<p>Where and when do most Cornellians buy their required and/or suggested texts? Is it a good idea to rely on the Cornell store or is it as overpriced as I imagine it might be? I don't mind a paying a couple of dollars more if it saves me the time and hassle of ordering from the web, but if there's an appreciably large difference I wouldn't mind shopping for books online. Also, is it commonplace to get used or older (but largely unaltered) editions?</p>
<p>I buy used editions from the Cornell store, just for convenience. A lot of students order books online…there’s also a store called Kraftees in Collegetown that sells books at a discount.</p>
<p>Don’t do the Cornell Store, at least Kraftee’s if you don’t want to order online.
[Welcome</a> to Kraftees Collegetown: Cornell University Textbooks, Clothing & Gifts](<a href=“http://www.kraftees.com/ithaca/]Welcome”>http://www.kraftees.com/ithaca/)</p>
<p>Of course, online is much cheaper if you look in the right places.
[Textbooks</a> | College Textbooks | New Textbooks | Used Textbooks | College Textbooks | Cheap Textbooks](<a href=“http://www.campusbooks.com/]Textbooks”>http://www.campusbooks.com/)</p>
<p>The books in Cornell Store are overpriced, at least most of the books that I had to buy were. The thing is that Cornell wouldn’t release what books we will use until ~1-2 week before the school starts. So, sometimes we just don’t have a choice but to buy them from the store.</p>
<p>Kraftees is definitely a place to check for used books. They usually offer quite a deal, but sometimes I still find that books sold online are still cheaper compared to Kraftees. So, most of the time I’ll buy them online.</p>
<p>Note: sometimes there are classes that use special “books” written by the professors and can only be bought from Cornell. So, no other choice. A way to get around it is to buy the book as a group and go to FedEx Office to copy it (but it’s violating the copyright law…) so FedEx employees wouldn’t help you to copy it if you ask.</p>
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<p>If I’m already aware of the required texts for several of my classes (via emails to the relevant professors), should I then begin shopping around for my books?</p>
<p>I think you would want to ship your books to the school directly since bringing them maybe too much of a hassle (to me at least). So, that means you could buy them now and ship them later yourself or you could buy them later and have them shipped to your address in Cornell.</p>
<p>My suggestion for buying later and have them shipped: make sure they arrive after you do.</p>
<p>The Cornell Store is usually way to overpriced. I’m a big fan of <a href=“http://www.bigwords.com--it%5B/url%5D”>www.bigwords.com–it</a> checks a lot of different online book retailers/used book outlets, and is terribly easy to use. I’ve purchased used books at the Cornell Store and Kraftees when the difference is only a few dollars, but I usually save a ton of money from buying online.</p>
<p>Buying used books is fine, but I’d be careful about buying older editions of books, especially with science courses. </p>
<p>Also, some professors put together packets of readings that are only available in the Cornell Store (and are way overpriced), so unless you can find the majority of the included articles through the library website, you’re usually stuck buying it at the Store.</p>
<p>Some professors expect you to simply have the books for reference meaning you could get through the course perfectly fine without them. It’s annoying that you can never really tell which books you’ll actually use. </p>
<p>Caution on ordering online though: CHECK THE EDITIONS CAREFULLY. slightly different versions could mean a difference of up to the pages or different questions. If that happens you could get screwed for homework. </p>
<p>I buy from Cornell store for convenience.</p>
<p>also be careful with international editions. they will usually be much, much less and very tempting. But be warned, they will be drastically different regardless of what they say in the listing.</p>
<p>^ That’s not always true. I have had international edition books that exactly match the US edition ones. But I agree that you should be careful before deciding to buy one.</p>
<p>well I guess my point is that they will say they are the same, and you won’t have anyway of knowing until you get them. Especially problematic are the science, engineering and math books.</p>
<p>My S has ordered several for his studies at USAFA only to find the units are metric, problem sets are different and other small things like that. He can still use them for his reading, but has to borrow when he goes to do his problems.</p>
<p>It is very tempting because the engineering books are so expensive. Just beware!</p>