When should I buy books for my classes? Should I wait until the professors make clear which books they want you to buy in class?
S will be a senior in a couple of weeks, he’s bought his books starting around mid-August. He rents most of them thru amazon, who has taken over the textbook side of the bookstore. Free two day shopping. He’s in engineering, and hasn’t been caught buying any useless books as yet.
Where you have to be careful is when a professor requires the online access that goes with the book. Some used books do not come with the password, or the password has expired after one year.
I’m in mechanical engineering so its reassuring that he hasn’t bought any useless books yet. Looking at the SPIRE Textbook List right now, I see that there are many optional books so how do I know whether or not I should get them. Also, in response to your comment about the online access, if the professors want you to get the online access, will they post it on the SPIRE Textbook List, or just assume that you will buy it with the book? And if they want you to buy the online access, should I just buy a new book to make sure I get the online access (I’m assuming Amazon wouldn’t clarify whether or not used books still have the code) or is there a way to make sure that used books have the access?
Thanks for the advice goodcollegekid, but I’m also wondering if I should I wait until the professors make clear which books they want you to buy in class before buying books or if I should just buy them before class starts?
What I do is find pdf’s or torrents of the books on the list before I go to campus. I’m in CS, and some of my classes(Like Physics 151 and Calc 1,2,3 and Linear Algebra) have online sites for homework. These sites also have the e-text of the text book, so you won’t need to buy another copy. For any other books I’d recommend you wait and see what the professor says.