<p>I’m a upcoming freshmen for Davis. I was just wondering when do I get my books? How soon should I start ordering them? Also where is the best place to get them from? Take in that I start school the 26 of September</p>
<p>If you go to ucdavisbookstores.com and click on order textbooks, not only will you get the bookstore price for the textbooks, BUT they will also show price comparisons for ALL textbook materials (with the exception of those that are exclusive to UC Davis, like the PHY 7 series materials) so you can decide where you want to rent/purchase them. Alternatively, the library has nearly all textbooks on reserve if you don’t want to buy your textbooks. Anyway, don’t order your textbooks until your professors post the syllabus on Smartsite (you should get an email on your UCD account when you do), because chances are, even though the bookstore will note a textbook as “required”, your professor may not actually require it at all, or may only have you read a few pages.</p>
<p>When do professors post up the syllabus on the site? Around What time? </p>
<p>And I will get an email from it?</p>
<p>You should probably wait until the you’ve gone to your first week of classes. That way you’ll know for sure if you need to purchase those books or not. Some instructors “require” them and some don’t but list them anyway for study reference. Sometimes the instructors post their syllabi on smartsite the week before, but more than likely during the first few days of instruction. It all seems really last minute to get books, but honestly don’t stress about it. You don’t want to end up buying books that you might not even need because it’s a lot more difficult to sell them (at a good price since it lowers with time) than to buy. Plus, what if it turns out that you don’t even want to take those classes anymore? In the meantime, just head over to the library and use the ones on reserve. </p>
<p>A good place to start is the UCD bookstore’s website for price comparison. Another good option is postyourbook.com, where you can search and buy used books from other students on campus. It’s pretty helpful since you won’t have to go through the hassle of shipping&handling costs. Plus, it’s easier to work out a deal with the book owners. Also, there is another bookstore downtown, just down the street from the Death Star that you can also check out.</p>
<p>You should get an email, provided your notifications settings are set to do so (I think it does it by default; I’ve never had to mess with it). </p>
<p>Digging through my email a bit, here’s an example of the kind of subject that’ll come up:
[ GER 003 001 SQ 2013 - Announcement ] <em>insert announcement title</em></p>
<p>Obviously the course number, section, and quarter will vary. You should automatically get emails whenever a professor/TA posts something, whether it’s for your specific section or for the class as a whole.</p>
<p>For me, it depends on the class as to when I get my books. If it’s something like a math class where I know I’ll need it, I get it a couple weeks before. If it’s a class I’m either not sure I’ll keep or I’m not sure will need the book, I either wait for the syllabus, ask the professor, or talk to students who have had that class with that professor.</p>
<p>So I should just wait for the emails to come in so I can be sure about the books needed?
Will all the professors do it?</p>
<p>Yes, all professors will do it, even those that don’t use Smartsite. Some professors send out syllabuses over email over summer, while some wait until a week before classes start before sending out syllabuses.</p>