<p>I do not have a whole lot of spending money and my mother is not able to help me with extra costs due to a family death, so books are becoming an issue. I don’t know if I can afford such high costs. How do such people obtain the books/material necessary for their classes? Are certain books online in some form? What can be done?</p>
<p>See if you can get a good deal on used books from someones else.
My cousin was lacking in book money before, so she bought her books and photocopied all the pages, and then returned the book.</p>
<p>How long do we have to do this? When is the latest we can return books for full-refund?</p>
<p>i have no idea, my cousin pulled that stunt off at pace. But I'm sure they can give you refund, just don't refund at end of semester cause the value will drastically decrease.</p>
<p>I believe there is a full refund withing the first week of classes. I read that somewhere st the bookstore.</p>
<p>Please disregard all of the typos. :(</p>
<p>Amazon and on...marketplace is good for bargains, but be aware that you might not be able to get the latest editions very cheaply. Some profs don't mind you using an old textbook, others (mostly science classes) stipulate the latest edition.
You can also try asking profs to help you out...very often they will be sent a complimentary copy (or two) of the books they assign, and they might be willing to give/loan them to you.
For humanities/social science classes, you might want to try 2nd hand book stores: The Last Word is right on campus at 39th and Walnut, and The Book Trader on 2nd and Market is also good.</p>
<p>Try the library too, and borrow direct/ez book if someone beat you to the book in Van Pelt. Some profs will also put all the reading material on reserve, which is awfully nice of them.</p>
<p>Bulkpacks are the major issue that's hard to avoid. Many professors are starting to make bulkpacks optional, and putting the readings on blackboard so you can read online and print out anything you really need to. You can also try getting bulkpacks from previous years, although they do tend to change a bit...again, ask your professors and they might just help you out.</p>
<p>There's also places like textbook exchange and so on, googling "cheap textbooks" will bring up a bunch of links, but for the most part I tend to stick with amazon, or used book stores in the area. Or you could just look for people who've already taken the class, or who wouldn't mind book sharing.
The drawback with ordering online is that you have to wait a week or two to get the books, but the best solution I've found to this is just to go and do your reading in the bookstore, they keep texts in stock for the first three weeks or so of class.</p>
<p>Beware of doing the photocopying trick though, as if the book is shrinkwrapped you can only return it in the original condition. Bizarrely though, you can just take off the wrapping in the bookstore and have a good old browse without anyone having a go at you.</p>
<p>I spent $134 on about 7 textbooks ordered from Amazon (while that will take $700 if you buy them from the bookstore--even 2nd-hand ones.)</p>
<p>The bookstore told me that they give whole refunds to those who return textbooks by September 21 (within 2 weeks of classes) and have the original receipt to show. Also, if you buy textbooks after Sept 21, you can return it with the same policy within 2 days. I do that (bought and will return books) to get books I need for the placement exams.</p>
<p>Amazon accepts return w/ full refunds (you just have to mail the books back) within 30 days of purchase. So do it.</p>
<p>Wharton repographics... I lost 45 min of my life to that line, as well as a chunk of change. Bursar though...</p>
<p>I'll have to investigate that used bookstore, even if just for fun reading. Used bookstores are usually cool places.</p>