<p>My daughter just called me and said she got the last copy of the Chem 141 text book (a new copy, as all the used copies were gone). It was $161, which is about $26 more than Amazon.com and upwards of $50-60 more than what is available elsewhere online, etc.</p>
<p>I told her to buy the copy she had in her hands since an assignment is due on Thursday, but how do students deal with books for classes?</p>
<p>Hey...I'm a freshman here at Emory now. The chem books...when I was in the book store before classes started, there were 2 stacks of them to the ceiling. Now, though, some of my friends are having trouble gettting books too. I got my chem book from home because I thought I'd need it for the placement test. </p>
<p>Anyway, I know the books are expensive, and I'm probably going to try to talk to my professors to see exactly when we need the books. Hopefully, they'll understand the price of them and let me order through Amazon or something becaue the prices here are just rediculous. I got my through an Amazon retailer brand new for under 100. </p>
<p>Also, I think that chem is probably the only class that's having the book problem. There are supposedly TONS of people who enrolled in chem this year primarily for two reasons. First off, our class is huge! I hear it's the biggest class at Emory (drop in admissions? :)) and just about every other person I meet is going premed. Second of all, the biology department changed their requirements so that befor taking bio, all entering students must either have had or concurrently take Chem 141. With all the premeders here, I can understand how they'd be out of chem books. On a side note, my roomate spent $700 on books from here. I told him to buy from amazon but to not unwrap any of these books unless absolutely necessary. You can return books if they're unopened. The problem, however, arises when you have an assignment due and you just unwrap a textbook and your amazon book's already shipped...</p>
<p>just throwing my 2 cents in...</p>
<p>One of my professors actually recommended buying our books on Amazon.com rather than at the book store. </p>
<p>Chemistry is a troublesome class to get this year, for the reasons aforementioned. To me, it seems it is almost a weeder class. I feel as if the student who likes chemistry and wants to take chem141 but is NOT pre-med is really the one that loses out -- heck -- the lower level chem class doesn't even count for a GER.</p>
<p>Apparently one of the reasons so many people are taking chem141 is also because they changed the passing score on the exam. Keep in mind that this is word of mouth, but apparently there was a set score to what was passing and what was not, so there were many people (that I heard of) who were disappointed because they did not pass the exam, but at the last minute, some of them got in with scores that had previously not been considered passing. I'm not sure if I am explaining myself well, but that is just what I heard.</p>
<p>Either way, buying used books is the way to go, especially since most of them are pretty much new anyway. If you look through them, you are VERY likely to find one without a single mark in it. I'll admit that even then the prices at the bookstore are incredibly ridiculous. I've spent about $350 on all of my books, 5 of which I had to get new (I have 15 total but most of them are small novel-like books - if even that - for a philosophy course). I am definitely intending to sell most, if not all, of them back to the bookstore at the end of the semester (especially the really expensive ones). Does anyone know what the regulations are for selling them back? For example, do they give you 50% 20% 10% etc etc of your money back? Or does the condition of the book depend on what they pay you, regardless of whether you bought it in that condition or not, etc etc..?</p>
<p>So would a good score on Chemistry SAT II in high school avoid all that first-year chemistry hassle? Or is it required no matter what?</p>
<p>if you intend to take general chemistry you have to take the placement test. if you have ap credit ( a four or five on the exam) and intent to take organic chem as a freshman then it is required. the sat 2 test score will not do anything to affect placement.</p>
<p>We were advised that books would average between $350 and $400 per semester, and son's fell comfortably within that range. However, he is not taking chem or any science classs, which may account for the difference in price. (He started out applying to college as a pre-med but changed his mind by spring and is now one of 15 students on campus who is not aiming for med school!)</p>
<p>Too bad the prof can't put one or two copies of the text on library reserve for the first weeks of the semester, given the present shortage and inflated price. That's not a permanent solution, but it might help tide students over until they can get their own copy for a reasonable amount. If nothing else, students would be able to copy the first chapter or two until their own text comes in. I've done this before in teaching western civ.</p>
<p>make that one of 16 freshman who is not a premed student. thanks to this thread, i discovered he should not be in bio 141. not sure all FAME faculty advisors are created equal. luckily, once i pointed it out, he dropped and added on OPUS this a.m. and all is well with the world again.</p>
<p>the bookstore is RIDICULOUS, i remember last yr, several of my books could not be resold back to the bookstore b/c they were no longer used or an older edition, also the ones that I could actually sell back, I got MUCH LESS than 50% for...some 20% if I were lucky.
Like they say, college is a business</p>