<p>Were we already suppose to have ordered them?</p>
<p>Haha, textbooks…</p>
<p>So no, you definitely don’t need to have ordered them yet. Things to consider:</p>
<p>1) The most expensive option is the bookstore [Your</a> Customized Textbook List - University of Pennsylvania Bookstore](<a href=“Find Course Materials | University of Pennsylvania Official Bookstore”>Find Course Materials | University of Pennsylvania Official Bookstore)</p>
<p>If they have used copies of the book, they will sell it used for a discount price. Otherwise you have to buy new for full price.</p>
<p>2) Because of the high cost of textbooks, there are a wide variety of alternatives to the bookstore, such as [Amazon.com:</a> Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com%5DAmazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com), [Better</a> Than The Bookstore: Buy and Sell Used Textbooks](<a href=“http://www.betterthanthebookstore.com%5DBetter”>http://www.betterthanthebookstore.com), etc.</p>
<p>3) The book store has also created a new option to rent textbooks at a significantly discounted price. They give you the textbook for the semester, and you must return it a week after finals end or else they charge you the full price. There are pretty flexible with what you can do in a rented book (underline, highlight, etc.).</p>
<p>4) There is a non-zero probability your classes will change. I encourage you to pick six or seven classes that interest you, and go to them all in the first week to see which ones have interesting professors, which ones will have a ton of work, which ones your friends are taking, etc. You are probably safe waiting until a week or two into the semester before getting your books. Science classes tend to rely mostly on the professor’s notes, and you can often get away without buying the book (if you need to do homework problems out of the textbook or something, you can always get the book out of the library). Humanities classes are the ones where you will be assigned weekly reading from a book, so it is more important to have the book for these classes.</p>