<p>Any current students know of the cheapest place to buy/rent books? I'll be a freshman next year!</p>
<p>in my opinion the best place to buy books is from upperclassmen. upperclassmen usually have the exact book you need for the class and will sell it for much cheaper because they don’t have to worry about operation costs and whatnot. If you can’t find an upper classman, I would look online. I’ve found books for less than half the price of the bookstores on certain websites. As a last resort, I would go to the bookstores on campus. The bookstores on campus (Illini Union Bookstore, Follets, etc), usually have comparable prices.</p>
<p>illini, any tips to locate upperclassmen who might have books for the classes? Is there some sort of website or bulletin board, cragslist perhaps?</p>
<p>yeah, through the official campus bookstore, there is a service called illini book exchange, where students sell their books to other students.</p>