When Rachael Wheatley first stepped onto the bright campus of Stevenson University, she had one goal in mind: continuing her education to help others.
As a nursing major, she was made aware that nursing is a bit more costly than other majors and was prepared to pay the cost.
However, going into her third year of nursing school, she was abruptly shocked with one specific cost that doubled from her last two years spent here — textbooks.
“I think my biggest annoyance would be the fact that there was no forewarning,” Wheatley said.
Paying for college is no small feat. Students have to navigate the financial strain of finding scholarships, recruiting family members for help, and taking out student loans just to be able to obtain a degree.
For a private school like Stevenson University, tuition is expensive. Unless they have scholarships, grants or other assistance, students pay a grand total of over $56,000 annually to attend, and that’s JUST including basic fees. Students are constantly ill-prepared for the hidden fees required for when you enroll on campus.
College textbooks are among the most crucial fees not fully expanded upon when choosing a University to attend.
According to Stevenson’s own website, the average cost of books, course materials, supplies and equipment altogether is about $1,260 annually.
However, this is just a general estimate. It does not consider major requirements or specific course requirements.
Wheatley explained that nursing majors are given a talk at the end of their sophomore year about the upcoming expenses junior year would have in store for them.
The point of this talk is to help students start preparing for the future costs of the program. What this talk does not cover is textbooks.
Wheatley was unpleasantly surprised when she had to pay upwards of $1,000 in textbooks for her fall semester of junior year alone.
“It was shocking. And they haven’t talked about textbooks at all with next semester and what that’s going to look like. So, it’s just like uncharted territories until you get there,” Wheatley said.
This is not to say there aren’t cheaper alternatives to buying textbooks. Some Stevenson courses use material students can buy online at a discounted price.
RedShelf, an online college textbook source connected to Stevenson’s Inclusive Access program, acts as a cheaper alternative.
With IA, students are automatically opted in for the online version of the textbook needed for specific courses at a discounted price.
Students can choose to opt out of this option for various reasons, but if you choose to keep the book, your student account would be charged with the fee.
The downside of this option is that it is only available for certain courses. So even if this is a cheaper alternative, it is not included with all the textbooks needed in every class.
The second downside is that, again, it is still on the pricey side despite the discount, normally ranging from $40-$60.
One of the most frustrating things about paying that much money for a textbook is how little they end up being used in the required class. A Stevenson alumnus, Makaila Henderson, had this exact same issue as a student here.
“I didn’t have many books that were super necessary as an underclassman, but they were still on the list from professors.” Henderson wrote.
A lot of Stevenson professors require texts that are not necessary to pass the class. This problem generally affects only underclassmen, who are more susceptible to the pressure of buying all of the “required” text for fear of missing out on crucial information.
The upside of Makaila’s major, theater and media performance, is that this specific major did not require a lot of textbooks to be purchased.
The requirement for her mostly consisted of purchasing plays, which are on the cheaper side, or purchasing a book necessary for the betterment of her career, so she didn’t mind paying the costs.
The same cannot be said for other arts majors. Nyvia Bell, a second-year fashion design major, expressed how she was not prepared at all for the cost of textbooks coming into her major.
“My main complaint is there’s no warning or notice to how many textbooks are needed, which ones, and how much they are when we choose our major. If this was done it would be a lot easier to save up for money over the summer or even winter.” Nyvia wrote.
She has even thought about pirating books online as a last resort to saving money, a fallback plan for many Stevenson students unprepared for the cost their major requires.
Stevenson is a campus that strives to make successful students and has done an excellent job of that. The downside of that comes with a hefty price load, one that the students they host are not all ready for.
Stevenson students should be made aware of exactly what they are going to be purchasing, and that means getting specific about major requirements.
College is expensive, and it is up to the school we are paying for to provide full transparency on what is needed to have a full education here.
“I’m fortunate enough to have been able to have my family cover the cost of those textbooks. I know that’s not a luxury everyone has and a privilege everyone has. So, it really frustrates me knowing that it sort of was a cost that was just thrown at a lot of people”. Wheatley said.
