Hello!
With 6 months to go, I wanted to get some insight on the go-to places for students to get all their textbooks and supplies for classes? I have been hearing everything from UA shoppe and Amazon to Walmart and target. Any insight on what your student did to keep costs low would be terrific 
Also, any experience with buy-back programs, like with UA shoppe? Does your student keep their course materials or just sell it off? Best places for this? Thanks!!! Roll Tide!
We just get all our stuff through the SUPe - renting textbooks instead of buying keeps costs down.
Weāve always had good luck with Chegg (chegg.com on the internet). They ship the books to you and supply a prepaid package label to ship them back at the end of the semester for rentals. Son rents books for ācore requirementsā that he knows he is not going to want to keep. We buy all the books for the courses in his major and he keeps those for reference later. For the ones we buy I just google the ISBN to find the best price and compare it to the price at the Supe store on campus.
Personally I always buy sonās books in advance and heās never had a course where the book in the syllabus wasnāt required, but others will say itās better to wait until after classes start because occasionally there will be a book listed in the syllabus, but the instructor will later say it is not needed.
I regularly compare Chegg.com, textbooks.com, and abebooks. I started using Amazon just to check on pricing as well, with the SUPE Store pricing. Depending on your major, you may want to keep the books, if future courses build on them. Sometimes you donāt know that until too late, tho. My son made the āerrorā in judgement to always turn his books in (if he bought them) or rent them, and now that he is in senior year, heās made mention that he should have kept/bought a couple, so jrcsmomās comment is a very valid one.
One source (for the odd aero engineer who might read this post) is AIAA for aero books. They have a vast inventory, and we picked up a book son needed this semester for ~$20 (member price), versus over a $100 online/SUPE Store. So, you just never know where bargains can be found. Other engineering societies might have similar inventories of books for their branch of study.
I would suggest not buying books until after the first class. Itās not unheard of for a professor to tell the class that a certain textbook which was listed will not be used.
@Southlander true dat - happened to my son in linear algebra but we already had the book.
Thank you everyone for the input. How late should I put off finding materials? How hard does it get to get stuff in a timely manner? My one fear is waiting too long if a professor is impatient and wants your materials ready to go within a few days.
You have to be careful, sometimes a āCustom Edition UAā textbook is required and/or a web code, in this case the Supestore is the only game in town.
Access codes can be purchased separately or directly from the company that the access code is for. Over 4 years I have always found that is more cost effective to rent a book or buy it used and get the access code separately instead of purchasing a new book that is bundled with the code.
For any classes requiring customized textbooks, math class codes, or computer software access codes, my student just buys from the Supe Store. Actually, he often has access to the trial versions of those math and computer classes so he can buy online as the trial ends and never even has to go back to the Supe Store.
For all other books, he orders from Amazon, and when available, he will rent some textbooks (those he knows he will never need to keep for his library.) Prices are often better at Amazon, and because the Supe Store is not always that reliable during those first few days (often not enough of particular book is in stock), it is just easier to deal with Amazon.
Only thing to keep in mind is that sometimes the mailroom cannot accept the deliveries. This semester, my sonās packages were supposed to be delivered on a Friday but the mail room had not cleared its docking area, and so FedEx (Amazonās choice for that delivery), could not leave the boxes and rescheduled delivery for early the following week. I was able to contact FedEx and arrange delivery at the local FedEx store down on McFarland and my son was able to go get his boxes there later that afternoon, so he had his books to read over the weekend. We have had this happen with UPS deliveries as well, and it gets a bit frustrating to be expecting a delivery but the mailroom cannot process it and turns the deliveries away. So keep that in mind if you are ordering with a deadline in mind.
Iāll keep this all in mind. I am currently a prime subscriber with Amazon so I definitely want to take advantage of two-day shipping when I can. I have never been really impressed with UPS or FedEx for their ground shipping rates and timely delivery @chesterton. One thing I need to consider though is the mailroom fee at UAā¦I did not know the school charges $120 a year for it. How did everyone deal with this? Did they go ahead and pay the fee or did they set something up somewhere else to get mail and packages???
Amazon Prime accounts are a wonderful thingā¦ ;
My son lives off campus (jr and sr years) and he still paid/pays for a mailbox on-campus. He likes the security of having packages delivered there rather than sit outside his apartment door, and I think he might secretly like the automatic email messages that say āyou got mail!ā every now and againā¦gives him a chance to go to the Ferg and re-connect with the campus in his latter years.
Amazon Prime is awesome, and the Amazon Pantry is a good service, too, though the boxes can be pretty heavy to carry all the way from the mail center to your suite (but the Pantry often has some great deals.)
You can create free accounts for UPS My Choice and Fedex Delivery Manager, and doing so allows you to direct your packages to the local UPS store and Fedex store if you need to do so for some reason.
However, you are still going to get regular mail, and it will be very convenient to have an on-campus mail box. Overall, the experience receiving Amazon orders is good - just remember the mail room shuts down whenever there is a home football game (even if not played at home.) And occasionally delivery is delayed. Just make sure to allow enough time to order and you will probably never deal with the delays my student did from time to time.
You can pay by the semester (but donāt forget to renew if you want to keep the same box.) I think it would be worth your time to get an on-campus box at least the first year.
FWIW - we never purchased an on campus mailbox and if you are budget conscience there is no need to do so. Packages can still be delivered without purchasing a box to the on campus mail center. There is an address you can look up once you receive your dorm assignment. You can not receive letters or things like magazines without a mailbox but if someone is going to send a letter, they can include it in a small package and send to you so you can receive. My son receives all bills and bank statements electronically so there is no need for a mailbox for those items. He had no issues at all without having a mailbox on campus.
Once he moved off campus he used that address for mail, but for those worried about sending packages to apartments, i am almost certain off campus students can still receive packages at the mail center without paying for a mailbox.
Price compare renting vs. buying (and then possibly reselling). Also, we have found that if renting from Amazon, there are often two prices, depending on the state the book is being shipped to. If you have a friend/relative in a less expensive rental state, you may wish to ship there and have them mail you the book (which would require a bit more planning).
Thanks everyone for the insight! I was worried that I was going to need to get a mailbox to receive any mail or packages. It is good UA still allows students to get packages!
Bumping this thread for an updateā¦
Out of pure curiosity and this will vary with people of course but I was wondering how much families are spending on books and supplies at UA? The published cost of attendance for books/supplies is $1200 a year but I was wondering how much this is true or not, especially for engineering majors. Any insight will be appreciated!
My daughter is a business major. Her book costs per semester varied, from about $50 to $500, but usually in the $150 range. Her costs went down as she figured out how to find free books online, that some books werenāt really necessary, that she could sometimes use older editions of a book, etc. As she met more people on campus, she was able to buy books inexpensively from friends and acquaintances. She also bought used books online, and on the rare occasions when she needed a new edition of an expensive book that she couldnāt find for a reasonable price, sheād rent. Her more expensive semesters were those where she needed multiple access codes. Sheās taking a graduate course at UA this summer and has already obtained the book (after confirming with the prof that the listed book will in fact be used) from an online seller for $15, including shipping. At the SupeStore, the book is selling for $120, and a used rental from the Supe is $92.
atomicPACMAN07: My son is an engineering major at UA. As youāve heard, itās the āaccess codesā that run the bill up most semesters. Like bethās momās daughter, my son has used a variety of means to obtain the necessary books. Weāve purchased very little on campus; the exceptions have been a couple of āUA custom bundlesā available only via the SUPE. Heās spent $350-$450 so far each semester. (If you simply order everything new via the SUPE, I have no doubt the cost would be $600 per semester, if not more!)