<p>My D is a junior in mechanical engineering. So far we have spent $750 in books and she called this morning that she needs to order something for a lab which costs $175!</p>
<p>She did not buy anything at the campus bookstore, bought everything through Amazon or half.com. She bought some new books, but she bought used if she could. She would have spent much more if she had gone to the bookstore.</p>
<p>This is our most expensive semester and she is taking all engineering classes.</p>
<p>D is also an engineering major - I think she spent a bit over $600 total. Most expensive semester to date.</p>
<p>This semester I spent about $350. That was a LOT for what I usually spend at this school, I am used to spending $250 or less. At my old school I usually spent about $400-$450. I am not in engineering, so my books individually probably cost less than a tenth of what an engineering book does. I just have 23 of them.</p>
<p>Our engineering major graduated (woohoo) so she didn’t spend any money this semester or last. BUT we found that the semesters that were big ticket book bills, she was able to use the books for more than one term. </p>
<p>Nothing beat the first term when she spent $1200 on her books (OK…so she used MOST of them for all three quarters that year). She bought them all at the bookstore…didn’t have any idea what she needed until the last minute as she went to the orientation/class registration just before the term started. I was on my way to the airport when she called me from the bookstore. Not Good!!!</p>
<p>At my request (and on my dime), Ds buy their books new, at the campus store; the cost: $350-400/semester.</p>
<p>$80.
All on Amazon, including $15 for a used version of a textbook that would have cost $153 at the bookstore.</p>
<p>Would have been about $480 at campus bookstore - was about $310 for all new books at Amazon.</p>
<p>Books are one thing. Photo supplies are another big expense. So far, I’m in the hole $650, and she hasn’t even gotten the class supply list yet.</p>
<p>It would have been around $560 through the college bookstore. Son took that info and searched Amazon. He bought 2 used books from Amazon and the rest were new from Amazon. Cost ended being around $350. He pays for his own books. That alone was incentive for him to shop around.</p>
<p>By the way, the used books that arrived were just like new (one was still sealed).</p>
<p>Woo hoo - just $65 for her Ethics textbook from Amazon. All her other books were the same as first semester. She also spent about $20 on art supplies for her Costuming class.</p>
<p>$250 for all my humanities books, $25 for my Deductive Logic book, and $80 for spanish textbook and lab book.</p>
<p>D1 spent just under $600 first semester buying all books new at the campus bookstore. She’s a humanities/social sciences kid at a LAC known for LOTS of assigned reading, not just college textbooks but lots of additional literature/social science books. After discussing with other students, she’s now trying to buy as many books as possible online. Just ordered her econ textbook new from Amazon at a price $50 less than the campus bookstore would have charged.</p>
<p>About $200 for Child 1 (humanities, but lots of books to read). About $300 for Child 2 - big ticket items being a Chem text and an Art History text. Each shopped a mix of Amazon and the college bookstore. I’m a believer in supporting the college bookstore, and they do make an effort to bring in good condition used books to save money, but the Chem text was notably less new from an Amazon seller than it was used at the bookstore!</p>
<p>We got away easy this semester. About $100. One book he already had. Two books I got from half.com and the other one was from Amazon. One class may not require a book - at least it isn’t listed yet.</p>
<p>I’m used to an average of $600 - $700 per semester. Engineering student. This after 4 years of $400-$500/yr of private school. Happy, happy, joy, joy…he keeps them all too.</p>
<p>D1 spent approximately $400 so far but still has 2 or 3 more books to buy so it will probably come close to $600. She bought used at the campus bookstore - we priced online last semester and it wasn’t a great savings. The bookstore benefits the campus.</p>
<p>One spent around $200 and the other around $425 (which was more than “normal”).</p>
<p>230.00 on Amazon for one daughter, would have been about 300.00 at school. If she found out last week, I think she would have gotten them from private sellers and it would have been less, but she wanted to know they were here when she went back this weekend.
My other daughter is up to 300.00 and she told me she had a friend give her, a Spanish textbook from last year…savings over 100.00!</p>
<p>My son in grad school spent about 300.00, some he couldn’t get elsewhere or they were within 10.00.</p>
<p>S2–would have been $950 at the college bookstore. This is a criminal justice major at a community college. I find it ridiculous that the books are more than 50% of the tuition!</p>
<p>We did manage to get them for $400 from Amazon and half-bay. However, we have had some problems buying from these sources this semester, including 2 sellers who never shipped the books. We had to wait 4 weeks to file the claim, and half-bay says they won’t even respond for 30 days.</p>
<p>Also, are any of the rest of you having increasing problems with buying used books from these type places and then not having the “access code” or cd?</p>
<p>$240 for one, still counting for the other. He’ll be taking Chem, Bio, Cal III, and Philosophy.</p>