What's the difference between Californian universities?

[onodera]

Yeah, you guys haven't been capitalist long enough for the book industry to work its way into your universities. Here you're required often to buy ~$100 worth of books per class... and it's because the professors are the authors (not necessarily of your books, though often) that they help keep this system alive. They also 'revise' them (mostly by changing the examples around, or putting the after-chapter questions in a different order) every couple of years so used books are as limited in value as possible.

Of course the profs endlessly recommend you buy their books, but they can't make you, since they are obliged to provide everything you have to know during the lectures.

[Hauldren Collider]

Consider applying to something away from the east coast?? There are good schools that aren't in the east, you know...

Wasn't interested in going that far away.

[snoopy369]

Of course the profs endlessly recommend you buy their books, but they can't make you, since they are obliged to provide everything you have to know during the lectures.

Like I said... you haven't been capitalist yet for the publishers to get in fully Some universities will require professors to require books, and punish them for not doing so (presumably that's because the dept. heads and such are the people who wrote books and want their $$$...)

[snoopy369]

Wasn't interested in going that far away.

The further away, the better, IMO. If I have any say in it, my son will be going to somewhere in Europe. Create your own life and then you can realize how good it was being near home

[Dinner]

Pay for books? Here you are expected to use your lectures and library books to study. There are also "method books" that provide the overall structure of the course, but they aren't expensive.

Here you are expected to purchase them and own them yourself. For your major you will probably want to keep the books though for the general education classes most people just sell them back to the book store (for next to nothing) or try to sell them online. There are one or two copies of each text book usually in one of the school libraries but without fail they will not be there when you need them so it is best just to buy your own.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Pennsylvania State University
Ohio State University

University of Pennsylvania is better than PSU in most things save for the physical sciences/engineering. That and it has less child molesters of note.

[MRT144]

Wasn't interested in going that far away.

HC still needs his mother's help in buttoning the butt flap on his footsie pajamas

[MRT144]

The further away, the better, IMO. If I have any say in it, my son will be going to somewhere in Europe. Create your own life and then you can realize how good it was being near home

Berkeley has one of the nicest campuses and has not only SF a BART ride away but also the city of Berkeley right there, which is awesome.

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, you guys haven't been capitalist long enough for the book industry to work its way into your universities. Here you're required often to buy ~$100 worth of books per class... and it's because the professors are the authors (not necessarily of your books, though often) that they help keep this system alive. They also 'revise' them (mostly by changing the examples around, or putting the after-chapter questions in a different order) every couple of years so used books are as limited in value as possible.

Depends entirely on the major. If you're taking something like history, all of your materials will be available from the library.

[Kidlicious]

CSUF

[Al B. Sure!]

Pennsylvania State University

Wut? Penn State better than UPenn?

Stupid Canadians