@garland , the thing is, that a “financial advice” actually matters to some students, who may not have the funds to buy every single book ahead of time, even if they end up not using it. With my D’s classes last semester, the “required” 2nd book in her comp class was never used, though other sections used it. One class-all sections-was cancelled for fall, and another the “required” book was supposed too have been listed as “optional”. OOPS. The hassles of returning the purchased and rental books was bad enough, but what if we didn’t have a few extra hundred dollars laying around to buy all these unused books, then waiting to learn if they were really needed? THIS semester we’re only getting books ahead of time if we know for certain they’re being used. The rest will wait.
I’m a Junior in college and the best piece of advice I could give is that nothing is permanent.
If you realize you hate your major, you can change it. If your friends aren’t right, well guess what? Your school probably has AT LEAST 1000 other kids. You didn’t join an activity? Join it next year. There is nearly nothing you can do in college that can’t be fixed. It might be hard, it might take a lot of tears, but you’re never truly stuck.
^^ @sseamom I expected someone would say this. Yes, it’s difficult to pay for a book that is not needed for a student–nevertheless, my opinion, borne of a lot of experience, stands: if you want to avoid a “rough start,” have the books you need. The reader the class is based on is not going to be optional.
Skip it at your own risk. And don’t expect professors to be sympathetic because someone told you not to buy it…and now you can’t find it.
@garland – I wonder if this book issue is a disconnect between the “old school” method, where we all had books, and the modern age. D18 only has two books for high school and almost never uses them. Everything is online in some form or another.
To add–though I reiterate that expecting sympathy is dangerous, most likely I’ll be hustling to find students copies, scanning, locating online links, and otherwise enabling, because I care that they don’t have a rough start. But it irks me that I need to. I feel like I’m more invested in their education than they are (and I’m not talking about my lowest income students, who are least likely to be the ones I’m talking about here.)
@droppedit–Maybe, but if they want to assume everything is online, it seems pretty chancy to me. Everything actually isn’t online.
I mean, they can buy the ebook if they want to–but somehow that doesn’t happen either.
As long as I’m going to be unpopular on this thread, 
, here’s some more advice, gleaned from my experiences of what causes my students not to succeed, or conversely, to do very well:
- Go to classes--all of them. Every semester, the most likely reason for failure is absences.
- Be on time. Professors notice when you're late. And you miss stuff.
- On time doesn't mean five minutes, or one minute, late.
- Take notes.
- Be an active participant in class.
- Do the reading. Really. I mean it.
- Make use of office hours--we're there for a reason.
- Make use of all available resources--tutoring, writing center, etc. These are not just for the borderline, struggling student.
- Don't aim for getting by; aim for excelling.
Two semesters ago I took classes over the summer that were super compressed, and the professor had several rather esoteric books on there. If you didn’t have them for the first day of class, you were WAY behind already. So I think it depends on the class.
I always get my books through the amazon rental program now, I love it so much!
@garland my school has all the books in the library that are required for classes, sure I agree don’t rely on it for the whole year but for the first couples of days its always worked out. Nobody is saying what proff should be or shouldnt be and what students should or shouldnt do. Everything is based on our experiences, many students now wait, and schools now a days make it impossible to buy even used books because they upgrade to a newer edition that changed 3 words but now cost $120 more than the older one. Its about preferences, ive seen students get A’s without having the books and just taking notes, other struggle while having the book, students are all different, so they should each choose their preference.
I do agree it depends on the classes, some are based hugely on readings and articles, others are based on concept example:acct, which students can youtube or google.
Look, I’m just saying that I have had students run up against a problem when they followed “the don’t buy the books” advice. YMMV. OP asked for advice, and that is mine.
My daughter has lifting and conditioning at 5:45 most mornings. Her classes were done by 1 pm. She had study tables M-Th. She was in bed by 9:30 most nights the first semester of her freshman year. To that I say “God Bless the NCAA and her coach.”
I have a pile of books from the first and second years of university life that my son was never required to use. Disappointing. I always seem to try and get rid of them through the local sale-sites too late, so they are still here.
The difference in age between my two college kids, 2 years, actually has made a huge difference in their approach to buying all the books/waiting to buy until/scouring the internet for electronic copies/reaching out to friend who has an electronic site code. The younger would never buy a book before she is told to have it in class with her the next session. The first would never think not to buy it upon being given the syllabus.
Could be the birth order thing, too.
This is a very YMMV statement depending on the student. If the student decides to risk not buying the book in question to await an online cheaper copy and has planned out how to compensate in the interval* before the book arrived, s/he could be fine. If s/he can’t compensate or is the type who can’t plan out ways to compensate in the interval, then garland’s advice is the right one to take.
Incidentally, I was the student who didn’t buy all books for every class because I found from classmates who took the class that the book was never used/even touched on by Prof, the book(s) was one I covered in depth in HS/before, etc.
Never affected me gradewise considering how I ended up keeping my near-full-ride scholarship/FA package for all my undergrad years,
Incidentally, I did very well in one advanced grad seminar class at an elite U despite not taking any undergrad prereqs** for the course or buying any of the books to be used in his class***.
- Reading it on reserve, buying it with intention of returning it for full refund before refund period ends, finding the readings in nearby local/regional libraries,
** I did ask the Prof for recommended books to read BEFORE the class and read them a few weeks before the start of his class.
*** To be fair, buying all of them would be impossible as the sheer quantity of mandated books to be covered was such one would end up with far more books than a year’s worth of typical undergrad courses. That and some of the assigned books/sources are rare firsthand source type books one can only access in the rare book/archive sections of university libraries.
Funny part was due to the extreme heavy reading loads, had no issues accessing the rare sources in the library as most classmates didn’t try to read everything assigned considering the peak weekly reading load was well beyond 1800 pages).
Another thing about buying books: look hard for bargains. It seems obvious, but there are a surprising number of people who buy from the bookstore or the first copy they see on Amazon.
There was a huge Bio book which my professor said would be helpful both in that class and later classes. It was $300, maybe more, for the current edition, but there was no specific edition required (and it was technically optional) so I got a slightly older one in good condition for under $25 on Amazon. If you buy used, especially when you don’t need the newest edition, then 15 minutes of searching can save you a lot of money.
Here are my standard suggestions…If you read CC regularly, you will find people writing academic suspension appeal letters because they had issues and tried to solve them on their own.
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GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
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Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
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If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
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If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
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For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
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How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
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At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
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If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
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At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
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Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
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If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
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If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.
Also to make friends:
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During Orientation, go to as many activities as you can. Ask people in your hall way if they are going. Introduce yourself…they are looking for friends too. “Hey, I am Pat…what are you majoring in?”
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Go to the Activities Fair and sign up for a bunch of clubs that are of interest. They may not all pan out, but don’t eliminate anything yet. If you are into music/D&D/running/church/whatever, you can find other people who are interested too. Service clubs are great because you spend time working together.
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Talk to the people on your floor…Get some cookies and offer them “Hey I have cookies, anyone want some?” and then strike up a conversation about where they are from, what they are majoring in, etc. People like to talk about themselves…let them. Don’t make it too long…move on to others.
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At dinner time, ask your roommate/people on your hall if they are going to dining hall. Go with them. See if people in your dorm generally sit in the same area… Join them.
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Go to any dorm activities your RA has set up. If you are still having issues, talk to your RA. See if they have ideas. If not suggest that they have one. Maybe a movie and pizza?
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Join your dorm’s intramural (or any intramural) team.
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Talk to others in your classes…exchange numbers so that if either of you miss you can exchange notes… Ask what someone got on a homework question (that you did too)…once you get to know them, ask if they want to form a study group.
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If this isn’t working, go to the Counseling Center…they are ready to help freshman this time of year. Don’t think you are a loser because you have to go…this is something you pay for! Get the benefit! You may need to learn some new social skills. They may also have group talks on Homesickness or fitting in.
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Go to ongoing campus activities…concerts/movies/lectures/parties. Invite someone/group of people or just sign up and meet people for activities that might be off campus.
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See if your dorm/floor has a GroupMe Group set up…otherwise suggest to someone who is extraverted that it might be a good idea. Then people can send a group text that they are showing a movie in the lounge or are baking cupcakes in the kitchen.
You may notice that all of these things take some action…they are not passive. You have to take initiative. But the risk is small…if someone says no, then just say “Maybe another time”.
I have 2 odd suggestions…based on reading lots & lots of experiences here:
[QUOTE=""]
Try to stay in a crummy dorm. This one is off-beat but I’ve noticed that kids who are in older dorms…with bathrooms down the hall…and lots to complain about…find closer friends than kids living in the suites & other upscale places.
Get a work-study job. This appears to work much much better for shy kids than joining clubs or trying to sit with others in the cafeteria. Its a great way to quickly make friends & form a community.
[/QUOTE]
Choose roommates wisely. Few things can result in a lack of sleep, resentment, or just an overall terrible year more than a complete roommate mismatch. It is much more important that you are compatible than BFF’s with the person/people you are living with: similar schedules (early riser? night owl?), similar ideas of what “messy” means (forgetting to make your bed once in a while, or the avalanche of clothes on the floor that get picked up once a semester?), similar levels of academic workload (if you don’t think your roommate is awesome in other respects, his/her light schedule might really grate on you as you slog your way through EECS or some other STEM class). If the roommate matching questionnaire for the college is detailed enough (and/or you troll Facebook for potential roomies), you should be able to get paired up with someone who is sympatico with you in his/her habits.
For new frosh, buying the books rather than waiting makes more sense, given the risk. For later terms, students can find out from others who took the class before how important it is to have the book, or have it on the first day of class. Yes, the financial aspect of this decision is another area where students from non wealthy backgrounds are at a disadvantage.
On the times of day to schedule classes, while many discuss 8am classes, beware also of early afternoon classes. Some people get sleepy during that time, so having class then can be risky for that class. There may be a reason it is traditionally siesta time in some places.