<p>I’m sure this is obvious, but if you do order an international edition from a major vendor like Amazon, remember to add plenty of time for shipping. D did this with an organic chemistry text this year. The book was new, perfect, and certainly less expensive than anything we could find here, but it didn’t arrive until two weeks after class had started. She was lucky she was able to borrow a friend’s text while she was waiting.</p>
<p>Many times books are shipped media mail which can be very, very slow. Usually not too bad, figure a couple of weeks, but I have had books take over a month. My suggestion is to not wait til the end of the summer to order books.</p>
<p>you can often save tons by getting international editions. Just make sure they are the same. The savings can be amazing. D’s cost was $500/semester this past year for.</p>
<p>How do you know that these international editions aren’t bootlegged? Who are the international publishers? Do they pay royalties to the American publishers and the authors? I ask these questions as a published author, and I have my doubts whether these are in fact “legitimate” copies and legitimately contracted/sold. Anybody know?</p>
<p>My daughter’s books (intended bio major) cost around $800 for first semester of her freshman year. Her Calc, chemistry and bio texts were used second semester as well so the bill for additional books this Spring was only $300. She’ll bypass the college bookstore next year if at all possible by participating in an informal student coop. She’s buying most of her books from some 2nd and third-year bio students who will charge less than the bookstore’s “used book” price, but more than those students would get by selling their books back to the college store. For those books she can’t get this way there is always Amazon.</p>
<p>
International editions are published for students in other countries, because people in Asia can’t afford $300 USD for a single textbook XD Yes, they are legal and yes they pay royalties… They are sold at my national university (in Singapore)</p>
<p>In Vietnam you can buy paper photocopies of textbooks, but those can’t pass as real textbooks, just bound stacks of paper photocopies…</p>
<p>Our son was a compsci/cogsci major and rarely spent more than $150/semester on books. It possible for most students to do this if they are saavy.</p>
<p>My DD is sophomore Theater/Political Science/Environmental Policy(yes all three) major—I budget $400/quarter-$1200/year. Sometimes she can get used books-Amazon or Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay share. I will relay info about the rental site-may prove really helpful-thanks!</p>
<p>If you buy all the latest edition and newest textbooks you can expect $300-700 per semester. </p>
<p>To add to the suggestions going around on how to save:</p>
<p>–I think science classes are easier to save on because it’s easier to find one textbook cheap than a bunch of smaller books cheaper. </p>
<p>I spent $60 for textbooks last fall semester and $140 this semester. I also sell a lot of used textbooks, so I think for 4 semesters of college, I’ve spent less than $400 total on textbooks. There are a lot of ways to do this.</p>
<p>1) Ask your professor if you can use a previous edition. Most will say yes and in my experience, there is usually very little difference between editions. I got away fall semester with buying the previous edition for $1 plus shipping…for a total of $5.
My total cost: $5
What could’ve been:
New–$120
Used from bookstore–$84
Used on Amazon at the time–around $50.
2) As you move through college, you know more and more people–some of whom may have already taken a class you plan to take. And if you’re good friends, sometimes they’ll lend it to you for the semester or do a swap with one of your other books. One of my friends lent me his neuro textbook and in exchange I’ll lend him my econ textbook when he takes the course.
My total cost: $0
What could’ve been:
New–$110
Used from the bookstore: $77
Used from Amazon: $40
3) Buy used online—and shop around. I managed to find a really nice deal online on ebay.
My total cost: $60
What could’ve been:
New—$180
Used from bookstore–$126
Used from Amazon at the time(prices have dropped since then): ~$100</p>
<p>4) Sell them online or in person if you can find people who need them. Esp. for intro science courses, freshmen need those year in year out, so if you have a way to reach them, try that. </p>
<p>I do this for all my classes, but I picked some of the best examples over the years where using these ideas in combination I spent $65 on what could’ve been $410 new, $287 used from the bookstore, and $150 online. Technically getting one free isn’t typical, but even if you just use examples 1 and 3, that’s $65 instead of $300 new, $204 used from bookstore, and $150 online.</p>
<p>Also take into account that I sold some of these textbooks—for example, I sold #3 for $80 and made a $20 profit. Selling back to the bookstore is usually not the greatest choice. I sell online or to people in person. In general, the bookstore offers convenience, but will cost you far more for both buying and selling.</p>
<p>If you are going to shop online, do it sooner rather than later. Last week I bought a “like new” astronomy textbook online for $15, for the fall semester. Had I waited till July or August, wouldn’t have gotten that great deal. At the bookstore, new copies were $150 and used were $115. </p>
<p>As a humanities major, books usually cost me around $250-$350 per semester. Most I’ve spent - $500, least $200.</p>
<p>justbreathe-bingo! Yes you are saavy like my son who used the suggestions you posted. The big saver-earlier editions. Content was always the same with changes typically to graphics, layout, and numbering of chapterend problem sets.</p>
<p>For his humnities classes he also borrowed books from the college library if available.</p>
<p>S spends less than $200 a term on books taking 5 or 6 classes per term - most classes are math & science. I’m always surprised that no one posts about using ebooks (no hard copy). Most of the books DS uses are open text books. For spring term I believe he only had to buy books for his Japanese class. The rest of the books he needed are all online. Here’s one link to info about some open text books: [Make</a> Textbooks Affordable](<a href=“http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37633#what]Make”>http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37633#what) In addition I know there is at least one company that is selling online or e textbooks that are downloadable for less than the cost of hard copies. (I can’t find the link right now, but I’ll search for it later and post it).</p>