<p>uh, when should we buy our books? Should I already be ordering things from the student store, searching Amazon.com, etc? And even better, when/how do we find out what books we need for each class?</p>
<p>Sorry, hahah. I kind of feel like I missed a memo here somewhere.</p>
<p>This question's been on my mind for awhile, too. I'm not actually going to register for classes until orientation, so I feel as if I have a really limited time frame in which to buy books, etc. I mean, I more or less know what my schedule's going to look like, so should I go ahead and buy the books that I'm sure I'll need??</p>
<p>All the books you need will be in the bookstore @ WU and u can buy them once you get a syllabus from the professor</p>
<p>Will they have new AND used books? And will we have time to order them from sites like Amazon.com once we get the syllabus? And what if they, like, run out of psych books or something... And, oh my lord, how am I going to pay for this.</p>
<p>Actually, since August 1 you have been able to go onto the campus bookstore website and see all of the books that you will need. First, go here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wustl.edu/bookstore/%5B/url%5D">http://www.wustl.edu/bookstore/</a></p>
<p>Click on the link in the first paragraph that says "Online Campus Store", click ">>Go" under books, then ">>Go" under textbooks, and assuming you have already registered, you can use WebSTAC to look at your schedule and find the necessary info to put in. If you haven't registered, you can find the same info in the course listings in WebSTAC. From there you can order from the WUSTL bookstore or use the title, author, and edition information to order online elsewhere. If you order from places like half.com, you will most likely save lots of money. If you want more info on getting books online, there are a few threads in the College Life forum that you should check out.</p>
<p>Also, it's not very likely that the bookstore would run out of books for a class like that.</p>
<p>Hey, thank you SO much. That is awesome.</p>
<p>The campus book store is a rip off, as are all campus bookstores (fault of the publishers, mostly, combined with the higher costs of running retail operations than online ones). Wait until you move in though, as you'll have time to order books online after making sure that your schedule is final. I'm actually launching a schedule website / textbook comparison price search for Wash U (hopefully by Monday), so that may come in handy. If you're ordering books online, be 100% sure that you're ordering the correct edition. I'd suggest avoiding international editions, as page numbers may be off and screw you up.</p>
<p>Last semester I bought a book online & then sold it back to the bookstore at the end of the semester for more than I bought it for. Then again, I had 2 books that they didn't buy back at all.</p>
<p>Well, ideally I would order books online after attending the first week of classes (to make sure I'm not dropping anything), but won't teachers already be assigning reading and problem sets from the textbooks? Should I just find someone who already has the books for that first few weeks?</p>
<p>I would buy your books as soon as you get to campus, or online from the WashU bookstore - don't wait until you know if you're keeping your classes (they usually don't run out of books, but it sometimes happens, and they WILL run out of used copies, which are much cheaper). If you're shopping around and are really unsure of what you'll keep, waiting might be better, but if you only have a class or 2 in question, I'd get em. Most of my classes had readings/ problem sets in the first week, so they're good to have. You have a grace period to return books if you drop a class - a month I think - you just show them on your schedule that you've dropped it. (Be careful though, sometimes books that come in shrink wrap can't be returned if they've been opened - if you have one, ask)</p>