Ordering Textbooks

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>As an incoming freshman that has just gone to one of the ArtSci weekends, I am a little curious about ordering textbooks. It's something that my advisor mentioned so I went on WEBSTAC to go to the textbook link and it led me to the campus store site. However, the site says that my course materials are currently unavailable. Now I may not be ordering my textbooks from the campus store, but it'd be great if I could know what textbooks to order at least.</p>

<p>Any insight on this would be great!</p>

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<p>Textbook information will be available closer to the beginning of the semester.</p>

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<p>Just a note: For those that order from Amazon (or elsewhere online) and live on South 40 – the South 40 mailroom gets a huge backlog (obviously) beginning of semester. You can wait up to a week after a book has been delivered to Wash U to actually be able to collect it. The early your order and have shipped to campus, the sooner it’s processed and sooner you can pick it up.<br>
In past some people have had problems where books that were bought during first week weren’t available for the first homework assignment.</p>

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<p>also consider renting your books. If it is not a book you plan to keep, it can be way less expensive!</p>

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<p>Or just buy the books, keep them in good condition and sell them for full price at the end of the semester. Then you don’t spend a penny. Whereas if you rent, you get much less money back when you return them.</p>

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<p>I’m seconding ravnzcroft here. The past 2 semesters, I’ve actually made a profit on reselling textbooks.</p>

<p>The information is already available, just not posted to the bookstore.</p>

<p>Go to courselistings (<a href=“WU Course Listings”>WU Course Listings), find your class, and then hit the books button.</p>

<p>Nearly all should be posted by now. (It’s how the university is complying with the new law regarding textbooks, I believe; it’s a bit hidden, because the bookstore still wants to make a huge profit)</p>

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<p>Thanks to all of you! By the way, you were right Johnson181. Even with your hints, it still took me a few minutes to find the textbooks. Kudos to WashU for putting up such a good fight to keep them hidden XD</p>

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<p>You’re right this information is a bit hidden. Still trying to figure out how to get books, am I doing something wrong? None of them are listed. Not one.</p>

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<p>Most aren’t listed on the courses page yet. About 1/4 are, 3/4 aren’t. Check back in 2-3 weeks.</p>

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<p>limabeans- are you using the “books” button on courselistings (if you can’t find it I’ll screenshot it)</p>

<p>4/5 of my classes have listed the required books (and the fifth I’m assuming isn’t listed because there isn’t an assigned prof yet).</p>

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<p>Only two of my five classes have posted books as of now (which is unfortunate because I’ll be away for most of August and want to get some of my books from amazon/half.com in advance…)</p>

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<p>1 of my 6 classes has the books up on courselistings, and I’ve gone through a bunch of courses. It seems less than 20% have them.</p>

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<p>Also note that the books page often changes. Buying books any earlier than two weeks before class is bad.</p>

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<p>Where is this button? I can’t seem to find it.</p>

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<p>Use amazon for smaller books like those for english courses, typically you wont get much of a price break for the bio and chem books. If you can get them cheaply off of amazon get them before you go and bring them with you.</p>

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<p>^I don’t know about how it works in general, but I got my genchem book new for $100 on amazon, which was at least $50 cheaper than any option at the book store.</p>

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<p>bump, is it still too early to buy books or not?</p>

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<p>Not at all. I bought all my books 2 weeks ago, and they’re already sitting on my bookshelf.</p>

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<p>How does it work for those that haven’t registered yet? Do they not have their books in time for the classes? Or do they have to pay a higher price at the bookstore?<br>
Also, what is the new law for textbooks?</p>

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<p>Are there any classes you know you’re taking for sure?</p>

<p>The huge lecture classes will be open (I’m positive you’ll get into chem, math, psych, etc - you may just get a bad time slot), so you could go ahead and order those books now.</p>

<p>New law:

[quote]
disclose, on the institution’s Internet course schedule and in a manner of the institution’s choosing, the International Standard Book Number and retail price information of required and recommended college textbooks and supplemental materials for each course listed in the institution’s course schedule …<a href=“It%20went%20into%20effect%20last%20year”>/quote</a> <a href=“AEM Center: The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning at CAST”>AEM Center: The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning at CAST;

<p>If you notice, the bookstore doesn’t list isbn - that ‘books’ button does, however, which keeps the bookstore in compliance (listing the isbn makes it easier to guarantee you’re getting the correct book when you buy elsewhere).</p>