1st semester freshman has his schedule (CIT- ME) and wants to start acquiring books. Anywhere where one can find who teaches which course and books required for course? Do course books vary by prof?
Don’t buy books until after the first day of classes- you don’t know what he’ll actually need and what can be found online in a PDF version or what have you. When he does have to buy books, don’t buy directly from the CMU bookstore unless there’s no other option.
Doesn’t his portal list his schedule and required texts? My son’s school links the schedule to the bookstore so as soon as professors update the text(s) for their class, students can go online and order them. Has he checked his portal to see if his school does that?
He checked last night, but did not see the right links. We were expecting a link to the bookstore, but it did not yet seem to be enabled.
With his older brother, at a different school, he tended to buy books early on the net to get good prices so we thought we’d at least check the prices out.
My D is a junior at CMU. Do not buy any books until the first day of class. Also, some profs will send out emails to the class roster as to whether or not a book will be required and which one it to buy. Or it will be on blackboard. My D just got an email from one of her profs yesterday telling them what book they need for the class.
Also, renting is a great option and usually much less expensive. My D did a combination of both: rented some of her books from Amazon and bought some.
CMU has a great tool that shows you what books are required and shows you not only the price at the CMU bookstore, but from online competitors as well. Even if you buy from a competitor, CMU bookstore gets a referral fee. I wish all schools used this tool: http://cmu.verbacompare.com/ .
For example, here is the comparison for Italian 82-161:
http://cmu.verbacompare.com/comparison?id=7845574
CMU wants $145 for a used copy, but I was able to get a like new copy for $16,
Yes, @CollegeDadofTwo Cornell uses this system as well. It’s a great one-stop shop to compare prices.