<p>To all current brown students, how much did you have to spend for first semester books? Is the estimate of $1360 per semester accurate? To be more exact so far I plan to take intro neuro, intro chem and Math 350 honors calc. How much more did you save by shopping through amazon rather than the bookstore or are the prices close enough that after shipping the bookstore is cheaper?</p>
<p>Amazon tends to save about 10-15%. You can probably do better, especially by buying used or looking elsewhere, but I stick to Amazon and Barnes and Noble. If you use Barnes and Noble, you’ll get free shipping if you spend more than a certain amount ($50, I think), so it’s certainly cheaper than the bookstore.</p>
<p>That estimate is not per semester, but per year, based on the Brown website. I generally spend about that much, sometimes more. I suspect you’ll find that total roughly accurate or perhaps a bit high, based on Brown Bookstore prices. Sciences/math tend to require a single larger, reasonably expensive textbook. My most expensive courses have been in classics rather than math or computer science.</p>
<p>I usually use Amazon with Amazon Prime for most things. Sometimes, especially for some of my music courses, books are only available at the bookstore. I would say that in general I’ve spent about $300 per semester on books, but I’ve been lucky. You can also try to buy books from other students; I know I have some I need to get off my hands.</p>
<p>agreed with about $300/semester. CS/APMA classes quite often don’t require a book, which helps a lot…</p>
<p>Science courses tend to have texts that are more expensive. You can reserve your texts for pick up via the Brown bookstore on-line and specify used. The Brown bookstore price for used is often just as good or better than some other sources and is the only place that is really easy to return if you don’t need the book. Some texts (and reprints of articles etc) are only available via the bookstore, although more and more profs are going green and just using on-line readable sources.
The whole “shopping” for classes thing means that with the exception of those course you know 100% that you are taking and not changing in your schedule, you may end up buying as much as 75% of your texts after classes start, so be aware of speed of shipping with on-line sellers, reliability ratings etc. That said, shopping at least 1-2 diff on line sources can net big bargains. Also for a lot of courses, you may be able to get away with an older edition of the text. Check if you can with students who have taken the course before (to see if they have texts to sell, as well as to see if there are specific problem sets assigned). Another option, is to possibly share a text with hallmates who are taking the same class. Particularly works well for those who are study buddies any way, but can have it’s problems. Also be aware that if your package of texts is large and sent by UPS etc, it will likely to go to a less convenient pick up spot on campus and may be a bit harder to get for the first week or so of school.</p>
<p>I think $300ish a semester is good - of course it depends on the classes. I actually got by last semester having spent nothing on books. I downloaded my principles of econ book as a pdf, got an interlibrary loan for books for two of my other classes (CS and a theater class), and for my anthro class, used books on reserve at the library/borrowed my friends books. If you are concerned about the cost of books, many professors will put extra copies on reserve at the rock, and you can borrow them for around 3 hours normally at a time. So if you don’t mind just going to the rock to do your work, this saves a lot of money. This semester, so far, I have spent about $100…will probably end up spending around $200 depending on the final classes I decide on.</p>
<p>I really want to take whatever courses you all are taking that only cost $300 in books a term. This is the first term I’ve had since sophomore fall where I haven’t had a class with at least $300 of books…</p>
<p>$300??? Get the FUC.K out of here! I buy all my books from half.com, way cheaper than amazon, and I still spend at least $500-600 per semester. I mean, yeah, if you take some BS classes that don’t require books or textbooks than yeah, you can get by spending a few hundred. But any science/econ/math/engineering class will require a textbook ($100-200), any polysci/history/anthro/english class will require 6-8 nonfiction books or novels ($100-150), so multiplied by 4 classes that’s a shi.t ton of money.</p>
<p>@JFV, are you taking sciences/math courses? what is the rock and is it close to any particular dorm?</p>
<p>@BrownAlum, where is the pick up spot if the package is large and sent from UPS, and couldn’t I instruct UPS to come to my dorm or to the some building like admissions to deliver the package? Also, is there a forum or way to get in touch with other students who have taken the courses, since I’ll be a freshman and only know some other freshmen?</p>
<p>@rob, does that also apply to general math courses such as calc and linear algebra?</p>
<p>@Uroogla, oh didn’t expect amazon to be that much cheaper and can’t you get free shipping using amazon prime. The estimator in my fin aid package on selfservice.brown.edu(think I saw someone call it banner) was the indicator I had been using which differed GREATLY from the one on brown.edu from 1360 a semester to 660 a semester.</p>
<p>One last question, do you get to use extra PELL grant money for books?</p>
<p>thx everyone this has been very informative and relieved some stress about paying for books and such.</p>
<p>UPS packages are sent to your Brown box. It is technically not a a PO box, so delivery will go to there. Just to make it clear, if in doubt leave off the word box, just put # and it won’t confuse carriers that say"will not deliver to po box". UPS will NOT deliver to dorms (can’t get in) or to admissions (lol). At the beginning of the semester (at least a few years ago, I think still pertains) large boxes (anything larger than a USPS large priority box in my experience) is sent to a pick up center that is near the grad center.</p>
<p>My students books for this semester (5 classes, 3 science) are $270 if rented via Chegg (got to be willing to not mark up the books), or about $360 if bought used from a combination of Amazon and ECampus. And yes, Amazon has a free shipping if you have Amazon Prime which a student can enroll in for free. Also another nice thing to do is to pick your favorite charity, go to their web site and find their amazon link button. By going to Amazon through that way, the charity gets as much as 5% donation from Amazon.</p>
<p>The rock is the Rockefeller Library. </p>
<p>And I took a Comp sci (cs15) last semester. I borrowed the book through an interlibrary loan - you can look on the brown library page for info on that. You can actually find a lot of books that way. I also took principles of econ, and I was able to download that is an ebook…which was dirt cheap. And for my TAPS030 class, I borrowed the books from the rock, as well as for my anthro class. I am in a math class this semester, and found an ebook of the book as well. And for my sociology class this semester, the professor put all of the books on reserve at the library, so I don’t plan on purchasing them. </p>
<p>You can get by surprisingly cheap if you really look into all other options such as renting, buying and selling back on amazon, borrowing from the library, finding the ebook online, or simply using the course reserves at the Rock…everything but purchasing the books from the bookstore.</p>