Textbooks: To Keep or Not To Keep . . . That Is the Question

By Jessica Recht

As an undergraduate marketing major I responsibly purchased all of my books at the beginning of each semester. At times, I was astounded by how much these textbooks would cost, even the used ones could run $90 and I am sure they cost more now almost 10 year later. I didn’t worry too much at the time though because I knew that, at the end of the semester, I would sell them back and get some much needed cash to celebrate the end of another semester. Sometimes the amount I would get back for a book was negligible, but as long as it was something I would gladly turn my books back to them. The only text books I kept were the ones that they refused to buy back because they were no longer current or not being used the next semester.

I was still in that mindset when I entered graduate school a year and a half later. The first semester I bought my books, and although I was more excited about them because the subject matter was something I was actually interested in, I still assumed I would sell them back at the end of the semester to soften the blow of their sometimes outrageous cost. Just like before, as soon as I was finished with my last final, I made my happy stroll over to the union to sell them back. I put the wad of cash in my wallet and left campus ready to go shopping!
Not so fast.

Later, during my second semester, I was taking a class and they referred to a book from a class we had all taken the previous semester. Several of my classmates still had their books and were able to reference them. I told them that I had sold my book back and they responded with shocked looks, ok maybe that was my perception, but still. After talking with them, they shared that “of course” they kept their textbooks, I mean after all this was going to be their career so they might need these books along the way.

Wow.

I had never thought of that before. I guess since I didn’t LOVE my undergraduate business classes and never thought I would need those books again it didn’t dawn on me that I might actually want to keep my counseling books. I felt kind of shortsighted. No worries though, at the end of the semester I went back to the book store and re-bought the books from the previous semester that I wanted back. I am sure they made some profit off of me (I mean who buys their book, then sells it, and then buys it back?), but in the end it was worth it. From then on I kept all of my text books and thus started my “professional library” of reference books.

I have been out of graduate school for three years now and in my office, on my bookshelf, I have several of my textbooks from graduate school. I have referred to them several times over the course of three years and they have really come in handy. I am not going to say I have looked at all of them over and over again, but you never know. Every now and then there is a situation that arises where I need guidance and I feel confident knowing that I have some resources to start with.

Moral of the story- if you plan on making a career out of your graduate degree then keep your books!

Jessica works in the Student Development Office at UNT Dallas and is in charge of Career and Personal Counseling. Jessica also holds a Master's in Counseling

What Is a Master's Degree Worth?

Check out this article from the NY Times website:

What Is a Master's Degree Worth?

I also enjoyed "Not All Degrees Are Equal" by Richard Vedder on the same page. It reminded me of how difficult it is to choose a life path that will influence the rest of your life. Remember when you were asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?", perhaps the question should be "What master's degree do you want when you grow up? In today's economy it makes more sense to pursue a more specialized education, and from what these articles are saying, it seems like getting a master's degree is not without pitfalls.