Syllabus week typically entails students eyeing new peers, getting a sense of their professors and being overwhelmed by the total price of their textbook shopping list.

     According to the National Association of College Stores, the average college student spends about $655 on textbooks each year and a single textbook can easily cost as much as $300. Yet in some cases, all this money does not get put to good use.

     Consider this: in a given semester, a professor might cover 14 chapters, with two hours of reading and work associated with each chapter. That’s approximately 28 hours per semester using the textbook. In these conditions, if a student pays $300, it would cost $11 per hour of work. If a student pays $100, it is $4 per hour of work.

     Yet if the professor doesn’t use the textbook, a student is essentially paying full price for nothing.

     The textbook coinciding with a particular class has a wealth of useful information related to the subject material that might be helpful in the future. Yet if professors don’t use their “required text” it is not beneficial for a student’s GPA which seems to be the college standard in success.

     In essence, time is money. A textbook doesn’t have worth unless time is spent using it, yet students are required to spend their savings on them, even if they may not be used.

     Despite Oswego State’s “Dare to Compare” textbook service or deals found on Amazon or Chegg, students still spend money on something that is not worth any of their time.

     To the average college student, money is like a mythical creature. People talk about it a lot but it is rarely ever seen.

     Paired with the cost of tuition, transportation, room and board as well as additional costs, college students spend about $22,763 on their four-year degree, excluding the cost of books and supplies, according to College Board.

     Depending on the major or what classes a student takes the cost of textbooks can vary, yet it shouldn’t matter the major or what professor is teaching the class, people attend college for the same main reason; to be educated.

     A student’s financial circumstance should not be a factor in weather or not they can have the knownledge a “required” textbook provides them with or not.

     Students already pay for a college education with their life savings and loans. Having to pay for textbooks that some professors who don’t even use is wasting money that could be going toward students’ overall education and to improve their college experience.