Purchasing Books

<p>Use bigwords.com. It will find you the cheapest option, and show you all the options (whether buying used or renting.)</p>

<p>Thanks sports_guy</p>

<p>Tony, exactly! That’s how I found about chegg having the cheapest options (for me at least)</p>

<p>And I found about bigwords.com here: an article that came out yesterday in Yahoo. I guess some of it doesnt apply to everyone but I found it useful and reassuring of some of my own ideas as well</p>

<p>[12</a> Things College Students Don’t Need - Yahoo! Shopping](<a href=“http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/408/12-things-college-students-dont-need/]12”>http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/408/12-things-college-students-dont-need/)</p>

<p>Does anyone know how long it takes for books from Chegg (or some other renting site) to reach you? I want to wait as long as possible so I’ll have a longer time to return them in case I drop a class. :]</p>

<p>Also, yes, the student stores is doing the tax-free thing this weekend.</p>

<p>They usually say with standard shipping it takes 7-14 days, but I ordered from Chegg last semester and I got my book in less than a week.
FYI, CampusBookRentals.com offers free standard shipping both ways.</p>

<p>I hate how overpriced books are. Since you seem to be organised, consider getting them out of the library-- if you are on top of things you can get them out before someone else does. Also consider asking the class teacher to put the books on reserve at the UL, so you’ll always be able to get a copy.</p>

<p>If you need to buy the book and have a couple of weeks, I suggest [BookFinder.com:</a> Search for New & Used Books, Textbooks, Out-of-Print and Rare Books](<a href=“http://www.bookfinder.com%5DBookFinder.com:”>http://www.bookfinder.com). It’s best for non-textbook materials that have been around for awhile. For a classic book you might pay $3 not $25. For textbooks, others have suggested good websites.</p>

<p>You need a combination of strategies to get a good deal, but one thing is for sure: the people lining up for hours on the first day to buy books at student stores are either stupid, independently wealthy, or far too careless of their parents’ money. If you sit down for an hour and plan, you should be able to get the books for about 1/3 the cost.</p>

<p>If you have a friend you trust and are taking classes together with, you can also go in together on a textbook.</p>

<p>keepittoyourself</p>

<p>This is probably a stupid question, but how do y’all know what books you need for your classes? I can’t seem to find that information anywhere. Thanks!</p>

<p>Well, I pre-ordered my textbooks through the Student Store, so does that mean they order/put the charges on my bill tax-free if they do it this weekend?</p>

<p>If you log on to the Student Stores website, you can look up your classes and it will show you the books for each class. Pretty handy!</p>

<p>And I think you would have to pre-order your books on tax-free weekend to get them tax free… But you could always call Student Stores and double check.</p>

<p>Thank you! :)</p>

<p>So I looked on my student account today and saw that the charges for the books were finally posted onto my tuition bill, though, the math doesn’t quite add up. Are they charging us for new books or used books?</p>

<p>It probably depends on what you requested…I requested all used.</p>

<p>^Also, from what I remember from last year, if there is not a used book available (even if you requested all used), the student store may go ahead and charge you for a new book. I’m pretty sure they notify you first though before they do so.</p>

<p>It’s probably a mixture of used and new, and no, they won’t notify you if you’re getting all new but you requested used! Personally, I don’t think it matters at all whether or not you select used or new - they just give you whatever they want! Some years I’ve gotten all new, some years I’ve gotten all used, etc. It just depends on how many copies of everything they have in stock.</p>

<p>I saw a charge that just said “Student Stores” but it was only for like $340. Was that my textbook bill? (I’m just confused because I was expecting the bill to be much more than that)</p>

<p>I don’t feel like starting a new thread, so I’m going to ask here. How do we go about finding all the syllabi (syllabuses?) for our classes? I’ve googled half heartedly, but I haven’t found much. Are they just not ready yet? With every one stressing how important it is to read them, I want to at least be able to find them.</p>

<p>yeah, the charge that I saw was about $563 as a Student Stores charge. I know I can save a lot of money buy just buying some of the books on amazon, you know? :)</p>

<p>And I don’t know about the syllabi for our classes; I would just google search the teacher and the class or something like that. I wouldn’t worry about the syllabi just yet though. ;)</p>

<p>Yeah, $340 seems a little too low for me, but it was posted on the 10th, and I don’t have any other student store charges, so is it same to assume I already paid for all my textbooks? (I’m also only enrolled in 4 classes at the moment with one waitlist, so maybe the $340 was for those 4 classes?)</p>

<p>Unless the teacher is especially on top of things, you will likely get the syllabus on the first day of class.</p>

<p>Many (by no means all) faculty at research institutions like UNC Chapel Hill view teaching as a bit of a chore— the syllabus was probably written the night before in many cases! Look for typos and errors that get corrected throughout the semester…</p>

<p>keepittoyourself</p>

<p>You can usually find the syllabi on Blackboard - you log on with your onyen and password, and you can (sometimes) see your classes. In the past I’ve only had a few professors be really on the ball and do this before the semester starts - most wait until the first day. Something to try at least! : )</p>