<p>Does your student's school have the list of textbooks needed for the spring semester online yet? Do you know how far in advance this information is supposed to be posted?</p>
<p>Only part of S is online. I thought I’d buy books elsewhere, but still don’t know what we need. Math is the only one posted so far.</p>
<p>I find it annoying. I would like to buy the books. I feel this is a delay to get the students to pay top dollar in the college bookstore. Last summer there was a lot of time between when the list went up and when classes began at the school my son attends. Nothing at son’s school is listed now. I called the bookstore and was told that this info will not be posted until after final exams. I could take a chance that books for 2 classes will not change from the fall semester (this info is still listed), but I don’t want to throw money away if they are going to change the books.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can email professors and ask what books they’ll be using. Not all profs have decided/sent their lists in to the bookstore or whoever does the ordering, but many will be using the same or similar books as last year.</p>
<p>Smithiean, I know, but last summer my son got 2 replies from professors stating that the bookstore should post the info. I might have my son do this though.</p>
<p>I just checked over the weekend and none of S’s next quarter classes have lists up yet. Very frustrating as school starts Jan. 3rd.</p>
<p>S’s intersession book is listed (course starts Jan. 3 like psychmomma’s).</p>
<p>Only one of the spring courses has the book listed. But they don’t start the spring semester until Jan. 31.</p>
<p>Three of S2’s five classes have been listed. The other two are classes in his major. His dept. never listed them for Fall sem. until the last minute when it was too late to order from anywhere else…eerrggh.</p>
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<p>Why do I think that is the general plan? I am such a cynic.</p>
<p>oooo, just checked the list and another was added for a spring course. And the best news is that it is a book he already has from the first course in the sequence that he took last year! Not a different book, not a newer edition, the same one!! Yay, one less book to buy!</p>
<p>^^I’m jealous! JK. You are lucky that one book is off the list.</p>
<p>nem ~ that’s ok. His intersession book will make up for it :(. Right now the best price for it on half.com is only $10 below list price. And all the other copies in all conditions are ABOVE list price! How does that make sense? Guess I will keep watching. <em>Sigh</em></p>
<p>kitty, I’m sorry. It sounds like our experience with a math book. It was a new edition so it was pretty costly. We ended up getting it on Amazon, and it was still about $30-50 less than the bookstore price.</p>
<p>It’s usually safe to buy older editions since the information contained within many textbooks does not change often, just how that information is organized. For subjects like math, science, philosophy, and history, an older edition is sometimes preferable (the material is not watered-down).</p>
<p>There is now a law that requires colleges to provide detailed textbook information to the extent possible as soon as course registration is possible. If the textbook has been selected for the course, the ISBN, etc. must be made available, preferably online. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Academics/TextbookLaws/FederalTextbookLaw.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Academics/TextbookLaws/FederalTextbookLaw.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks Yalemom.</p>
<p>When I look at the website of the company that seems to run many of the bookstores, I can click various schools, and courses at those schools. I don’t have all day to look at this. I picked 2 different private schools (not the school my son attends) and clicked onto a few classes/sections. One school has the books listed and the other one does not.</p>
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<p>That’s true. But notice the vague language - “to the extent possible”, “IF the textbook has been selected…” At S’s school, when you click on “view books” for a course, it simply says the “book selection has not yet been determined”. Can’t argue with that since there is no specific date by which it must be selected. I’m not complaining about S’s school as they are very good about posting the info and it will be up there eventually. As I mentioned, they don’t start spring semester until the very end of January anyway. This new method of posting the info sure beats the old method by miles!</p>
<p>The school my son attends, does not have ANY books listed for the spring term. One cannot even click to the spring term (only the fall term is listed). I guess that until the textbook police come out of the woodwork they will post the information after final exams.</p>
<p>D attends a school with qtrs & is going to be renting some- but also found a few used on Amazon & Powells.</p>