<p>I’m an incoming Freshman and I’ve been to the UCD bookstore today to look at my required textbooks. Should I wait until the first day of class to buy textbooks or should I buy them in advance?
Also, one textbook has an optional CD with it, should I get the textbook with the CD or buy a used textbook without the CD?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Now. Used.</p>
<p>It depends, because there are all sorts of things that can make buying now, later, or not at all a good idea.</p>
<p>Does the class require some sort of online class tools? How much are they? If the code costs almost as much as the book does, and the college sells a bundle for not much more, you might as well buy the bundle. Does the online access come with the ebook? (It often does)… in that case you might not need the real book unless the teacher lets you use it on tests and you want to have it.</p>
<p>Is homework assigned out of the book? If so, you can always go use the library’s book or borrow a friend’s book for getting the homework problems. </p>
<p>If the teacher’s lectures are so good that you don’t feel you need the book, try the water and wait to see if you really need it or not. Some teachers lecture expecting that you’ve already read the book ahead of time, and some don’t (there are cases where the book doesn’t add anything or just makes things worse, too).</p>
<p>Doing a used impulse buy is good if it’s dirt cheap, and if you indeed choose to see how things go before buying books, there will be times you wish you had just bought the book from day one, but you’ll get better at making the decision as time goes on 
</p>
<p>Of course, if you have a lot of $$ and just pre-order the books at the bookstore from information on the website and don’t have a care in the world, well, I’m happy for you, too!</p>
<p>The bookstore does price matching on new books within 14 days. An important caveat: they will NOT accept any opened shrink-wrapped items.</p>
<p>@itsLui: how do you know what classes you are taking?</p>
<p>@ collegegirl: this topic is a year old, and was made in September. I assume you’re an incoming freshman; if so, then you won’t know what classes you’ll be taking until your summer orientation. Even then, it’s highly advised not to purchase books until the instructor makes the syllabus available on the class SmartSite (a website that UCD uses that’s like their version of Blackboard), with an indication of whether a textbook is required or not. You do NOT want to purchase textbooks in advance and then find out that your professor won’t use it or reference anything from it.</p>