* The course: Some courses require expensive, specialized textbooks, while others might use open educational resources (OER) which are free. Engineering and medical textbooks, for example, tend to be far more expensive than humanities texts.
* The format: New, hardcopy textbooks are the most expensive. Used textbooks, ebooks, and rentals can significantly reduce the cost.
* The student's choices: Students can choose to buy new, used, rent, or even share textbooks, drastically affecting their individual spending.
To get an estimate for a *specific* student, you would need to know their course schedule and their purchasing habits. Cornell's bookstore website might list prices for required texts for specific courses, but it won't give a university-wide average that's meaningful. Expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars per semester, with the higher end being more common.