MANKATO — For her first semester of classes at Minnesota State University, freshman Jessica Covell spent over $200 on textbooks — and she considered herself lucky.
"I thought it was cheap compared to what friends told me," Covell said. She kept the price down by pre-ordering used books while on campus for freshmen orientation a few weeks ago.
But Covell said a friend waited to buy a biology textbook, found all the used editions had been snatched up and ended up buying a brand new copy. The friend's total textbook bill, Covell said, was closer to $550.
Textbooks can be a huge expense for students, so it is important they learn early on in their college careers to buy used, shop online or seek out deals in other ways.
Kevin Ballard, manager of Maverick Bookstore for about 16 years, said buying used, as Covell did, was the "No. 1" way students can cut textbook costs.
But there is also a larger debate about how to control textbook costs. Ballard is among many who argue publishers unnecessarily push new, costlier products into the market with little concern for the toll it takes on student pocketbooks.
Estimates of student textbook costs go as high as $900 per year. That figure came from a report released last year by the Make Textbooks Affordable Campaign, which drew its figures from a 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office study.
Critics of the report point to other studies that put yearly costs closer to $650. Cheryl Thompson, a premed student at MSU, said her textbook costs fall somewhere between those two estimates, at about $400 per semester, or $800 per year.
Thompson tries to get to the bookstore early and buy as many of her books used as possible, a tactic Ballard would endorse.
"When the students buy used books, it's saving them 25 percent right off the bat," he said.
But Thompson also shops for textbooks online, where she said she has found deep discounts. For example, she saved $50 on a math textbook by purchasing it through Amazon.com instead of a local bookstore.
Automotive engineering major Adam Barber had an even better example of online savings. Barber found online a $45 used copy of "Applied Statistics and Strength of Materials," which was being sold for $120 in a local bookstore.
Thompson suggested using Google to track down the best deals from the various online textbook sellers, which include Half.com and CampusBooks.com in addition to Amazon.com and many others.
When textbook publishers release a new edition of a textbook and a professor adopts that edition for her class, students do not have the option to seek out a used copy.
Ballard of the Maverick Bookstore said publishers exploit students with this practice, often making minute changes for new editions. They then convince professors to make the books required reading and reap the profits when students head to the bookstore.
Larry Pearson, MSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics chair, said most professors try to weigh the educational and financial interests of their students.
Sometimes, the newer, more expensive book is the best way to go. Pearson said the formulas taught in college algebra may not change year to year, but a new textbook may offer a better teaching method. And as the computers and calculators used in math classes change, the books have to keep up, he added.
But Pearson said his department's faculty try to hang on to the same textbook for at least two to four years, when possible.
"In general, our faculty keep in mind student costs," he said.
Pearson used one of his statistics courses as an example. He found a cheap paperback version of a hardcover textbook. It was missing a few chapters included in the more expensive version, but Pearson was not going to teach those chapters, anyway. He saved his students between $30 and $40, he said.
"Instructors try to economize," he said.
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