"Ripoff."

That's how senior Whitney Fare describes the cost of textbooks at the Vanderbilt bookstore.

On college campuses across the country, the price of textbooks has quadrupled the rate of inflation during the past decade, according to the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups. The average new textbook most always crosses the $100 threshold, and science and math books are dangerously close to exceeding $300 a pop.

As the spring semester starts, Vanderbilt students are shelling out big bucks to pay for books.

When students rush into bookstores today, Commodore Cash, credit cards and checkbooks in hand, few know exactly who receives their money.

"I have no idea," said junior Lauren Levy. "I'm not really sure where the money goes. Does it go to the university?"

Actually, not even a fourth of the money benefits the school - campus bookstores are not solely to blame for high textbook prices. According to the National Association of College Stores, the prices break down as follows: The publisher takes 64.4 percent, the bookstore receives 22.4 percent, the author gets 11.6 percent and the remaining 1.7 percent covers shipping.

"Nationally, the price of textbooks represents about 5 percent to 6 percent of a student's cost of a college education," according to Follett Higher Education Group's vice president of media relations Clifford Ewert. Follett manages the Vanderbilt bookstore.

And despite that low percentage, book prices generate anger and disdain from many students.

"Textbooks from the bookstore are ridiculously overpriced," said senior Julianna Staples.

"(Students) aren't looking at it as an investment into their future," Ewert said. "They look at it as something they have to read."

"College textbooks cost more than novels, non-fiction materials or cookbooks because textbooks tend to have high-quality bindings and paper, vivid color and graphics that drive up the price," Ewert said. "Additionally, demand nationally is much lower than that of bestsellers."

"Textbooks are a different type of book than, say, the ‘Harry Potter' series," Ewert said. "They published millions of books. Textbooks have very small press runs."

The College Board estimates the average bachelor's degree-seeking student in the 2008 spring semester will pay $494.

It is easy to exceed that number, though.

For example, a student taking Introductory Spanish this semester has to buy the Spanish book bundle that costs $208.20. And that's just one class. Full-time students typically take four or five courses per semester, or eight to 10 each year.

Buying used books can trim 25 percent off a new edition's retail price if students are willing to accept markings, notes and worn bindings left behind by previous owners. But used editions tend to be the first to fly off bookstore shelves, leaving those buying books later stuck with new copies.

At semester's end, students have the option of selling their texts back to campus bookstores for a portion of the original price. On average students can usually receive $100 from every $500 spent on books. Bookstores do not buy back every text, however, only those that professors plan to use during the next semester.

In addition to purchasing used books from the bookstore, many students are turning to the Internet to find books to buy. The emergence of online sites such as eBay and Amazon.com means students can shop the Web for textbooks with sharp discounts.

But what's stopping online sales from putting brick-and-mortar bookstores out of business is shipping, which can be costly or delayed, and minor variations between editions that can render a book useless in class discussions or on exams.

BookFinder.com now also allows students to rent textbooks by the quarter or semester from market leaders Chegg (formerly known as TextBookFlix) and BookRenter.com. Additionally, the search engine compares prices between rental providers, always including the cost of shipping to help avoid unexpected surprises.

Students can save 54 percent buying textbooks from BookFinder.com, according to a survey conducted last week, based on prices for six sample course lists at UC Berkeley, Duke and the University of Iowa. At their local campus bookstores, students would pay an average $325.80 for their semester's textbooks. Buying the same books cost an average of $150.05 via BookFinder.com, including shipping - a real-life savings of $175.75, or 54 percent.

In May, Congress' Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance developed eight solutions to immediately improve pricing: strengthen the market for used textbooks, set textbook guidelines for faculty, provide textbook information in advance to students, increase library resources, adopt alternatives such as paperbacks or spiral-bound books that will lower prices, implement textbook rental programs, improve financial aid policies, and use 21st century technology.

In many states, laws are being drafted where publishers would have to disclose the price of textbooks in advance to college professors as well as changes they make to books between editions.

-David Brown can be reached at