<p>Another budget question -- sorry, but trying to get the numbers to work out.</p>
<p>What would the current (or recently departed :-) ) students that post on here estimate that they spend on books per quarter? It's been a long time since I was in colege, but I do recall that the school's estimates are way too high esp. if you are buying used. Would $500 or so a quarter likely cover it?</p>
<p>Speaking from my daughter's experience, it depends a lot on the major. Science texts cost a bundle, but they tend to be used over multiple quarters, if the course is offered as a sequence. </p>
<p>Most of her core classes and spanish classes after the first year used trade paperbacks, so the cost turned out to be rather reasonable. </p>
<p>she also made extensive use of library copies of expensive stuff rather than buy. This compromise did not hurt her GPA - she made PBK her third year.</p>
<p>Overall, once her first year was past, I doubt she spent more than $100-200/quarter. If she had, I would have heard squawks and seen the bills.</p>
<p>I've been buying most of my kids' books -- part of our deal. I have never spent more than $250/quarter/kid, and rarely more than $120/quarter without an expensive science textbook in the mix. The average per-year has probably been around $350. </p>
<p>That includes being reasonably willing to be aggressive getting decent used books, or using books we already had at home. Some quarters, I have saved as much as $60-70 that way. Others, not so much, or nothing at all.</p>
<p>Per-course costs vary considerably, even within the same field. My daughter has had English courses where the book cost was $0, and English courses where the (new, list-price) book cost was over $200.</p>
<p>Great info. Thank you.</p>
<p>The chemistry texts and workbooks are pretty pricey. The first quarter of a sequence will be the worst. I think the most my son spent in a quarter was $350 - most average around $150-200.</p>
<p>Also on budgeting - my son has never spent as much on incidentals as is spec'ed on the COA. And ... remember, you won't be feeding him when he's at school, and you will have leftovers in the refrig!</p>
<p>Most of these posts are correct for undergrad classes. But I have seen single MBA courses (one that I'm going to take next year, in fact) that have new, list price book lists totaling (well) over $1000. Most of these books are recommended, though, and not required persay.</p>
<p>Is that straight up or is this including returning the the books afterwards?</p>
<p>Bump!!!!!!</p>
<p>It seems that I have had a bit more expensive route than everyone else here. I've spent about $1000 total this year in books. 2 Chem textbooks, 2 Bio textbooks, 2 math textbooks, various lab manuals. And I bought pretty much everything except for the chem stuff online for the cheapest price available. A big chunk of change involved the fact that the chem textbook actually just got a new addition out this year so you couldn't really buy it used online and the chem lab books are a bit too pricey imo. However, I only had to spend like $60 this quarter which was quite nice.</p>
<p>windslicer,</p>
<p>You will find that science texts are frequently updated, typically every three years or so. This is publisher driven many believe to undercut the used text market. Saying that, often the new versions have only superficial changes from the previous version. </p>
<p>So, if one wants to save and only have minimal additional work, consider buying the "outdated" version and making use of a copy of the current version at the library to properly track/convert assigned pages and problems. A question to the prof the first day or two of class could tell you if this is a viable option.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for the good info. Helps a lot.</p>
<p>Yea, newmassdad, that is often good advice, however this particular edition change did move around a lot of the content (at least that's what the professor told us). The point you bring up, however, is a pretty valuable one. In most cases you often won't ever really need to purchase a book as there are often multiple copies on reserve in the library. If you're on top of you're work, you can access the books, read the required reading, do the problems all in the library and be good to go. Of course the "busy times" could pose issues, i.e. Finals week or right before midterms where there might be more people attempting to check out books than there are books. Buying an older edition might be a way to solve this potential problem without spending loads of cash on the newest edition.</p>
<p>But, yea, good to know of all of the options.</p>
<p>WS,</p>
<p>Yes, textbooks get used in three ways: 1. as the source for homework problems. 2. as the source for reading assignments. 3. as a reference for prep for exams. </p>
<p>The library copy can give you 1 and 2 easily. 3 can often, but not always be handled by an older edition. Rarely does a text have any of the hot new stuff. Even a new edition hot off the presses has content at least 6-12 months old, after all. </p>
<p>Turns out my daughter did not buy many of her texts. Her lowest science grade: A-. And she took honors O-Chem text free so to speak (and did not get the A- in those two classes!)</p>
<p>Use the library and buy used books. Where on earth do you people live? If you take 6 courses, regardless of level, you shouldn't be paying more than $200. Harder courses have cheaper books.</p>