shady book dealers that you are likely to meet on your path to the lowest cost possible, it is a dangerous time to be a student. In recent years there has been an effort to reduce the total amount that students pay for their textbooks which has been partially successful. It is not enough. We can only hope that all those political promises for the upcoming election do turn out to be more than they have in the past. Until then, we will have to make do.
