The average cost of one textbook today is around $105.37 dollars and 11% of those students skipped means in order to buy their books (Hanson, 2022, p.1). As you know, textbooks are one of the very few college costs that you can skimp on. They are an expensive requirement for most classes at Ohio State where 40% of the incoming freshmen are already receiving financial aid. Ohio State has estimated that incoming freshmen will spend $1,030 on textbooks, supplies, and equipment (Student Financial Aid, n.d). Students must pay out of pocket for these books or take out loans to afford their supplies.
Student Financial Aid costs for incoming freshman
Our OSU students are already having trouble affording their tuition and fees, but the addition of expensive textbooks means that they have to take extra time to find a supplement to the books. To acquire textbooks 25% of students are working longer hours which diminishes the amount of time spent on their school work (Hanson, 2022, p.1). Other students either find their textbooks online or do not bother buying the books. However, students are running into the problem where some classes integrate the entire course with the textbook. For our incoming freshmen, the high book prices and their little understanding of Ohio State creates more challenges compared to the upperclassmen.
“They often characterized their constant worry as “unfair” when comparing their situation to students of more means.” – Sage Open Medical Study
In addition to the financial strain put on OSU students by increasing textbook prices, there has also been a negative effect on overall grades as a result of a failure to access the required material. A PIRG survey conducted in 2014 stated that around 94% of students surveyed were concerned that their grades would be severely impacted by them skipping a textbook purchase. A prior study made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation discovered that close to 60% of students had claimed “that books and other fees pose a significant burden” (Halliday, 2019). A lot of students have been in this position where they are stressing over grades and not having access to the textbook for extra practice problems or explanations just makes it worse.
Taken from Ohio State Autumn 2023 Enrollment Report
It is clear that all students do in fact feel that their mental state is negatively impacted by their inability to access useful textbooks and this suggests a substantial correlation between book ownership and academic stress levels. With 45,728 undergraduate students here at OSU, those who do not buy the textbooks are at a direct disadvantage and shouldn’t be punished because their books were too expensive.