Story by Connor Jaschen, Features Editor
With the semester coming to a close, it is time to start winding down from school.
Take a step back for a second, look at all that was or wasn’t accomplished and ready up for next semester to start it all over again. With any luck, your grades are right where you want them to be and won’t be haunting you for the rest of your collegiate career.
But before you can officially shut down for the semester, you do have some last second business to take care of.
Remember those books you spent hundreds of dollars on? Remember how you were told you would be able to sell those books back to make up for the pretty penny originally spent?
Well, good luck.
Book buybacks are first and foremost a joke.
No, you won’t get that $300 back. No, you won’t get most of it back. Honestly, you’ll be lucky to get a quarter of what you originally paid for the book.
The saddest part about the whole ordeal is the fact that there is a pretty good chance you didn’t even use it.
Personally, the past three semesters, I have had a shelf full of books collecting dust in my room. I do believe it is the most expensive decor I could have possibly bought.
While it does bring a sense of academia to my room and impresses guests with my obvious dedication in furthering my education, it doesn’t justify spending money on expensive textbooks that won’t be used.
Professors don’t use the books they say they do, and it screws students out of more money than many can afford to lose.
That means more loans, every college student’s worst nightmare.
The university needs to push professors to be honest about what they need for their courses, and not push for students to buy books they won’t need. Otherwise, the students will follow the trend of just not bothering to buy books at all, and waiting to see if they even need it.
Cutting off an arm and a leg to buy a book that will just collect dust just isn’t worth it for most classes.
And to top it all off, you get screwed over at the end of the semester when you try and get just a bit of pocket change.
“Oh you opened that book once and never touched it again? Well, since it’s used, that’ll get you a whopping $12.99! Would you like a receipt with that?”
No, I don’t want a receipt with that, cashier lady. I want money. So, unless that receipt is printed on a $100 bill, I don’t want to hear it.
I personally just am not going to buy any books until I know specifically if I need it. If you do the same, and your professor asks why you’re unprepared, just tell them the store was all sold out of that book.
Thats right, Murray State. You make me resort to dishonesty. Shame on you.