<p>What is the general rule on when/where to purchase textbooks? We had been told to wait until class starts to see what the professors request but that really makes me nervous! Where are the best places to purchase? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I use half.com and freetextbooks.com…</p>
<p>We were in the same position last year. As suggested we ended up waiting until school started to get books. For us that was a huge $800 mistake. All of the professors required EXACTLY what they has listed with their class. Daughter had to go to SupStore and buy books. Of course, all used books were sold out so she got brand new, shiny, never used, full price books :(</p>
<p>I agree with buying books in advance. I ask S what books he is interested in keeping (usually related to his major) and which it’s OK to rent.</p>
<p>I rent everything I can - I like Chegg, but Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and even the Supe Store have starting doing rentals. </p>
<p>Bookfinder.com is also a good site to use. You can enter the ISBN and it will show a list of prices from different sites to compare.</p>
<p>Slugbooks was a great site to do price comparisons.</p>
<p>Son got half his books for Fall – The pesky CH 101 course is going to require son buys new from the SUPE.</p>
<p>My new favorite textbook site is textbookspy.com It searches all the textbook sites & brings back a list for you to compare in one shot. I just ordered all D2’s books (not at UA) At the school bookstore, they were $830 new or $650 used. Barnes & Noble had them all new for $450. I ended up paying $249 total. Half.com for 4 books and Abebooks for 5 books, 1 new at bn.com and I found 2 at our local used book store. Woot. </p>
<p>D1’s upper level B-school books are primarily going to be new from the Supestore because they’re 2013 editions (although I did find a 2011 edition for $3 at the used book store & grabbed it just in case there’s not that much difference!) Don’t assume the Supestore is more expensive. I ran the ISBN’s through bn.com, Amazon & texbookspy and Supestore was the cheapest by $40 on one book.</p>
<p>The book for CBHP was just listed on D’s schedule. Thanks to this thread, just snagged a used copy on the cheap!</p>
<p>I also think you should always search by book title as well – One of the business books son needed did not come up on an ISBN search for used books, but if we searched by title it brought up the International Edition (dif ISBN). </p>
<p>He discovered that he is ok to use the international version.</p>
<p>You can also try more mainstream sellers: abebooks.com and textbooks.com .</p>
<p>Whether to buy in advance or to buy after class starts depends in part on the class. Either way, you might make some mistakes by a few $$$, but you will learn what works for your student (or they will learn). Some profs are going to go by the book (pun intended), and others are going to wing it. You probably can never be 100% certain which way it’s going to go. My S is adamant that he waits until class has started, and he only gets what he thinks he will use. He doesn’t always know if he will use the physical book, the code, the online version, or the additional CDs/sample probs/etc until he sits in the class and talks with the professor. You can ‘win’ on the more literature, history, psych textbooks (by buying online used/rent), but you might ‘lose’ with the more science and math classes because they require some knowledge that you might only get once class starts. </p>
<p>Or, students can always contact the professors beforehand and ask for their advice and verify what they recommend for your student.</p>
<p>Would it be a smart idea to email professors regarding books before classes? I’ve heard that that sometimes works…</p>
<p>Hmmmm…</p>
<p>If books are purchased thru the Supe Store, can the charges go to the student’s general UA financial account or do you have to have that cash ready on the Express account?</p>
<p>NC2 - I asked Supe store once about this last year - they told me they can’t charge book costs to a student’s account at the time I asked (about 3 weeks prior to school starting). I got the impression that you could charge to student account only after school started, but I don’t know the details. I also think if there is a credit on the account, you can charge to it. Interested in knowing what the firm answer to this is.</p>
<p>Ok guys, we are obviously behind the curve. Have today slotted to buy text books on line. We’ve been digging around mybama, see DS’s schedule, but do not see where we see what text books are required for each course…where do we find the text book info?</p>
<p>From the Home Page on MyBama: If you click on “view detailed schedule”, choose the semester, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page that comes up, you’ll see a spot to click for a list of available books.</p>
<p>Thanks so much Lattelady!</p>
<p>Also look up the class that your student registered in"look up classes". Click on the CRN # and it will bring you to a complete class description along with the book list.</p>
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<p>Longhaul, what subject was that? Does anyone else have feedback on using international versions, specifically for math? We could save $100 for going used-international version for one of D’s books.</p>
<p>^^ I believe the International version was for his STEM MBA. DS is out of town. I’ll check with him when he calls in.</p>
<p>I was told international versions were the same so that’s what my son bought for calc based physics last year (at a different university). The international version was about $100 less. </p>
<p>It turned out to be a bad move…The chapter content was almost identical - the issue was the problem sets in the two versions were different. Mostly it was just the order was switched around. He was 4+ weeks in before he realized the recommended homework problems he was doing were different than those assigned. Ended up buying the US version - although maybe could have limped along - he was willing but I didn’t think it was worth the risk - especially for a book that would be used two semesters.</p>
<p>Same thing this fall at 'Bama - ECE225 circuit analysis class - `$150 US version, vs $50 international. I told him I didn’t think he should take the risk, especially his first semester. He bought US version.</p>