<p>Its not just the cost of the books it also the cost of the online access that is required for the class and lets not forget the other stuff that’s required. Like a lab coat for chemistry class or in DS’s engineering classes there are classroom kits he has to buy. One class this semester had a classroom kit for $101 plus another $40 for some sort of board…</p>
<p>I want to add my story. My D needed a $242 German textbook. I was good. Went online and found it on Amazon for $183 with tax!! Two day shipping. This was last week. Tracking text came last Thursday saying the book was in and was signed by Donna. D went to pick up book at post office yesterday and they said there was no package. After a call to Amazon and then UPS, found out the book was not delivered to Elm Street in New Haven 06520, but the same address in East Haven, 06512. Our confirmation had the correct New Haven address so no one knows how it got to East Haven and who the heck Donna is that signed for it.</p>
<p>Amazon was great and was going to send another - but alas - the book was sold out (hence our ordering it EARLY to begin with). While Amazon is refunding me my $183, my D is now back to buying it for $242 in bookstore. Ouch!! </p>
<p>If you need to buy it from your University bookstore, check if it is affiliated with Neebo online. You may be able to order it online and pickup in store or with free delivery. Also, there are currently 15% off coupons available on the web. Fortunately, I still have a bunch of Amazon giftcard that I bought at around 10-20% off. So I have a lower out of pocket cost until I run out of gift cards.</p>
<p>Yup, access codes are evil. Well, maybe not but they do completely undermine the used textbook market. If you kid is studying in a science/math/accounting field - be prepared for this. This isn’t always a way around the high price of textbooks. </p>
<p>If your kid is in a liberal arts field, it’s very possible to rent books or buy them used. You can even sometimes get away with an older edition but you can’t get around buying access codes. Sigh.</p>
<p>Some schools do have copies of the textbooks at the library but you generally can not check them out. You can only use it at the library. </p>
<p>Another problem I have found is that the schools don’t list the required books until just before the semester begins so there isn’t always time to comparison shop or even have them shipped in time. One disadvantage of ordering books early is that the professor may not even use the book. I had this happen so many times that I no longer order the books until after the first day of class. I got burned too many times over this. </p>
<p>
Not too much a problem if you sell it back out around the beginning of the semester. The used book price is usually higher around that time and other schools or other professor may require that book.</p>
<p>Bookreader, buying too early is risky. Fortunately, in some states the Boards of Regents has ordered that the titles of required textbooks at state colleges be posted online well before the start of the semester or quarter. This is a big help for students whom are looking to save a buck or two by shopping early. Fortunately, I’ve only been burned twice so far. LOL. In the first instance, the department dropped the previously required text for all 4 sections (that’s about 100 students total) two weeks prior to the start of class and a couple of days after I purchased a copy online. Wasn’t worth returning the book given the discounted price I paid for it.</p>
<p>I do a bit of extra legwork like double-checking the publication date of the current editions, to try to guess if a new edition is coming the next term. And Lake Jr. consults with prospective professors to find out if an older edition will be suitable for class. Back to the access code thing. Again, that’s hard to get around. I just check online re-sellers to see if the codes are available at a price significantly less than the university bookstore or the publisher’s direct sale. </p>
<p>^Yes! My son looked online in early August and ordered the textbooks shown for each class. Then he got to his mathematical sampling class two days ago, and the prof had changed the book!! So we bought one book and don’t need it. Then we started looking for the “new” book, and it’s out of stock everywhere - the college bookstore, Amazon, alibris, etc. Even the publisher’s website (Wiley) shows it as being out of stock. He can get it on Kindle, but he likes to mark up his book, so that’s not an option. He emailed his prof a polite note, asking what he should do. The prof said he’ll look into it.</p>
<p>My daughter bought a new edition of a book of the works of Chaucer that I had when I was in college. It was different, she said. How could CHAUCER be different?</p>
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You still need to be alert. My state has this law. My college complies by linking students to – wait for it – the bookstore. So you see only the ISBNs that the bookstore wants you to see. Sometimes the IS NO exact equivalent available from any other source, because the ISBN has been assigned to a custom package, and you can’t even examine the individual pieces that make up the package.</p>
<p>If you want to save (at least in my case) your best bet is still to communicate with the professor. A lot of the the time their response is something like, “That? Yeah, you don’t need that.”</p>
<p>LOL Hunt. As a Chaucer fan I wondered the same thing when I found out that Canterbury Tales was on the syllabus for an English course at Lake Jr.'s university this fall. At least the bookstore edition was only about 15 bucks, but it’s a coincidence that Jr. picked up a “like new” used copy for last year for 4 bucks.</p>
<p>A lot of profs won’t care which edition of Chaucer you use. Chaucer stays the same, and poetry has line numbers, so you won’t get lost. The differences are in the introductions, glosses, and footnotes. Some professors really care about that stuff and others don’t – or if they do care, they might not care a lot. If you’re asked to by a critical edition – the kind that comes with a ton of critical essays in the back – that’s a whole other thing. Professors usually don’t choose those unless they expect you to read a bunch of those essays.</p>
<p>With works of fiction, that’s altogether different. Older profs especially will ask you to look at page 137 and they won’t give you any other landmarks to help you if you’re using a different edition. By the time you find the passage under discussion, you’ve missed half the point. I can usually tell which of my students has the edition I ordered because their tests and papers are a lot more specific.</p>
<p>I mostly agree with thumper that university bookstores are the most expensive place to shop, and D has mostly purchased textbooks online, from a variety of vendors, and gotten some great deals. This semester, however, she didn’t shop early online as usual due to a busy summer, and then was on campus a couple of weeks before classes started so dropped by the bookstore with the intention of trying to figure out some ISBN confusion re a particular text she’d been trying to find online. To her surprise, the bookstore had a clean used copy of the book at a very good price. So she checked on texts for a couple more classes, and ended up getting very reasonably priced used editions of everything she needed for this semester. Apparently the stars just aligned in her favor, and the university bookstore seemed like the smart place to shop, for once.</p>
<p>Best thing you can do for yourself is shop around. </p>
<p>Lucked out this pass semester and all books came from a third party - fast and cheap. In the past, I bought from I’ve gone to Barnes and Noble. </p>
<p>To prove even more how the campus bookstore is a rip off, I needed to purchase reading material for one of my courses. My university’s bookstore,which is through Barnes and Noble, was more expensive than Barnes and Noble itself. [-X </p>
<p>I do ask my chidren to email their professors to ask about the required books (what a headache for the professor to get so many emails asking about the books). Some respond in a timely fashion with specific details, others say something like, “oh yes, we’ll use the Campbel text this semester” and fail to include a title, edition number or ISBN number. Still others don’t bother responding at all. One professor this semester told my son that he should email him later (when?) as he was on vacation and that he’d answer a later email when he was back from vacation. This was 1 1/2 weeks before the start of school. </p>
<p>He had calc 1 last semester and had to buy the access code for the class. Most calc 2 professors use it so we thought we’d get 2 semesters out of it. Nope. His calc 2 teacher does not use it. Sometimes you just can’t win. </p>
<p>We had the same experience with the Complete Works of Shakespeare. We have them…but the "edition " was different. Really? I me a when was the last time Shakespeare edited his works!?</p>
<p>Our only bad book experience was freshman year. DS was going to be away most of the summer. Right after orientation, we got all of the required readings for a literature course that was required. His school offered a ton…all different “themes”. DS wanted to read them while he was away. Terrific idea, and he read all of,the books. BUT…that professor resigned, and the course was cancelled, and he was assigned to a different section which, of course, had different theme and required readings. At least DS loves reading!</p>
<p>One thing I did differently this semester was start the semester without having purchased any books. Each first meeting of my class my professors mentioned the title along with the edition. I ordered them midweek and received them, but I was anxious about receiving them on time. </p>
<p>I do an access code that I did not need and are unused. I will most likely sell them, but the sting of the financial loss of an unused code is so far back that it’ll feel like I’m getting $60-$80 out of nowhere!</p>
<p>Another funny thing on access codes, in class a student asked about the code for our course on WebAssign. My professor looked up puzzled. “WebAssign?” he asked, “We’re not using WebAssign.” Turns out the scheduler said the code was required. Many students purchased the codes and were stuck with the loss. </p>
<p>@thumper1 That sounds like a major win for your son. My honors coursework has brought me to the most intriguing works. Don’t regret them one bit. </p>
<p>I dread any and all visiting professors. This year my DS has one in his major and minor. At his school, this means brand new textbook and online access. For two classes he had to shell out $482. In the past, he has been able to use older textbooks and just purchase the access, but neither professor would approve that. DS also won’t sell the books later because he needs them for senior comps and his thesis. I hope the professors use the online materials this year, as the last one barely utilized the material. It felt like I poured $80 down the drain. </p>
<p>My daughter told me her Chemistry book costs $130. </p>
<p>This might be something to check out when visiting colleges.
Look at the bookstore & the selection of courses, noting if a particular class uses the same book with different profs or not. My D that graduated earlier this year had one or two online classes, but Im pretty sure they didnt use texts that required another fee, not unusually so anyway. But most of upper level classes seemed to use more original works rather than textbooks designed for a specific class. That may be true at other schools as well.</p>
<p>Older daughters school used about 29 books in a freshman level course. Many had been out for a while so a lot of different versions. <a href=“The%20Republic%20%5B/i%5Dfor%20example”>i</a>
A couple books I got the wrong ISBN, but she still was able to use it.</p>
<p>We’ve been going through this outrageousness for high school texts, totalling about $800 each year. Kiddo is now a senior and was somehow able to check out for about $400 last week. And yes, thumper is right, stay away from the school bookstores whenever possible.</p>