UNC books?

[JesseBrad3]

I'm applying to UNC now, and a friend mentioned something called Vitasource (I think thats the name), a CD-ROM with all their textbooks on it. I was wondering if any current students could shed some light on this. Do you like it? Is it cheaper than buying each book individually? Thanks.

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[adamlc18]

I'm applying to UNC now, and a friend mentioned something called Vitasource (I think thats the name), a CD-ROM with all their textbooks on it. I was wondering if any current students could shed some light on this. Do you like it? Is it cheaper than buying each book individually? Thanks.

I am a 1st year at UNC currently. I can tell you about Vitalsource and I will do my best to be fairly objective about it. You asked if I liked it. Personally I don't. There are a few reasons for this. Number 1, I don't like reading off a computer screen. Anything beyond a few pages hurts my eyes. But you can easily get by this because after the first week, no one reads the books anymore anyways. You are too busy so you just study the notes handed out in class. The teachers all test from their notes, not the books. Vitalsource is significantly more expensive than traditional books. I can't remember the exact price we are paying so don't hold me to this, but i think it is approximately $900 a year. This is paid in dental school fees and you can get financial aid to cover it. You just have to take out more loans for it. By the way, from what I understand, this is significantly cheaper than other schools. Anyone from other schools who can shed light on this, please do.

A lot of people were upset because we didn't know we would have vitalsource when we got here. The contract was signed 2 weeks before school started. Most of the people in my class are upset about spending more money than they would have on books. But there is no choice on that. You have to get Vitalsource. The school has a 4 year contract with vitalsource. The school made an effort to see if it would benefit the students. Last year, there was a student panel who evaluated the product and made recommendations to the administration. They are also having lots of focus groups this year to see what we think of it. The nice thing about UNC is that they listen to the students and take our opinions into consideration when making policies. The upperclassmen who were on the student panel also talked to students at other schools who had used vitalsource during their 4 years in dental school. they got a lot of positive feedback. The upperclassmen felt like Vitalsource would be a real benefit once we got into clinic because if you see something like a lesion and you have no idea what it is, you could just do a quick search on your laptop. It looks like it might be very beneficial in clinic but I haven't been in clinic yet, so I cant say for sure.

Beyond this Vitalsource thing, I am very happy with my decision to come to UNC. The faculty all treat us very kindly. The students have a lot of say in what goes on. The facilities are great. Hopefully I answered all your questions. Let me know if you have more.

 

[JesseBrad3]

Thanks, I think you explained it pretty well. Personally I'm not too fond of looking at a computer screen to read from, but I don't usually read the books anyway to study. That sucks about the cost though.

Were there any other surprises when you started this year at UNC?

 

[DrTacoElf]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=152710

 

[adamlc18]

No other surprises this year besides that. Looking at Gavin's post which DrTacoElf posted, Gavin is paying twice as much as we are for Vitalsource. Also, I dont know how it is at Arizona, but we were told we will have all the Vitalsource books on our laptop for life. We paid for the books and we will get to keep them. We just won't get updates and newer editions after graduating from dental school.

 

[DcS]

Also, I dont know how it is at Arizona, but we were told we will have all the Vitalsource books on our laptop for life. .

Good luck finding a laptop that will last your lifetime! I personally think it's a waste of money, the number of books you actually need to buy is so few it's such a rip off. I think that we should have the choice and I prefer having a hard copy for my home/office rather than a cd. There were some people who brought this up at UNC but it wasn't listened to. Sometimes I think the pursuit of our school to be so technology advanced overlooks sheer logic at times (ie, going to computerized charts while we still have to tote around paper charts for tx consent forms.) Sometimes I feel like it's for bragging purposes or the cover of a brochure.

 

[JesseBrad3]

DcS, what are your thoughts on the laptop UNC requires for incoming dental students? The CCI laptop I got as a UNC undergrad has given me some problems but overall I've been happy with it.

 

[adamlc18]

Good luck finding a laptop that will last your lifetime! I personally think it's a waste of money, the number of books you actually need to buy is so few it's such a rip off. I think that we should have the choice and I prefer having a hard copy for my home/office rather than a cd. There were some people who brought this up at UNC but it wasn't listened to. Sometimes I think the pursuit of our school to be so technology advanced overlooks sheer logic at times (ie, going to computerized charts while we still have to tote around paper charts for tx consent forms.) Sometimes I feel like it's for bragging purposes or the cover of a brochure.

I wasn't disagreeing with you that about costs. I also feel like it is not in my best interest. I wouldn't have bought more than 2 books this semester had we had the option to buy hardcopies. I was just trying to give an objective look and pass along the information we were given. And although no laptop will last you for a lifetime, I imagine you can back up everything on your harddrive since we have DVD burners in our laptops now. Still, I am sure I will probably not use the program after I graduate. but we have it and nothing we can do will change that for 4 years.

 

[txdent2be2007]

We use Vitalsource technology in San Antonio -- they are a young company, still working out MANY bugs in the software. 😕 You will end up paying for many more books than you'd ever use at a school using paper textbooks. For example, I don't think we'd ever go out and pay (at full price) for 8 gross anatomy atlases and 3 clinical anatomy textbooks? Or 7 different physiology texts? Also, in dental school many instructors write their own course manuals to supplement the textbooks -- a must-study for exams. You will probably have to purchase both paper copies of these course manuals (factored into your tuition) and the electronic version on Vitalsource, regardless of which type you prefer to study.
I thought I'd use the electronic books and manuals a lot, but I've ended up printing out all of my notes and manuals, and I've bought several hundred dollars' worth of textbooks in classes where a lot of reading is required.
If your big on reading from a computer, you'll probably be fine using the Vitalbooks, but be prepared for the software to crash during exams!
I can give you more detailed opinions if you want...

 

[txdent2be2007]

I wasn't disagreeing with you that about costs. I also feel like it is not in my best interest. I wouldn't have bought more than 2 books this semester had we had the option to buy hardcopies. I was just trying to give an objective look and pass along the information we were given. And although no laptop will last you for a lifetime, I imagine you can back up everything on your harddrive since we have DVD burners in our laptops now. Still, I am sure I will probably not use the program after I graduate. but we have it and nothing we can do will change that for 4 years.

$900 is pretty cheap...we're paying ~$1500 a year for just the Vitalsource software. With $2500 for the computer and $350/yr for insurance we're looking at around $10K for the four years of dental school.

 

[adamlc18]

$900 is pretty cheap...we're paying ~$1500 a year for just the Vitalsource software. With $2500 for the computer and $350/yr for insurance we're looking at around $10K for the four years of dental school.

My goodness! You are paying more than us. I ended up paying around $2400 for my laptop and insurance. The insurance was a one time payment of $294 that covers us for the four years we are at school.

On a side note, we had a lunch and learn with a couple of the Deans yesterday to address issues concerning Vitalsource. This wasn't a decision made by the Dean's office. The 2nd year class did lots of surveys and such and gave imput to some Committee composed of the chairs of each dept, and then the chairs voted. It was also not a unamious decision but a majority vote. They will be having feedback/review sessions of Vitalsource during the year. He did say that the only way the school could get out of the contract was to have Vitalsource breach the terms ie if there was enough software problems or not enough support.

 

[JesseBrad3]

Adamlc18, have you experienced many software glitches or lack of technical support with Vitalsource? Also, when you met with the deans, did anyone bring up the cost issue of the software? Maybe Vitalsource could make its software more felxible so you can choose which texts you want if students and schools put pressure on the company. I hope to get into UNC next year, although I wouldn't be thrilled about using Vitalsource.

 

[adamlc18]

Adamlc18, have you experienced many software glitches or lack of technical support with Vitalsource? Also, when you met with the deans, did anyone bring up the cost issue of the software? Maybe Vitalsource could make its software more felxible so you can choose which texts you want if students and schools put pressure on the company. I hope to get into UNC next year, although I wouldn't be thrilled about using Vitalsource.

Well, to be honest, I am not really using it at all so I haven't encountered any problems. Here, you just need to study the notes a teacher hands out and the old tests. That will be sufficient to score a 100% on tests 99% of the time. Occasionally, I have had to read a page or two. But that is really about it. I prefer whatever will get me the good grade with the least amount of work and luckily it's not Vitalsource. Yes, cost was the number one concern for us and it was brought up. Of course, the deans said it is only $100-$200 more for Vitalsource than if you bought it all hardcopy. Of course no one buys all their books. I did learn that the $900 we paid this year included some fees for frist time users and that our price drops to something like $600 something next year. I still would have chosen to come to UNC despite this and am really happy with the program here. 👍