Blog Post #1

     If you have ever been or ever known a college student, you know how frustrating and costly buying textbooks can be. Bookstores spike their prices to astronomical amounts and students have no choice but to pay those prices, or pay the price for not being prepared in the first week or two of class because they bought it for cheaper at a website such as amazon or ebay. And those students whose only way of paying for college is through scholarships and loans, even if they get enough money from a loan to cover the cost of books: they have to wait until that money is paid to the school and then reimbursed to them, which could take weeks! Meanwhile they are suffering the consequences of not having material read or problem sets finished in their classes. There is, however, a way to prevent all of this turmoil. If universities, such as Syracuse University, had an online catalog of all the textbooks necessary for any course offered at that school that was accessible only to the students, and paid for under tuition, there wouldn't be a problem. Teachers wouldn't have to rearrange their syllabus because students were missing textbooks or because the university bookstore didn't order enough, and students could get their books for much cheaper. And those who pay for college with loans and scholarships would not be put at a disadvantage to their peers.