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 experience is a decade old, but it was vastly different amounts each quarter, depending on courses taken, and which year it was (i.e., first year was the worst). Basic science classes are the most expensive – the up-to-date text plus lab book tended to be in the range of $150-$200 new. Rental options were just beginning to pop up then; now they may be the norm, with digital books and no physical copy. Going with a prior edition is definitely do-able, but it takes a confident, sophisticated student to be comfortable with that. Some HUM and SOSC classes involved buying lots of books, others operated almost entirely by .pdf, with the kids paying a fee. Number of books and cost seemed to go down year by year as kids advanced.
Almost anything can be acquired used on campus, if your kid is willing to put in the effort.
Amazon worked best for me, at least for books they were buying. Sometimes you could save an extra $1 or $2 by using another site, but it was rarely worth the trouble of looking on multiple sites for multiple books – that can take real time – and Amazon’s free prime shipping tends to seal the deal. Even where something isn’t eligible for free shipping, Amazon is a much more reliable, efficient shipper than most.
The cost of books is heavily depending on the courses taken. For example some science books were ridiculously expensive while for some English classes my D was able to get a lot of used paperbacks from Amazon for very little money. In general Amazon worked well for my kids.
0 if you learn how to find things in the reg
I think the average is ~$100 but it’s skewed by quarters of no books and quarters of many, many books. You can always look up what classes are making people buy at https://www.semcoop.com/coursebooks if you want to see a more accurate answer.
My daughter spent $324 her first quarter. She purchased her Calc. and (non-major) Phy. Sci. books on Amazon and purchased Hum and Sosc. books at the Seminary Co-op. 2nd quarter was a bit more reasonable as she was using the same Calc. book 
and her 2nd course of Phy Sci. just used handouts; book purchases were all for Hum and Sosc. so $185 that quarter. 3rd quarter she had a history course (lots of books) as well as third quarter of Sosc so $263 at the Sem. Coop. Neither Core Bio or Arts Core required any book purchase. So that’s $772 total for her.
Some books can be purchased on Amazon if it’s a standard text book and you know you are getting the same edition (check the ISBN number or whatever it’s called to be sure). For particular sources in core Hum or Sosc. Seminary Coop will be your friend, esp. as you’ll want to get the exact version that the prof. specifies.
If you run into a couple of classes that require codes, you can be at $300 before you know it.
A lot of the Hum and Sosc texts are in the public domain, so there are lots of editions out there and many can be purchased used for next to nothing. The problem is that in those courses, at least for lots of the texts, editions really do matter, especially when translations are involved. The Iliad translations by Whyatt, Fitzgerald, Lattimore, Fagels, and Alexander – not to mention a dozen lower-quality versions – might just as well be different books. On the other hand, different translations of Machiavelli or Weber may not matter as much.
Bingo.
Most of my Hum/Sosc professors specified a particular edition of the book. Spending a minute frantically trying to extrapolate page numbers from a different edition won’t make class discussions a lot of fun. This is a challenge across most authors/texts, even if the translation is similar.
To the thread’s original question: my expenses as a first-year were quite high - maybe $600 for HUM/SOSC (took 3 quarters of both), $50 for my calc textbooks, and about $300 in books for various electives.
Second year was much cheaper; I spent $186.97 buying books, $9.38 on a pair of managerial cases, $25.45 on a textbook rental via Amazon, and exactly $3 on a box to return said rental.
I could be wrong, but odds are I’ll spend that amount on books for Civ alone next year. Otherwise, I’m not sure what to expect.
A common theme in social science subjects, particularly with younger professors, has been a movement towards online journal articles. Most of these are accessible to anyone on the UChicago network (or anyone using the UChicago proxy server). This saves money, reduces clutter, makes bookbags lighter, and keeps a few trees alive, so personally I’m a fan. YMMV.
^^ My daughter’s 3-quarter CIV sequence next year would be $400 all-in at the Coop, assuming she can get 100% of what’s specified as “used” (which won’t happen). Some of the editions might be a bit cheaper on Amazon but a quick perusal suggests that the savings wouldn’t be much. My college kids have had pretty good luck ordering at least some of their books on Amazon but every once in a while something won’t show up when it’s supposed to. With the Seminary Coop at least you’re in the same boat as the prof - and if something needs to be returned, as happened with one book in Hum because the prof ordered the wrong version accidentally, you and your classmates can just walk over there and swap out your book. When multiple books are needed for the course - not uncommon in Core Hum or Civ - it can be a major headache-saver just to use the Coop.
Just happened to come across DDs credit card charges.
2nd year, STEM major taking Sosc this year. Winter Q $150, Spring Q $120. I think fall was similar.
As a first year, I’m going to guess it averaged about $200/Q?
Has mostly taken core requirements and is all done with those other than Civ at this point.
For all classes, I’d wait to buy your books until O-Week. You’ll have a full week to check out the Sem Co-op in person and you’ll probably see a lot of posts in the Free & For Sale Facebook group too that might be useful (buying books from other students can seriously reduce costs). The real reason for waiting, though, is because most classes don’t require all the books at once, with some professors even giving you a brief grace period to buy books once you see the syllabus during first week. Staggering your purchases instead of front-loading everything may help offset the financial burden. On top of that, with HUM, SOSC, and some CIVs, you should be able to borrow books for free from the Center for College Student Success in Harper W406. If you’ll be reading books that you don’t plan on reading again, there’s really no need to buy them.
I would recommend trying to buy ebooks. A lot cheaper! Plus if you buy an actual PDF file you wont have to worry about being connected to internet to view book. The classes that require access codes usually come with a digital ebook already. Here’s a link hope it helps www.facebook.com/EbookCentralDiamond