<p>Ok, so we don't sign up for classes until orientation the week before school, right? So I'm wondering how we buy our books... I'll probably want to buy them online and refurbished and stuff, will this give me enough time to buy them and get them and everything?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter is a first-year student - she registered for classes at orientation, then between the bookstore and online was able to purchase everything she needed (at the best prices available) in time for the beginning of classes.</p>
<p>I have bought (almost) all of my books online, every semester I’ve been at Wellesley, including my first semester. You do not need to have all your books for the first day of class–you won’t need them right away, and even if it takes a few weeks into the semester for all of your books to arrive, any required textbook will be available in one of the college libraries and you will be able to keep up with your assignments that way until your books come. </p>
<p>Directed at the world at large, I highly recommend buying books online, especially large textbooks (like econ, math, and science), which are usually quite expensive and can often be found for a fraction of the bookstore’s price. I try to buy books that are in good condition (I really don’t like other people’s notes/underlining), and I still manage to spend about half on my textbooks compared to what I would have spent if I bought them in the bookstore, which represents a significant savings (about $250/semester).</p>
<p>Edited to add: Many (most?) semesters I have at least one book that is a pain in the ass and doesn’t arrive until 3 weeks into the semester or something like that. It has never been a problem–even in classes where access to the textbook is important, like math, going to the library to study/do work is well worth the money I saved by taking a longer time to get a cheap book. Also, if you end up in a class that you are pretty sure is a “one-of”, meaning that you are pretty sure that you aren’t going to be taking any other classes in the department, it may be worth considering whether it is necessary (or highly advisable) to buy the textbook at all. For example, I took my Writing 125 class as a combined course with Art History 101, which has a large, comprehensive, expensive accompanying textbook. That textbook may be very useful as a general reference book for art history majors, but for me as a mere art history department tourist it was $100 or $150 or however many $$$s that I really didn’t need to spend. So in some ways it can be valuable to hold off on buying the textbook until you get to the course and hear what the professor has to say about it and get a look at the syllabus and can better evaluate the role that the textbook will play.</p>
<p>K thank you so much, really appreciate it!</p>
<p>I have another unrelated question and I don’t feel like posting a new thread haha… around when do we usually find out who our roommates are? Thanks again!</p>
<p>Hmmm, late June/around the beginning of July, I believe.</p>
<p>Just wanted to add; last year students on Financial Aid got a $100 credit to the bookstore in the fall. My daughter used that in her equation of where to purchase what. Of course, you don’t have to use it on books, but since we’re on a very tight budget she figured out how to use it to her best advantage.</p>
<p>The bookstore credit is a one time thing through the student aid society.</p>
<p>Also, if you are taking any class that is taught semesterly or intro level or to many students, you will have a very high likelihood of being able to purchase textbooks from another student. Wellesley is switching their email system away from FirstClass, but I imagine there will still be a place for students to buy/sell textbooks (and clothes, and dorm supplies and … other stuff) to each other.</p>
<p>@Advantagious: just out of curiosity, was Writing 125 Art history a good class? Would you recommend it?</p>
<p>@JZho: I enjoyed it. If you go to all the class meetings, it is a bit of a time commitment–there are the two ARTH 100 lectures each week, and then the writing class also meets twice a week. However, this is incentivized with the offer of double distribution requirement–it fulfills not only the writing requirement but also one unit of Art/Music/Film/etc. (which I personally needed no help with, but that’s the way it goes sometime!). Wellesley generally does not allow you to double dip on your distribution requirements, so this is an incentive. Also, while you must attend basically every of the writing class meetings (only class at Wellesley with a hard and fast attendance policy), ARTH 100 lectures are one of the few classes at Wellesley where no one will have any idea if you came or not. Obviously, the more lectures you go to the more you get out of the class, but the burden for learning the art history material is not quite as heavy on the writing students as it is on the actual art history class students. I do know people who took that class and went on to be art history majors, though, and there definitely is interaction with the art history material. </p>
<p>I looked, and the professor that I had is no longer teaching, so I don’t know if the structure will be exactly the same, but how it worked was that we wrote I think 4 moderately length essays throughout the semester, had them peer read by our classmates and read and critiqued in individual sessions with the professor, and then of course rewritten into the final product. We also did do some grammar brush-up (not as trivial as it sounds, although I don’t know how many professors do it), and at the end of the semester we had an in-class miniature art history test where we had to look at slides and identify the era/movement that they came from and explain why in a few sentences. I mention it because it came up on me as a bit of a surprise and made me spend 2 desperate days locked up in the art history library with the textbook trying to make up for the fact that I hadn’t been to many lectures in the second half of the semester :). It was only worth a moderate amount of our grade, however (10%, I believe), and overall I feel that I did have an enjoyable and productive WRIT 125 experience, which I know that definitely not everyone can say. So, with the caveat that I do not know the current professor (although she has good student word-of-mouth buzz), I would recommend the class.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, advantagious! 
I’ll definitely consider taking the class!</p>