BRUNSWICK, Maine — Faced with the seemingly ever-rising prices students spend on textbooks, Bowdoin College is ditching the traditional way it’s been selling textbooks and will instead partner with an online company.
According to Bowdoin College spokesman Doug Cook, students will likely spend between $300 and $600 per semester on textbooks, depending on the courses they take.
Should a student spend an average of $450 per semester on textbooks, that translates to $3,600 over the course of four years, at two semesters per year.
According to a 2014 report, about half of Bowdoin’s students receive financial aid to offset the $60,000 annual cost of tuition.
“Students everywhere, including those here at Bowdoin, are looking to lower the cost they are paying for textbooks,” said Cook in an email to The Times Record. “In an effort to help make books more affordable, we decided to partner with an online vendor for a pilot program to begin in the fall.”
Under the pilot program, Bowdoin College students will purchase their textbooks through an online store run by California company Chegg.
“Chegg has made a business out of putting students first, and we were honored to learn that Bowdoin chose Chegg as their official textbook partner,” said Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig in a news release.
The program will include new and used textbooks available with free, three-day shipping, as well as e-book access.
Cook said students would save about 20 percent off the cost of their textbooks by going through Chegg, as opposed to the on-campus store.
“For example, we just had a faculty member select a new chemistry text that would have cost students more than $250 to purchase new, but they will be able to rent the text from Chegg, for an entire semester, for $63.99,” said Cook.
Students will be able to start purchasing their books about four weeks before classes begin, and throughout the semester.
Bowdoin will transform the former Textbook Center in Coles Tower into new space for information technology, repurposing previous IT space for student residence space. The Bowdoin Store in Smith Union will continue to sell art kits, art supplies, lab notebooks, course packets and other peripheral items.