Business Classes Hit Wallets Hardest

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By Michael Kelly

Besides complaining about having to wake up for that 8:20 am Monday class, a favorite pastime of college students around this time of year is complaining about how much they spend on books. “You won’t believe how much I just spent on books,” one student will say, only to have their friend shoot back at them, “Ha! You think that’s bad? I spent almost double that!” But do some students have a more legitimate complaint? With some small-scale and unscientific research, an SB Independent survey of random major tracks show that different majors cost more than others to take, in terms of textbook prices.

Of the five most popular majors at Stony Brook- biology, business management, economics, history and psychology - there is an almost $70.00 difference between the most expensive major and the least, based on how much textbooks cost per class in the major. (Explanation of methodology can be found below.)

Of the five most populated majors, business was the most expensive, averaging almost $147.00 per class, while history was the cheapest, at a little above $76.00 per class. Economics, psychology and biology bridged the middle between the two.

Though the study was not widespread throughout any major, one business major says he has noticed that his textbooks for his business classes are usually the priciest.

“They are the most expensive books I have bought,” said Chris Hessel, a 20-year-old junior. “And the unfortunate thing is the more expensive ones seem to be the ones that get used the least.”

Hessel mentioned that one of his business professors purposefully gave them a cheaper book in an effort to keep the cost of the course below $100.00.

“It’d be nice if some of the (other) professors did that,” he said.

Kristine Ngai, an undeclared sophomore, said that textbook prices can be a factor in the classes she takes.

“It doesn’t make sense to buy books that you will never need next semester or for the rest of your college life,” said Ngai, 19. “There are times when I drop a class because of the cost of the textbooks." Ngai added she would "never do that" in the future for a major class.

Recently, some public universities have begun charging more for certain majors. As reported this past summer in The New York Times, some schools have begun this practice to increase funding for the program. Non-majors, however, are allowed to take some courses in such majors at no extra charge.

Notes about methodology- Each major’s requirements for graduation were met, but no specific concentration or track was used; instead, a random selection of courses was gathered. Pre-requisites were not considered. Outside major classes that are required to graduate were not factored in, with the idea that they take away from electives a student could take, and textbooks they could buy. Exceptions were made for majors like biology, where classes from other fields are required. Data was compiled from randomly selected courses and sections, so it’s possible that a student could pay more or less than accounted for in the research. Books were assumed to be from the campus bookstore, in used condition. Required and recommended books were taken into account.