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# College Textbook Costs, In Their Words: Clarice Kies, Loras College
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/college-textbook-costs-in-their-words-clarice-kies-loras-college/
- Published: 2018-05-08T09:00:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-11T02:39:14.000Z
- Author: Amber Krieg
- Tags: Education, iowawatch, affordable college, college costs, college textbooks, digital textbooks, Loras College, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

Q: How much did you spend for all of your textbooks?

**Clarice Kies: I only had to purchase hard copy books. I think that the total was like, $179 for this semester.**

##### Clarice Kies, 22  
Loras College  
Spring 2018 graduating senior  
Hometown: LaMotte, Iowa  
Major: English

Q: Which was the most expensive.

**Kies: That would probably be my grant-writing book, or Proposal Writing, which was about $21.**

Q: How often would you say that you use your textbooks?

**Kies: Every day.If we’re not like, either referencing the book, there’s a lecture on the book where we’re supposed to have like, specific passages open. So I would say like, every day you have to have the book with you.**

Q: Did you spend anything on digital books this semester?

**Kies: No. All of my professors are pretty good about like, uploading copies on e-Learn. So that way it kind of cuts down on the cost that we have to give.**

Q: How often do you use the internet?

**Kies: In class, unless it’s a test or anything, not really. And then for outside of class for papers, I generally do research on… I don’t know a time frame though.**

Q: Did you sell any of your books from last semester?

**Kies: I kept them all…I found that that’s the easiest with the amount of books that I have to buy. And they’re all like, novels so it’s kind of beneficial for me to keep them too.**

Q: Do you think that the value you get from your books matches the price you pay for them?

**Kies: I would say yes since I usually get like, previously owned in good condition. So that kind of keeps down the cost. If they’re too expensive and it’s a class that I’m just taking to fulfill a requirement, I rent from Amazon. That also keeps down the cost. So I would say yeah, I feel good about what I pay for them.**

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