Books

<p>Now that the classes are selected, it time to think about books. There seems to be several options for books - buy new or used from the campus book store, rent, or buy from a third party (amazon). Recent and current Vandy students - What do you do?</p>

<p>Next question is when to buy them. If a book is recommended, do you wait until the first day of class to find out how recommended it is. S has two classes with recommended material - a non-math book for multivariable calculus (bookstore ~ $70 new hardback, amazon ~ $17 new paperback) and 9 CDs for a music literature class (can't figure out why the music is not available as an mp3). If I buy the book and CDs as a combined set from amazon, it's ~ $100 less expensive. But then does he really need the CDs.</p>

<p>The Vanderbilt bookstore is more expensive than third-party retailers. I would go would buy used to save money, from Amazon or any number of used-textbook sites on the web. </p>

<p>Also, it is probably best to wait until the first week of August to order textbooks, as sometimes students change their schedule during the add/drop period, which would involve returning books for the dropped class. Such can only be done relatively soon after ordering (with Amazon, for instance, it is 30 days after ordering I believe). </p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>One thing to keep in mind is the factor of textbook buy-back on campus at the Vandy Barnes and Noble. If you are taking an obscure class that is not offered very often, it is less likely you can sell your books back to campus book store, and perhaps more attractive to order from Amazon with Amazon Prime or from an online bookseller of your choice. We also scour abebooks.com. Student Amazon prime is worth every penny as is Amazon Prime for adults.<br>
When buying used books, shipping is usually the deal breaker on whether or not you are saving money or creating a problem for yourself. One caveat in our experience is that it can be a mistake to buy the cheapest version of a book online when shipping is not clearly laid out. Bookrate shipping can be regrettable. We had a few “bargains” that son regretted as books arrived by slow poke pony express. Another heads up is to order immediately a teacher posts books. A couple of times book titles in the proper editions were sold out. (recently the proper version of a Congressional Record compilation was sold out…and they have to go to press to make more.)
Courses that a lot of students take have texts that can be sold back on campus at end of term, and this is a vote for not bothering to buy online. Unlike in the 70s in my era, students didn’t seem to be buying from each other anymore.</p>

<p>I always recommend Half.com for books. I found it to be the best price most of the time.</p>

<p>I just have my kid deal with the books. It is not my problem.</p>

<p>You can now rent books too. Don’t know how the price compares to buy, then sell back. </p>

<p>Usually you can sell back almost any book, but at a lot of campus bookstores, they will give you more for the book if it is on a professor’s list for the next semester. If it goes to wholesale you will get pennies for it. The buyback price changes kind of like an airline ticket, except when there is demand, the financial outcome is in the student’s favor.</p>

<p>Agree with Faline2 – got burned by a slow shipping book last summer.</p>

<p>A few more questions about books:</p>

<p>Looking at the books online in YES and it seems like some of the isbn numbers do not match up with the textbooks from other sellers. Is the Vanderbilt BN changing the isbn numbers?</p>

<p>If you want to buy used books, how do you ensure that you will also have the online access code if that is required? If you select the used book option from the Vanderbilt BN will it include the online access code? How about other online sellers? </p>

<p>Will books be added on YES for the ES140 modules, or are there just no books for those classes?</p>

<p>If you are counting on the financial aid to pay for the books, how can you get the money from Vanderbilt to buy or reimburse for books bought from sellers other than the Vanderbilt BN? If you have excess financial aid in your account after all tuition, room and board, fees, commodore cash selection, etc., can you convert that to cash?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>Two more questions: If planning to buy all the books at Vanderbilt BN, should the estimated cost of the books be added to the commodore card before the July 15 deadline?</p>

<p>If you end up with too much money on the commodore card, can it be put back into your student account?</p>

<p>When an access code is bundled with a textbook, a new ISBN is generated by the publisher to cover that bundle. Also, if an instructor chooses a custom published text (say 10 out of 15 available chapters) a different ISBN is generated for that. Publishers are looking for ways to insure that students buy new books, e-books, and/or online homework codes from them because the industry is changing so much and their profits have been significantly impacted. Instructors are required to provide an ISBN now so that students can comparison shop, but that can be misleading. I teach at a cc and I can only select one option for my students to see when they view the instructional materials for my classes. However, I try to let students know via Blackboard that they can buy used textbooks from other sources and buy online access codes directly from the publisher (this cuts out the bookstore adding a markup and the bookstores don’t want students to know this). It’s not realistic to think that most of your professors are attending to their e-mail in the middle of summer, but later you can contact them to check on options. </p>

<p>BTW, many college instructors sell their review copies to book buyers who resell them via online resources, etc. or the instructors sell the copies themselves on amazon.com. The book market will become much more active with attractive prices on unused desk copies as instructors returning from summer vacations start trying to offload these texts in August. If you use expedited shipping, you should be able to acquire the text in a timely manner via one of the online sources. I’m speaking about standard texts here and not the unusual kind of instructional materials that Faline2 mentions above.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I would recommend waiting until a few weeks into the semester before buying books. Over 4 years at Vandy I bought maybe 4 or 5 books and ultimately really only used one of them. Occasionally I had to quick reference a page somewhere, but then it’s trivially easy to a) find an electronic version online (90% of the time), b) find it in the library (9%), or c) look at a friend’s copy (1%).</p>

<p>Moodrets;</p>

<p>Major? Perhaps that matters?</p>

<p>@vandyswim: EEOB/EES, though I flirted with a PHIL minor and took a few courses in other departments for fun, and AXLE. Upper level courses tended to forego textbooks entirely and instead assign a few papers/week instead, which were free to access with campus-wide subscriptions.</p>

<p>Oh, and @idklol: I’m pretty sure most used books don’t come with the online HW access codes, but I was always able to buy those separately (never did figure out a free way out of that, which sucks because they typically cost $50+). </p>

<p>To cash out your student account excess, submit one of these: [Undergraduate</a> Student Account Balance Refund<em>|</em>Undergraduate<em>|</em>Student Accounts<em>|</em>Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/stuaccts/undergraduate/refund.php]Undergraduate”>Undergraduate Student Account Balance Refund | Undergraduate | Student Accounts | Vanderbilt University) . Pretty sure you can do this for commodore card money too.</p>

<p>Also, a couple of times I bought older editions of books for pittance (eg, $2 + $5 shipping) and upon later comparison they were nigh identical to the $150 new versions classmates had, and though they ended up collecting dust I was only out a few bucks. Could try this if worried about being bookless from the start.</p>

<p>Pancaked, do you have any advice on my questions about books, used books and using financial aid to pay for them? Thank you!</p>

<p>You can’t move commodore cash back into another account, but the money carries over from semester to semester, and your student won’t have any trouble finding ways to use it. The cabs in the area and many restaurants take the Commodore Card so, even if your student doesn’t use it all up on books, he or she will find other ways to use it. It can also be used to buy tickets for campus events like concerts. And, yes, put the money on the card before July 15 if you plan to use it to buy books.</p>

<p>We’ve bought most of my D’s books used from Amazon. MUCH cheaper than buying new.</p>

<p>No books for ES140.</p>

<p>if you’re buying with Commodore Cash, yeah, put the money on your account by the upcoming deadline. But you don’t have to buy them with Commodore Cash, you can just just a credit card.</p>

<p>If you are using financial aid to pay for your books, uhh, I don’t really know how it works. I think you have to buy the books with Commodore Cash and somehow it will come out of your financial aid… Or you can buy it with your own funds and get a check at the end of the year for the balance on your account… You should contact the financial aid department if you’re confused.</p>

<p>Feel free to repeat any question that hasn’t been answered but looks like people have covered them all.</p>

<p>Yah, like I said, you can cash out your financial aid whenever via the form. Though the numbers for me were usually screwy. If you don’t have savings you can dip into before school starts email the financial aid office.</p>