<p>Does anybody know where to find the link to the class syllabus? I know my oldest son saved a lot by buying his textbooks online and did not just walk into the bookstore on campus to buy the books since even the used versions are not a bargain there.
She knows her schedule and would love to order them now since ordering on-line from a used text bookseller obviously needs more lead time.</p>
<p>Hi, to get an idea of the books you need, you go to the textbook site and you have to select a campus (not the med school bookstore) and term (fall 2013). Then you will have to select the department, course number and section your student is in. You have to add each individual course and you will get a list of books.
I will then copy the books to my computer so I can order the correct texts. There has only been one time when the text was updated to a newer version.</p>
<p>Ok, I just went from the main Tulane page to the quick links there, I selected the bookstore there and then selected textbooks. That will give you a customized textbook list. Hope I explained it will enough…</p>
<p>You can log on to Gibson and click on ORDER BOOKS on the left side of the screen. It will give you the specific books for the classes she is registered for, complete with ISBN numbers. It won’t order them for you - unless you go all the way through the process, so you can get the information you need and order them somewhere else if you find a better price. Once in a while, I have actually found the bookstore price to be competitive.</p>
<p>Well you learn something new everyday. We have been doing the textbook ordering off of his schedule. I asked my son and he didn’t know even know he could get it through gibson. That sounds much easier, thank you.</p>
<p>Thanks go will and KreativeKat…this sounds really helpful and will savealotofmoney bundle.
Thank you both.</p>
<p>You can also order used books from the school bookstore (assuming they are still using that edition).</p>
<p>I just tried KK approach. It was so easy to get the list…now I got to see whether I can do better than their used prices. Tulane also has rental option I see.</p>
<p>On a funny note… My oldest son was actually able to pick up some of his textbooks for next year out of dumpsters. A new meaning of “dumpster diving”. Some of the rather spoiled kids there could not be bothered even bringing them to the bookstore for some cash… Since lines were long…
I never asked him to do that. He was rather prudent with my money, and wanted to help me anyway he could. Don’t think my D would ever do that.</p>
<p>Now that’s a new one to me. I had never heard of students salvaging books that way. Very frugal.</p>
<p>Trust me it was appalling what kids threw away; aside from text books, fridges, microwaves, bicycles, shelves, storage boxes etc…they had to move out at the end of the semester and were either graduating and it was too expensive to ship it home or kids did not want to be bothered with storing stuff over summer…the university provided dumpsters in front of dorms…I only hope that they gave it to goodwill and that it did not go straight to landfill.</p>
<p>Calmomofthree, you reminded me of a few things: Tulane has a nice set up to donate dorm stuff to a homeless shelter. My son received a notice of the location of pickup trucks, and they took everything, including hand soap and cleaning supplies, that we did not want to put in his suitcases. They do have limited hours so you have to get the stuff to them before they close.
Also, the bookstore has a limit on how many used books they will take, so remind your son to try and sell them as early as he can. Last year my son could only sell a few of his books in NOLA but this year they took all his books.</p>
<p>Good point gowill. Btw, has anybody tried renting books? Maybe, that’s a good solution as well?</p>
<p>When my DS graduated there was some entrepreneurial guy set up on the lawn by the LBC with a table and boxes, buying books from students. He surely had a great resale business on line. Smart guy.</p>
<p>I have had a lot of success reselling books on Amazon. In some cases, I have purchased used books that were virtually brand new and sold them for almost the same thing I bought them for. It’s a bit of a hassle, but I have found it to be totally worth it on many occasions. They also have a trade-in program at Amazon where they give you an Amazon gift card for future purchases for a stated trade-in value if you don’t feel like selling them yourself.</p>
<p>I buy and sell my kids textbooks all the time on Amazon.com and Half.com. It saves a ton of money. Unfortunately, what I found with the Tulance freshman books, it appears that Tulane “bundles” items together and creates a new custom ISBN. This makes it impossible to buy the books elsewhere. My son had this for one class his freshman year at another university but not since then.
I hope this won’t be what Tulance always does. Has anyone else seen this with their book list?</p>
<p>That’s news to me, at least. My D has had no trouble buying books for her classes based on ISBN numbers (almost always from Amazon), and she always has a ton of books since she is an English major. But I will ask her if she has ever had this happen in any of her classes and just didn’t mention it.</p>
<p>I think it is happening more recently because it seems every class has an online component. I have still been able to buy the textbooks used and just purchase the online access code separately. It takes a little more work to make sure you are buying the right thing, but you can usually go to the publisher’s website and buy the access code separately. As long as you check the edition on the Tulane site, you should be okay. I have an older one whose books I saved and we are now using them for my incoming freshman. That is how we are dealing with the “bundle” situation.</p>
<p>@kreativekat, I think you exactly right. I looked a little closer and noticed that all “bundles” are for foreign language books. For Spanish I was able to find the publisher site but it only looked like they sell the package (text book and a supersite plus access code) together. I may try and call the Tulane bookstore tomorrow and see what they say. Otherwise I’m not certain how to find the ISBN to buy the used book…
Other than that $500 across Italian and Spanish, 2 classes have not listed books yet. Possibly too early…?</p>
<p>OK, stupid question: if you’re buying books now are you shipping them to your house and will then ship them to school? Or do you wait until you can ship them directly to your kid (I don’t know when that would be).</p>
<p>My son is away all summer working at camp, and won’t be back until August 14th. I don’t know if I should buy books for him or have him do it when he gets home…</p>