So, you’ve paid for your classes.
You’ve turned in the twelve-or-so thousand dollars that will allow you to legally attend the fall semester. You’ve felt, hopefully, a weight lift off your shoulders with the press of that final button marked “pay.” However, you may have also felt a looming sense of anxiety towards the months of hard work to come.
As many students realize, financial worries don’t stop at your final tuition payment. Course materials, like textbooks and software, catch many students off-guard with unexpectedly high prices.
“The classes already cost so much, so any extra expense feels like a kick in the pants,” environmental geography sophomore Wyatt Radosevich said.
While average spending on course materials has declined over the past decade, the Educational Data Initiative reported that in 2022 the average textbook costed $105.37. Students at 4-year institutions spent an average of $1,226 on textbooks for the 2020-2021 school year.
The high cost of course materials has left many students with no choice but to get crafty. Here are some ways students have avoided paying extra for their education.
Libraries
The MSU library makes a point of purchasing several copies of textbooks assigned in courses with high undergraduate enrollment, as part of the Affordable Textbook Program. Those materials are held in its course reserves.
“Providing free and low-cost learning materials to students helps remove certain barriers to education concerning affordability and accessibility that may limit or otherwise impact their college experience,” MSU library communications manager Elise Jajuga said. “It’s the reason that our primary collection priority is to purchase materials used for classes if possible.”
Students can also access online publications and research materials for free here. The MSU library spends around $17.5 million dollars a year on subscriptions to scholarly journals, electronic newspapers, magazines, databases, e-books, streaming video and other resources.
A more contemporary choice of books can be found less than a mile away, at the East Lansing Public Library. Free membership is available to anyone with an address within East Lansing city limits, including students living on campus. A library card also gives members access to the online platform Hoopla, which holds a large collection of ebooks.
Second-hand stores
Student Book Store, located on Grand River Ave, sells used textbooks at lower prices than most.
Students can visit its website, sbsmsu.com, to see whether the store holds the textbooks they seek. Patrons can sell their old textbooks to the store as well.
A more niche collection of used and antique books can be found a block away, at Curious Book Store. The store has been serving the East Lansing community since 1969.
Associated Students of MSU
It’s not unusual for professors to have students contribute to the cost of learning platforms they decide to use in their classes.
Last spring, an instructor made Radosevich’s class pay for an online program that does attendance and collects student responses. Radosevich said he was frustrated that the professor didn’t try to find a cheaper option.
The most common of these platforms is iClicker, an interactive system that allows students to participate in polls and answer questions during class. While the platform can be accessed through a free app, some professors prefer students buy a physical iClicker remote instead.
Brandi Stover, public relations manager for the Associated Students of Michigan State University, said tax-paying students can instead rent iClicker remotes and graphing calculators from ASMSU for semester-long periods, free of charge.
Students can also access several news outlets through ASMSU’s readership program, including the New York Times and USA Today.
“A lot of communications classes and a lot of political science classes will require you to be able to look up recent articles, and it’s not fair that students need to do the free trial or pay or anything like that,” Stover said.
Directions to access these resources can be found at asmsu.msu.edu.
