<p>@UAKid</p>
<p>lol that seems like a headache to do. It’s better to just check with your professor and see if the text is on reserve at your campus. That’s what I did that’s why I only had to rent 2 books, and I’m taking 6 classes. The rest of the professors were nice to put their books on reserve for the students so you can just show your ID and borrow the book as long as you sit in the library for.</p>
<p>^ Unfortunately my school doesn’t do reserves for some reason. (You wouldn’t happen to go to school in CA)? My bro went to a UC school and they did but UA doesn’t.</p>
<p>Oh that sucks. No not in CA, but I do go to a community college. I think most CC’s do that, which is nice. It would be nice if more schools did do that though.</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is to wait until after the first day of class to get the book. It’s not uncommon for professors to say the book is not even required. They might also say that it’s okay to have an older edition, which will save you a lot of money.</p>
<p>However, if you’re ordering online it might be a good idea to order in time to be able to have the books shipped home. Some colleges don’t exactly have the fastest mailing system.</p>
<p>Also, you may have professors that say you don’t need the book for homework problems and that tests will come from powerpoint notes. If the book is expensive then it’s more worth it to just study from the notes, and if you need more information the library has tons of books that can help you.</p>
<p>^ This is solved by emailing the professors. All but one got back to me (prob on vacation) and they were all polite and answered my questions. I just asked if this was the right book/edition, and if they were going to give book homework problems (since that would mean you don’t need latest edition).</p>
<p>Renting isn’t a horrible idea. Yes, you don’t own the book. That can be a problem in some instances; however, note that textbooks have a short shelf life. That means the textbook you bought in August may be “out-of-date” when buyback day rolls around. And “out-of-date” translates to “worthless.”</p>
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<p>I’ve gotten rude answers before from professors when I’ve e-mailed them before the semester starts so I’ve been afraid of doing that ever since, lol.</p>
<p>You should wait till the second week to buy book because by then you will know whether you will even need it and whether you can just buy an older edition.</p>
<p>So I have the option to buy books from my school’s website which will </p>
<p>1) All be available for pick up before school starts
2) An option to get a refund or switch books if they are not the correct books
3) get 50% money back after semester if not needed for next semester
Quote from the school’s buyback program</p>
<p>"Do I Really Save by Participating in Buyback?</p>
<p>Yes, a lot! The immediate benefit is getting cash for books you no longer need. Last year the Co-op paid over $2 million to students for their books.</p>
<p>By aggressively purchasing used books and participating in buyback, you can save up to 75% off the new book price. (For example, if you bought a used copy of a $50 book for $37.50 and then sold it back at 1/2 price of $25, you would pay only $12.50 for the use of the book; that’s only 25% on the new book price.)"</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>I could go to cheggs and rent the books for a low price. However, chegg doesn’t offer a chemistry book I need, so I dont know what to do there. </p>
<p>Also, my school’s bookstore doesn’t seem to have used options (yet). I assume these would become available in the beginning of the school year…even though the new books are available and the spring semester must have sold their books after they were done…
Oh well, I guess I have to spend $500 on new books, but at least I get $250 back. I also assume that I should wait until classes start to buy the books. They even said that you should go to your English class first to find out the books you need.</p>
<p>I just hope they have all the books I need available and preferably used.</p>
<p>^^ Let me give you a tip that you can use for 4 years. The school is <em>always</em> out to screw you over and nickle -n- dime you to death.</p>
<p>My school goes out of their way to make sure they only buy 5 or so copies back each semester so then they can say “we only have 5 used” when 100 people need the book. </p>
<p>That quote you put up is such lol math. The truth is the bookstore’s used price is usually = to Amazon’s NEW price.</p>
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<p>1.) You don’t need your books before school starts. There’s a 99% chance you won’t even need them the first day. If your professor is really that determined to get you started on reading and homework they’ll probably e-mail the class about it. Otherwise it’s usually understood that students are going to need at least a few days to get books.</p>
<p>3.) Almost every school bookstore will claim to have a 50% buyback program, but what they won’t tell you is that they don’t buyback books they’re not going to use again. So if your English book was the 9th edition and they’re moving onto the 10th edition next year they won’t take your book back at all. This has a lot more than you think.</p>
<p>If your bookstore doesn’t even offer used books then that’s a good sign to stay away from them. </p>
<p>Either order books online or plan on buying them at the multiple used textbook places that will be in your college town. Those stores will have all the books you need and will have options for used and rental books as well. Better yet, many of these places will give you a form that guarantees buyback offers. </p>
<p>Colleges try to get every penny out of you that they can so you have to learn to make sure you’re not giving them more money than is necessary. But don’t worry, you’ll learn very quickly.</p>
<p>Unless you’re taking a lot of upper-level classes and purchasing all new books I really don’t see how someone could spend $500 on books every semester. I really don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $150 a semester on books. $200 at the most.</p>
<p>I used the campus bookstore’s website against itself since it listed the IBSN’s, editions, etc of what books I would need for each of my class sections. That information was immediately copy-and-pasted into Amazon where I found that I could usually buy the book new on Amazon for the same price as a used book from the bookstore. </p>
<p>Some of the savings weren’t that big. In the case with one book, I only saved $11 by doing it that way. But with my American Government textbook, it was really worth it. A new book from the bookstore was $125, but I got a used bok from Amazon that was only $21. Saving $104 on a general education class textbook felt pretty good. When it came in the mail, it looked almost brand new, so I should be able to use it and then sell it to another student at the end of the semester. Nice.</p>
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<p>I dont see how people can NOT spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks. My Diff Eq book alone this coming semester is $200 used off amazon.</p>
<p>@HubertFarnsworth: It depends on your major/general area. For STEM majors, the books will always be expensive. Luckily, intro science courses can use older textbooks (like 2 editions back may be fine).</p>
<p>Urgh, I need to learn to quote.</p>
<p>^ Yeah the CC system is outdated and doesn’t support quote buttons. I’d tell you but it won’t let me without quoting 
quote and /quote each in square brackets [] with whatever quoted in between.</p>
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<p>The professors in my major are cool and know that books cost way too much so a lot of them don’t require textbooks. For my other classes I’ve always been able to find books really cheap online or at used textbook stores. Either the used version will be cheap or I’ll just get an older version that is cheap. If there’s no way around paying the expensive price sometimes I just don’t get the book at all, and that has never caused me any trouble. I’ve guess I’ve just been lucky. I can’t imagine paying $200 for a single book!</p>
<p>^ I’ve had dick professors joke about “yeah you guys have to spend $150 but I get them for free.”</p>
<p>(Publishers send out TONS of textbooks free to professors even if they don’t ask…encourages them to use the latest and priciest editions)</p>
<p>I always wait. For half the classes, you can either get by with an old edition or international edition. But you don’t know until the first class.</p>
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<p>What book is this? I’m a math major and the most I’ve had to pay for a book is $80. Most quarters I pay less than $50 between 4 classes.</p>
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<p>I actually looked at the booklist again, its not quite that much (Elem Diff Eq - Boyce). The ISBN i copied into amazon included something for matlab, and there is now a custom edition listed that is only half that price. Happy for that :).</p>
<p>But in any case, im pretty certain orgo lab has a $200+ book that has to be bought new. So have that to forward to next semester</p>