It’s that lovely time of year again. I know what you all are thinking, so just calm down a few notches. It’s pretty safe to say, that, we all couldn’t be more excited for another 14 week semester.
Another 70, torturously lengthy, and extremely, but fantastically, exhausting days. And to top off this beautiful, new semester happening in our lives, what better way to add to it than ripping a handful of hundreds from your bank account?
What’s better than logging on to your bank app, only to have a couple of tears fall, and a hint of a mental breakdown going on inside your head, looking at the minuscule 20 bucks you have left in your account?
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about books. Purchasing textbooks for these thrilling classes of ours. And, if you’re the lucky clover out of the bunch that isn’t affected by this amazing issue, well then please stop reading and go away. I say that with my whole heart and a smile on my face.
According to CollegeBoard, on average, between just 2018 and 2019, so far, a public four-Year, in-state, and on-campus student is spending a whopping, $1,160.00 on books and supplies, yearly. Now, I understand it’s wholeheartedly our choice to be attending a University, and working towards our degree. But that’s just it. We are working towards our degree. A lot of us are working.
We are full time students. Trying to put ourselves through school, with a part time job on the side. Some of us have internships. Some are juggling sports, and with sports, comes equipment. Some have clubs, and with that comes attending events. How are we getting to school?
Oh, cars. What happens when we have to put hundreds, and thousands of dollars into our beaten down car when it decides to die ten minutes before leaving for class? We have to eat, to survive, right? What happens when we need to go buy ourselves food when we come out of our daily-college-life-mental-breakdown and realize we’ve been starving for the past three and a half hours?
My point is, everything costs money. My point is, a lot of us don’t have a lot of that.
I think it’s sufficient enough to say, we’re all going to be in debt for a while here. Every positive comes with a downside, I get that. We want to leave here with a bachelor’s degree, we’re going to work hard to get that. And with that, comes money. However, I personally don’t think the amount of books is completely necessary for every single credit that we take. To the professors, for the classes that you honestly know our books will collect dust on them, please be upfront, and don’t make our wallets sad. My wallet is too cute to be sad.
Like I said, I understand that sometimes, books are going to be necessary. But nothing is worse than having a lecture course all semester, and not laying a single finger on your book. Or even, researching the lowest prices on a thousand and one sites, adding the “necessary” books to your cart, only to eventually go to check out, and see the astronomical amount you just spent on something so unexciting. And possibly unnecessary. At least, if it was a huge meal from Cheesecake Factory, or a nice new pair of pumps, it would be more logical. I’m kidding…mostly.
PHOTO TAKEN by Nicole Riddle