<p>I tried looking at SSOL or Courseworks on the GS site to get a listing for my textbooks in advance, but it does not have the information. Is there another way or must I wait?</p>
<p>Also, where do guys get your textbooks? I know theres a million textbook renting websites; is there a particularly cheap/good one you use? I'm assuming that most do not buy their textbooks outright..thanks!</p>
<p>You’ll have to wait until the professor submits the book requirements to Courseworks, or until you receive a syllabus the first day of class. (The syllabus might show up on Courseworks before then, but that’s not a sure thing). A majority of my classes at Columbia have been slow to list book requirements, making them available only on the first day of class. The exception to this, in my experience, has been in the sciences where I’ve found textbook requirements listed on Courseworks well in advance. But every prof is different.</p>
<p>Textbooks are generally made available at either the on-campus bookstore (Barnes & Noble), or Book Culture on 112th St; your professors will tell you which store they’ve each selected to order the texts.</p>
<p>Columbia bookstore: [Columbia</a> University in the City of New York Official Bookstore | Textbooks, Rentals, College Apparel](<a href=“http://columbia.bncollege.com/]Columbia”>http://columbia.bncollege.com/)
Book Culture: [BookStore</a> Homepage - Book Culture](<a href=“http://www.bookculture.com/]BookStore”>http://www.bookculture.com/)</p>
<p>You’ll see that the on-campus Barnes & Noble website has a function with which you can search your course numbers and find any required texts. But again, that requires the professor to have submitted that info already, in which case it would probably be on Courseworks as well.</p>
<p>Once you have the list though, you’re free to shop around for the best deals online. In my experience, the on-campus book store and Book Culture both tend to have pretty limited stock of used texts, unfortunately. So if you get a text list in time to find cheaper deals online, go for it.</p>