This Fall, Troy University introduced The Trojan Book Bag program. For an extra $21 per credit hour, students can have their rented textbooks available to them before classes begin.
You are instantly enrolled in this program. If you feel this program is not right for you, you can opt out starting 30 days before class and until the last add/drop day.
The fact that students must opt-out instead of opt-in feels questionably predatory, especially for freshman who may not know that they can easily get many books cheaper second-hand or that many professors end up never using the books they assigned.
Troy University did send an email to notify students when those 30 days were starting, but the email did not include the link to opt-out or any information about opting-out.
I am taking 15 credit hours. Trojan Book Bag would charge me $315.
The Troy University website claims that most students save 30% to 50% on books.
Even if I needed all my required materials and went through the bookstore to rent them, my cost would only be $177 this semester. The Trojan Book Bag would be charging me almost twice as much as their own prices – and I wouldn’t be able to resell since I would still be renting.
In reality, after speaking with one of my professors and discovering I wouldn’t need their book, I was able to source all the rest of my books second-hand for under $70. After this semester, I will likely be able to resell at least some of them, or at least give them to an underclassman with the same major.
I just don’t see how this would save the majority of students money. Even as a freshman in all general education courses, I never spent more than $100 on books. This is slightly concerning when thinking about how freshmen are at the most danger of being taken advantage of and at the most danger of forgetting to opt-out.
Moving to college is a big transition, and freshman have a million other things on their mind. They might not know how to search for their materials in other places than just the university bookstore.
The Troy.today article announcing the Trojan Book Bag made this example as to why the program is beneficial:
“The retail price of the textbook for General Chemistry is $278.56 for a four-credit hour course. Under the Trojan Book Bag program, the cost to the student would be $84, saving the student $194.56, approximately 70 percent.”
I put the course code for general chemistry (CHM-1142) into Troy University’s Barnes and Nobles website, and the result was similar – the three materials for the class roughly add up to that much.
However, on The Troy Students Facebook page, I found “Chemistry” The Central Science” for sale for prices ranging from $20-$40. I found “Modified Mastering Chemistry with Pearson eText” on amazon for less than $30, whereas Barnes and Nobles sells it for $106.
The third course material is an activation code for $53 that I could not find anywhere else. Second-hand, these materials could add up to $123, and you could keep two of the materials. Trojan Book Bag would charge $84 to rent.
So, if you were just taking General Chemistry, you might save a few dollars. However, you can’t opt out of specific classes, so if this is the only class you have with expensive materials, you could still end up losing money – in fact, you lose money if you have even one class that doesn’t require a textbook. You’re paying a lot for the convenience of not searching for cheaper materials.
I know that’s a lot of numbers, but the argument I am making is that for most people, this will only save you money if you have an expensive major, and you are buying everything directly from Troy University’s Barnes and Nobles bookstore.
Of course, I am happy this program is there for the people to whom it would be financially beneficial.
But I simply do not believe that this program is helping the majority of students, and for that reason, again, the program should be opt-out and not opt-in. To me, it almost feels like the university is hoping that students forget to opt-out until it is too late.
At the very least, I would like to encourage my fellow students to be diligent about how you buy your textbooks. Facebook has student and community specific pages for selling used items, Thrift Books is a great online resource, and many older students with your major are willing to sell their textbooks for reduced rates. You would be surprised how much money you could save with less than ten minutes of internet searching.
Do your own research and math before deciding, and if it’s not for you, please remember to opt out here: https://complete-optinout.bncollege.com/app/opt-in
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