<p>How accurate are the books listed with the course section? Is it worth it to search for them used ahead of time or do students often find out during the first day of class that things have changed? Or is it simply hit or miss?</p>
<p>My boys say to wait until they find out what they really need after classes start.</p>
<p>I would wait until after the first day of class to buy books. Sometimes professors announce that he/she does not require a book for their class.</p>
<p>Thanks! </p>
<p>i would go ahead and find at least the main book, and anything else that appears to be a required supplement (lab book, etc). </p>
<p>I would be afraid to wait til the first day to start finding/buying all books because it can sometimes take several days or more to get used books online. </p>
<p>You can always email the prof ahead of time and politely mention that you are shopping for books and ask if any of the listed books (include the list) wont be used and if there are any needed books/supplies that aren’t on the list. </p>
<p>If there is an iffy book, i would buy it from the supestore, keep the receipt/dont open it, and then return it the first week if not needed. My younger son did this a couple of times. sometimes he also bought from the supe store, but also searched for used, and then quickly returned the supestore one if a cheaper one was found.</p>
<p>M2ck, that is exactly what we have done with our older kids. Ds came home from BB saying that they told them not to buy books until after their first classes. I know going that route is going to increase costs significantly, but the flip side is we have purchased unnecessary books used before and were stuck with the loss. That is why ia asked. I wondered if the books listed were not very accurate and hence the advice at BB.</p>
<p>I think we’ll probably buy the major texts.</p>
<p>My D has not had a class yet where the book listed for the course section was not used. Her only book snafu was for a class where the book was NOT listed - she emailed the prof and was given the wrong info so ended up buying two books. Fortunately both were older editions and they were less than $20 in total. We have always ended up spending a lot more when D waited until the first day of class - at that point it’s harder to find inexpensive used books, and if you find them you have to pay for expedited shipping. FWIW, during her first year we bought fairly inexpensive used books. Sophomore year she had classes where we couldn’t find inexpensive books and she ended up renting. She had one semester where she spent more for codes than for books!</p>
<p>Having Amazon Prime helps a lot, especially with a discounted student memberships. Order the book and it will arrive 2 days later around 10am or 3pm depending on which UPS truck it’s placed on. Occasionally, orders placed on Thursday and scheduled to arrive on Saturday will arrive on Friday.</p>
<p>Depending on the course, an international edition of the textbook might save you a lot of money. A lot of sellers offer 3 day shipping (check) the item listing for details. It often makes more sense to purchase access codes online instead of buying them at the Supestore individually or as part of a package as the Supestore often has to buy them from the online merchant at the same price anyone can purchase them.</p>
<p>SEA_Tide, I’ve been tempted by international editions a few times, but I’ve heard that the problem sets at the end of a chapter can be different from the US book, or in a different order. It seems that would make homework problems difficult. Have you run into that? Anyone else have experience with international editions?</p>
<p>Textbook publishers will put all sorts of warnings on international editions stating that they might be different than the US edition. In reality, the majority of international editions are only different in that they are softcover and have different cover art. Occasionally international editions will be on lower quality paper and printed in black and white, but it’s usually easy to tell these editions apart as they’re only distributed to certain countries and the sellers will usually note that they are selling such a version.</p>
<p>Occasionally, it’s less expensive to order US editions of textbooks from sellers in the UK, though once again pay attention to estimated shipping times.</p>
<p>DS rented textbooks for a couple of his dual enrollment classes this year. One was from efollett through the college bookstore and the other was through Chegg. It saved us quite a bit of money and both experiences were good.</p>
<p>Tip from roommate’s mom: one of the major online textbook sellers (Chegg, I think) allows you to buy the book, and while it is being shipped, they will give you an online code for free, to use until the book arrives. </p>
<p>I used Chegg this previous semester and loved it. They do indeed give you access to the online book while your books are being shipped. I also paid less than half of what I would buying through the book store at my previous university. </p>
<p>Any reason UA doesn’t let you charge books though? At my previous university you could charge books that you purchased through the book store to your account and pay for it with financial aid or your payment plan, but doesn’t seem to be the case at UA.</p>
<p>I believe there is a way to do this, and it is worth checking into. You apparently have to have a credit on your student account, and then the Bookstore will allow them to be charged against the account? Something like that - you need to have this prearranged tho - my S never bothered to find out, because it was just too complicated for his liking.</p>
<p>That does sound complicated. We just scanned our student IDs at checkout the books were billed to our student accounts, just like tuition and everything else.</p>
<p>Unless you have a textbook scholarship, UA doesn’t want to bill books to your student account and then have to wait almost 2 months to collect the money as student account balances are only due a couple times each semester. </p>