Openstax.org

https://openstax.org/details/books/american-government



Free text books, no catch.

Excellent. I've been pissed about textbooks since I went to college. Then, we put 4 kids through private universities. I thought the internet would break the hold unscrupulous professors held over the highway-robbery prices that were/are charged. Any idiot could see it's a scam to pad their retirement. But it wasn't to be.

College Ed has become a complete scam.

Yup.

And virtually worthless...…...

For most everything but STEM...

For most of their majors I agree. However, a person won't be talking to me about a job opening unless they have a degree in something useful.

Then why did you do it four times? Especially private universities?

Because they now all support themselves, comfortably. One's a physician (she paid for med school).

But you're right...I'm just an idiot. 'Hope you feel superior.

is it just a single book for a single semester to get into politics or are there other book offerings?

Lol, just a question....... coming from a guy who wishes he had gone to college.

I've helped both my wife, and son with college, and tuition will be a small fraction of what they will make in their careers. College could be an investment, if done correctly.

Go to top of screen and select others.

thanks, physics would be cool

What used to tick me off when I was in college were the professors that taught from their own textbook and required a specific edition of the book at $50 to $60 a book. Of course it would be the edition they had just released. They would then release a new “edition” in the spring and because a new version was out, the bookstores wouldn’t buy your old book back as a used book because it was not the current release. Had that happen to me a few times before I started selling my books back immediately after the final exam for the class. By the time I was a senior, I had pretty much stopped buying class books until I knew for certain they would be used in the class. I had one too many professors put books on the syllabus and then never use them in class.

Yep, the books are worth $800 at the beginning of the semester, and $150 at the end.

I can’t speak for other universities but at Texas Tech you can get your books free through the library Document Delivery services. Of course not too many people know this and I found out about it a little too late. I’m not sure it works in all cases but I never had an issue getting the books I needed. So if you have kids at TT have them look into Document Delivery in the library, it’s part of their tuition.

A college graduate will earn on average almost twice as much in their career as a high school diploma. Not to mention most high paying jobs, $150k+, require at least a Bachelors degree. Yes, there are exceptions out there.

But I agree that many majors are worthless. You should go to college with a plan for a career, not just getting the piece of paper.

Well articulated

[color:#FF0000][/color]

Too many kids are told that you have to have a college degree otherwise you cant find a job. While this is true for STEM career paths, its not for most others. You'd be surprised at how many people there are out there managing toy stores and fast food chains(fixed per S.A. Hunter) with a psychology or sociology degree because their degree isn't worth the paper its printed on in most cases. It's hard not to criticize peoples choices, but damn, you spent 120k in education for a 35k /yr job. They would have been better off going straight to work right out of high school in a field they enjoyed, building 4 years of work and sweat equity. Where were these kid's parents? Didn't somebody tell them that all degrees aren't equal?

Some of us are fortunate enough to have a child that excels in school, takes all GT and Pre-AP courses and makes straight A's without trying. College is designed for those kids, and I will gladly pay the tuition required for my child to get his/her engineering degree from an accredited and well known University in the field of engineering (or whatever STEM program). However, for a good portion of students who only want a degree because mom and dad told them they needed the sheet of paper, I'd be pushing them more towards a technical school. The sad reality is that technical schools are very much needed and highly underutilized by today's youth. Plumbers, welders, and electricians can all make 100k within 5 years with a positive attitude and a willingness to bust your rear to get things going. Unfortunately, most kids are going to go to a high end college, get a bullsh!t degree, then complain about Trump saying that there are no jobs and its his fault.

Lol, using managing grocery store as an example isn't the best. Those guys make a killing! More then you would think. But other then that i agree with everything else you had to say.

I went to A&M. My textbooks alone were more money than the tuition and textbooks for the classes I took at community college and transferred in.

One niece went to college for 6+ years and told her parents, when they hit the Lubbock airport to attend her graduation, that she wasn't going to graduate 'cause she'd bombed a core math class that she'd put off until the last. Of course it was the professor's fault. She was punished by being given a corner apartment that looked out over Town Lake in Austin. She'd been a lit major (woulda been a writer, don't ya know), so, obviously, she decided to study cup cake baking in Austin. After she broke up with her video game addicted fiancée and quit the job at the cup cake shop that she'd had for, maybe 3 months, she got drunk, got on match.com and met a nice Army sergeant, that she married. He made her finish her degree. She then got pregnant 3 times in a row and is a stay-at-home Army wife. What an incredible waste of time and money. She wouldn't have appreciated free textbooks and wouldn't have made the effort to get them. I think the goal was (and is) to spend as much money as possible.

Some kids are not, and never will be, college material. (Of course, this kid's parents had a lot to do with it.)

Case in point Doc...

LINK


Kid graduates from a no name college with a degree in Public Relations and is then amazed when he can't find a job utilizing said degree.

Weird that a post gets twisted on THF.

It's a post about free textbooks. Not about which degree plan you should follow or which college is right for you.

Well, because no one disagrees about text books.