Ask your professor whether you need the Access code: Access codes allow the student to use publisher tests, study guides, etc. that are specifically geared toward the textbook, and some professors require that and some do not (I do not).

l can also tell you that often the publishers make the packages cheaper for the student than buying the book alone: so, my students buy a book in a package, but only use the book for my courses. A total waste, but I’d rather the students pay less for the book. It’s a trend that I hope ends soon: I think the publishers have done surveys and students and professors have said that they want more services offered online, and this is what fueled the trend.

In sum, ask your prof. whether you need to purchase an Access code or not: for my students, the answer is “no”.

It’s a scam. They are forcing you to buy a “package” or a new textbook at of course higher prices.

Just buy the cheaper used textbooks and if after the class starts you find out that you really need it, then most publishers offer a way of buying the access code online at their websites or you can use a friends.

But about all my classes had books where they offered the “package” deal with the access code and I never used it. I only took one class that actually required that we had the access code and all the students complained to the administration after we found out that the professor was making money off of selling the access codes.

This cannot be true!! Colleges are run by leftists that have nothing but your best interests at heart. These are the same type of people that Obama says should dictate most aspects of your life; medical care right now with more to come. These are people that will sit and rant in rave during classes about BIG OIL (say it in a scary voice) or big pharma or any other business that makes a profit and how they are taking advantage of the little guy. Could you imagine the uproar if there was another industry that behaved this way. What would happen if OIL had the same rate of inflation as the higher education racket?? I remember several days before graduation I had to go to the bursars office to pay one of the many many parking tickets I received after paying for a parking permit when there were no parking spaces. They reminded me that I also owed a one hundred dollar graduation fee. I was never glad to leave a place as I was that ponzi scheme called the University of Oklahoma. I see you are having the same experience.