Ordering Freshman Books

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
1

So son logs on to order books tonight, or at least see what he needs. There are 17 books listed.
There is a red dot with an exclamation point that says: a package component" is a title that is part of a required course materials package for your course. Be careful not to buy the complete package and components separately.

There is a selection for the iclicer2 remote for 6 months that says required and also a iclicker2 package component .

Which do we chose?
This is for chemistry 107.

For History 105, there are 4 required books for reading: Abigail Adams, Life of a slave girl, red, white+black: peoples of early N. America. Then, there are two books, Created Equal: Vol 1 to 1877. both recommended. But what is called loose. What is “loose” and which do we need?

ENGR 111 nothing is available yet

Math 151:
Calculus early vectors by Stewart. I have seen someone link to it to rent. Will go that direction since it is only available new on tamu website. If we rent from amazon, is it a physical book we get? This is recommended
But then there is the early vectors w/access code that is required and it too is $171. Does the rental come with the access code? We are confused.
Then there is a component. calculus-enhan. webassign. multi term.

We are not sure what to do.

2

@Thelma2, I can’t respond to all of your questions, but here’s a few bits of advice. CHEM 107: I don’t recall what text/s my son purchased/rented, however, most students will want to invest in an iclicker from the A&M bookstore. Students usually need one for multiple classes each year, so it’s worth it to purchase one. My son used his for CHEM 107, PHYS 218, THAR 281 (and probably others) as many profs use them for in-class quizzes and even taking attendance. MATH 152: You might consider purchasing the Early Vectors book since it’s used for Math 151, 152 and 251. If you rent from Amazon, yes, it’s a physical book. Just hold onto the shipping box and send it back at the end of the semester. There was a previous posting which suggested not purchasing the MATLAB access code as these are given out to students free of charge. ENGR 111: For the past few years they’ve used the text “Thinking Like an Engineer”. I’d suggested buying used or renting from Amazon as students don’t use the book much. We purchased most things new first semester, but chose to rent/purchase used second semester and saved a lot of money (it was only $17 to rent one of my son’s engineering textbooks for this coming fall). For some classes, especially when there’s a list of “recommended” materials, my son usually waits for the first week of classes to see what the prof says is actually required. Hopefully, others will chime in and provide additional advice.

3

Wait till the first day of class proffesors will let you know what exactly they are going to need you to have for the class, some books are mandatory by the school, not the class. Get digitals books when you can super cheap and convenient, also when you do buy them, get them from chegg way cheaper than any bookstore . Hope this helps, seriously college textbooks are such a rip off 90% of the time, there is no need to buy that $350 for that one paragraph in chapter 10 so ask the proffesor, remember your library will have all your books too.

4

All students can get Amazon prime free for six months (be sure he cancels at the end of that time, though, if you don’t want to pay). You can get 2 day free shipping on most items. So he doesn’t have to order everything ahead. Also, he can email the prof if he isn’t sure what to get (ask for the ISBN).

5

“Loose” sometimes means loose leaf, as in the book is in loose leaf format and is not bound. You usually just buy a binder for the pages and call it a textbook. If a book is listed as recommended, I would wait until the class starts and see what the professor says about which books will actually be used.

6

Thank You all for the information. With 3 kids all in different colleges, you would think I could just cruise through this process with my eyes closed but every campus has their own way and looks about it. I promise you, the Howdy portal is so easy to navigate compared to one kid’s school that looks like it still runs on MS-DOS.

For clarification, I called the bookstore, and for folks who may come across these same questions in the future, this is what I found out.

We chose to purchase or rent from the MSC. We looked into renting his one semester History 105 extended reading books from Amazon but they were actually a little less from the MSC and no return box to keep up with. For him, that is a superfluous detail that will fall through the cracks so it’s just better for him this way.

He rented some others, I can’t remember which, and the bookstore said that that those books can be re-rented if he finds he needs them for another second semester or if he finds he wants to keep it and it’s more cost effective to do so, he can purchase it at the difference of the rental/cost.

Required means just that. It is required for the course and if options are available for renting used/new and purchasing used/new, you will have the ability to select what option you prefer and the prices listed.

The component listings threw us because things were listed as required and also available as a component.

When things are listed as component, that means that it is only part of the complete package. For instance, if someone gets a book from a friend, but they now need the access code, that access code for webaccess is available for purchase separately, as a component. Same with the iclicker. Apparently, it has two parts. The recommended one is the complete package. If someone just needs the clicker itself, that comes as a component listing.

Some books came bound or loose. loose is all loose pages shrink wrapped and you purchase a binder to house it in. Personally, we elected for the bound version.

We did not purchase the binders through the bookstore. While they recommended all maroon ones, son likes different colors for different subjects. One at least will be maroon. :slight_smile:

7

Oh thank heavens for this thread, LOL. We were unclear as to what “package component” meant and if we needed to purchase/rent. Thanks for starting this thread and clearing it up for me.

8

Go to the schedule and click on any syllabus for any additional requirements that are not on your book list. Son has only one syllabus up so far, for Chem 117 lab. A very particular style of goggles is required that must meet specific criteria as well as a non programmable calculator (the TI84 and TI89 will not work. Think everyday calculator that is in your drawer) I picked up an HP10S+ for under $15. Here is a list. http://www.vrcworks.net/blog/how-to-identify-calculator-is-programmable-or-non-programmable-calculator/

9

@Thelma2, Your note about the goggles made me recall some of my son’s stories from Chem 117 lab. A word of caution to your students who are taking Chem first semester. They will need long pants, long sleeves, socks and closed-toed shoes for lab (despite the heat). Luckily, my son took it second semester when the weather was cooler, but his TA would actually get down on the classroom floor to ensure their ankles weren’t visible (grade penalty if they were). And yes, I recall him running over to CVS to buy a cheap calculator.

Also, as students are busy buying books and supplies, a bit of advice: be sure your student is checking his/her TAMU email daily this time of year (better yet, have them set up notifications on their phone). Both semesters of freshman year, my son received an email a couple weeks before classes started saying one of his classes was being cancelled (first his “Don’t Panic” PHYS 218 was cancelled, then his Econ 202 Honors was cancelled). That created some work to find other options as most things were closed and he had to ask to be forced into classes (they moved him into a filled “University” PHYS 218, and he found another elective to replace Econ). Again last week, he got an email from his advisor stating a required class for his engineering major which was closed and not supposed to be available until junior year was now being reopened and offered, and they wanted all their sophomores to take it this fall. So again, he is dropping his one elective in order to accommodate the change. I don’t mean to imply this will happen to any of you (my son’s situation was not the norm), but it’s much easier to work out a change if you are checking email and aware of it prior to the first week of classes.