Hey everyone, I don’t know if I sound misinformed or whatever but I’m just wondering as to when we should start looking into books for the first semester. Is there a list posted somewhere? Do we find out during the first few days of classes? How does this process work?
The books you need will be in your syllabus (document with a book list, course expectations/grading, and assignments for the class). Some professors will email this, or it may be on the website BC uses for classes (I can’t even remember what this is called - yikes! You won’t be expected to know unless they’ve somehow emailed you about it, or click around on your agora portal and you may find the website - it’s like blackboard if you’re familiar with that platform) others hand it out on the first day. On your agora portal there should be a way to search for old syllabi so you can have a better idea of what you’ll need/how much it will cost, but I’d consider waiting until classes start unless your professor emails you the syllabus. Book lists often change from year to year, and you don’t want to have to pay for a bunch of books you won’t use. Even if you need the books in your first week professors are usually pretty flexible, may have their own extra copies, or you can use the on in the library.
Also, don’t buy books from the bookstore unless you have to. They’re nearly always more expensive and you’ll barely get anything for selling them back at the end of the year. Get used things on amazon or other websites.
Students get free Amazon Prime for 6 months, so sign up right when you get to school (not earlier), and you can use that to quickly order needed books, and you can do that for the first two semesters. But don’t forget to cancel it if you don’t want to pay to continue.
If you know which course and sections you are registered for, you can go right to the BC Bookstore website to find out which books are required for that course. You can then copy down the ISBN and try to find the book cheaper online. If you can’t find a better price online (sometimes the books are BC specific), you can just buy it through the bookstore, in advance or when you get on campus.