Average Cost for Books?

Can a current student or parent of one offer an estimate on books per semester? Trying to budget with my daughter. I know it changes per major, but a general idea would be helpful. Also, Barnes and Noble? Amazon? What was the best resource for buying/renting, etc.? Thanks!

My DD actually didn’t spend very much on books.

Do an exhaustive search online for pdf copies of books, sometimes an old version will have the exact content with very few changes. Freshman books seem to be widely available online especially core classes. Don’t fall into a signing up for something which could be a scam though, if you can’t download it right away without any logging in or providing a credit card, it’s not the right thing. Disclaimer, consider legalities.

If we did have to buy one, I’d look at bookfinder.com. They search all kinds of websites for used and new books for the best prices. Amazon is a good option but I’d buy used if you can and resell when the class is done. Renting is also an option but usually we could buy and then resell for less. Use the book store and new books as a last resort.

Also, if you look up the professor on ratemyprofessor.com (which you should always do for tips and avoidance), sometimes people will say whether books were used at all, many times books are just recommended.

If you tell me what book she needs I probably have it on PDF and can send to you