<p>the longer you wait to buy textbooks online, the greater the chance that the lower and lowest price books will be gone- bought by other students who did not hesitate. that’s all… so for the future, when you KNOW what your next semester classes are, that’s the time to search for books online, before the last minute “Oh ,my gosh I have to look for cheap books” rush happens…</p>
<p>A great, cheap source for renting textbooks is Chegg.com. I’ve been using them since last fall and I’ve saved $700 renting them and sending them back instead of buying them at list price. My boyfriend had to get a book for his astronomy class that was $140 at his bookstore, and I found it on Chegg for $20. Seriously… USE CHEGG. They have everything anyway and they’re very lenient about sending the books back. They give you almost 2 weeks after our semester ends to return them and I think they have an unspoken grace period too because last semester I returned some books a week late and they didn’t charge me for it or anything.</p>
<p>OASIS is not as accurate as a course syllabus. The best thing to do is look through the USC Schedule of Classes (google it) and see if your professor has uploaded a syllabus. OR, try looking up the syllabus on Blackboard if it’s up. If you’re desperate you can probably email the professor/TA for that class and ask for an electronic copy of the syllabus. Regardless, the syllabus will tell you what books you ACTUALLY need. I’m taking an IML class and there were no books listed on Oasis, but in the syllabus there was one. It is definitely better to wait until the first class to buy books.</p>