<p>Everytime I walk over to the campus I see lots of bikes in racks but almost never see any students actually riding bikes on campus. Is it even worth it to get a bike for a freshman even though they have to walk a lot more to classes from the Commons?
When can incoming freshmen find out about purchasing used books for the fall term? We have always done this at her private school and saved quite a bit.</p>
<p>Have you thought about on-line vendors for the used books? I wish I could come up with the name of some of them my son uses, but he does the shopping himself. Amazon, I’m sure, is a source he uses, but also textbooks.com (maybe???) sounds familiar. It seems like he is usually doing the ordering pretty close to the start of the term. You have to be careful about which edition of the text is being used.</p>
<p>Son did not have a bike his freshman year, but he didn’t live in the Commons. Sophomore year he did take a bike, and he claims he uses it–and that it hasn’t been stolen–but I have no direct evidence.</p>
<p>Half.com is a source some of my students use for cheaper books.
S got a bike as an early birthday present from his dad prior to sophomore year because a number of friends were going to be on Peabody while he was living in Towers. It was a big, ugly orange bike and was stolen within a few weeks of school starting. Just because we think orange is ugly at my house (UK grad here and 2 Vandy kids -enough said), obviously there were obviously some enchanted by the UT colored bike. S claims it was chained to a bike rack. I love all the stories about how people leave their doors unlocked, they trust their hallmates, etc., BUT I have always urged my kids to treat their property with caution as there are a number of thefts each year, particularly at sites on the periphery of campus.</p>
<p>We use dealoz.com for used books. Look for books that say “remainder marks.” These are books that were returned to the store for whatever reason … no writing or highlighting … but they have to mark them as used (the remainder mark is a line on the outside of the pages - side opposite the spine). These are the best deals! We have also found great deals on borders.com for the more popular or newer books that we can’t find huge deals on … if you can find a 40% off coupon & get free shipping it can be a great deal. </p>
<p>We have found that express shipping will get the used books there soon & it will still be a bargain. Don’t use media mail if you need it soon … it can take up to a month. It usually doesn’t, but when it does …</p>
<p>Once you have your classes, go on the VU bookstore site & look up the class & section. You’ll see the book(s) there. Pay attention to edition.</p>
<p>not that many people ride bikes on campus. i only see a few a day. i would say you don’t really need one and you might feel weird riding a bike around campus during heavy traffic times (in between classes) because you will probably find yourself getting in the way. the walk isn’t THAT bad. if you have multiple classes on main campus, people find themselves staying on main campus and not necessarily going back to their rooms.</p>
<p>I got a bike for my freshman year because it seemed like it would be useful for the walk between main campus and Peabody. However, for most of the trips I took, there were people all over the place, so it was a big inconvenience to get around. If you’re going to be going back and forth a lot excluding the times that most of the classes are in session (maybe 8-2 or so), it might be useful to have a bike; otherwise, I would say to be observant of the sidewalk load as you walk to and from classes and make the decision to buy a bike after getting on campus.</p>
<p>Also, another thing to consider is just how much having a bike would help; the trips are so short that I personally didn’t seem to save much time from using the bike, even when there weren’t many people around.</p>
<p>In the end, I compromised by just walking quickly wherever I needed to go.</p>