<p>just wondering. what disciplines do you think are acceptable to purchase cheaper, older editions of textbooks?</p>
<p>All of my kids used older editions. Just e-mail professors and put it past them.When you get the book just be sure to match up the chapters with your course guide because they may be out of sequence. Math books may also be missing some problems but again the savings may be worth getting copies from the library and making the adjustments. They also purchased foreign editions although science books are not recommended due to lack of color print in the diagrams. Many foreign texts will have a lower quality paper but the savings are often worth the difference.</p>
<p>i see, thank you momma-three. i’ll look into using them, thanks!</p>
<p>Also, don’t forget about international editions of textbooks. I found one for a summer class, and while everyone else paid upwards of $100 for the book and sold it back to the bookstore for a measly sum (<$30), I paid $55 including shipping, and the only difference was that mine said international edition and was paperback.</p>
<p>I used an older version of my Anthropology textbook and it was fine. The only difference was a different cover.</p>
<p>Got the international version of my programming textbook (mom was in India). Cost the equivalent of $10 while the bookstore version was $110. Exact same as US version, no difference in paper quality. I wish all of my textbooks were sold in India…</p>
<p>Even better is if the text book is free (legally) on the web. For example:</p>
<p>[Structure</a> and Interpretation of Computer Programs](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html][i]Structure”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html)
[Algorithms[/url</a>]</p>
<p>But if you are not so lucky to find a text book that is legally free, you can check various on-line retailers like [url=<a href=“http://www.amazon.com%5DAmazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com]Amazon.com:</a> Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more](<a href=“http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html][i]Algorithms[/i][/url”>http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html) and used book stores not near university campuses for the same book at a less expensive price.</p>
<p>If you are thinking of using an older edition of a textbook, make sure to ask/email the professor. At my school sometimes professors will specify “older editions of textbook okay.” I was always tempted to use older editions of textbooks, but instead I choose to buy international editions… up to 4 times cheaper and has the exact same content, just different cover.</p>