Board 8 > Anywhere online to buy cheap books for college?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My first day of college starts next week, after three years of being out of school. Anyway, I thought there were online stores where I could buy used books for cheaper or rent them or whatever. Advice?

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Amazon and ebay!

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http://www.directtextbook.com/

this site searches lots of different stores for textbooks for you and compares the prices

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Half.com, which is ebay for textbooks.

Also Chegg.com, where you can rent books.

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Would buying or renting be recommended? I read that the college store will only buy certain books back, so if I buy a used book online, I might be stuck with it forever?

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From: ShadowHalo17 | #005
Would buying or renting be recommended? I read that the college store will only buy certain books back, so if I buy a used book online, I might be stuck with it forever?

You get ripped off on returns anyway. If you buy the books you'd want to sell them to another student directly, using something like half.com, craigslist, or a book exchange program if your school has one.

Also make sure to check for older editions of your books. Depending on what books you're getting, there can be very little changes between editions and the price will be a fraction of the newest edition. For math/science books they might change the problem sets which is bad, but other times you're fine. I'd wait until the first day of class and see if the professor says anything if you're unsure.

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Yeah, don't bother with returning your books. Prime example - I bought an Intro to Psych book for 110 bucks (and I couldn't buy it used because it came with a disc of exercises we needed to do and each disc had a keycode we had to enter to activate it... ****ing rip, that was) and when I went to return it they said they'd give me 7 dollars. I asked why they were giving me so little and they said because they were coming out with a new edition for next semester so the book I bought was now obsolete.

It's kind of nice having college textbooks around, anyhow, I think.

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Best advice: go to class the first day and see if you're actually going to need the damn book. I wasted $300 my first semester on books I never used, and probably spent $300 for the rest of my college experience combined (Bachelor's and Master's combined) on books because hardly any classes ever actually use the damn things.

Of course, that strongly depends on your major. I was Computer Science. We don't use textbooks.

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Yeah, I went all of last semester without buying a book. Just went to the library and used the books on reserve for problem sets. All my exams were more heavily focused on lecture material than book material so it wasn't a problem.

On that note: libraries are awesome.

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No amount of planning will ever replace dumb luck.

I don't have a major right now, I'm just going to a Community College for two years and hopefully transferring to a University after that, by which time I hope I will figure out a major.

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From: ShadowHalo17 | #010
I don't have a major right now, I'm just going to a Community College for two years and hopefully transferring to a University after that, by which time I hope I will figure out a major.

What are your courses?

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This semester I have Oral Communication I (ugh), Intro to College Reading, College Composition I, and Pre-Algebra (which will be easy once I get refreshed).

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Tagging this to use when I get home

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Should still work for university books, right?

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Probably yeah, as most people were responding to this topic before I told them it was a Community College, so they were to assume it was University.

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From: ShadowHalo17 | #015
Probably yeah, as most people were responding to this topic before I told them it was a Community College, so they were to assume it was University.

You said college.

I mean university in terms of post-undergrad stuff.

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Wait to buy the books at all until the first week of class. I'd say at least 50% of the time in school we never even used the book in my classes. They're too expensive to buy in any capacity if you're not going to use it.

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Yeah most of the time you don't even use the books and they're just meant to be 'things for you to read other than classes' which unless you get into more advanced stuff is completely and totally useless.

Just go to class the first day, see if you need the books, and then buy/don't buy based on that.

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That's good to know that I may not even have to buy the books. I got over a thousand dollars for my grant, which leads me to my next question, am I likely to get any more grants at all, or do people only get one at the beginning of college, or what, how does that go?

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Oh sorry community college? That's a little different. I did the same thing where I went to community college for two years and then transfered to the university of michigan for my last two years.

At community college I always used my books. It probably depends on the college, but where I went they were really good about trying to make sure you only had to buy what you needed. So yeah, probably for CC you'll need to buy the books. It's really like a continuation of highschool, and that's the truth.

As for grants, I'm not really sure. I got a scholarship that paid for a full two years for me at CC. Usually they renew your grants every year at the beginning of the school year. So whatever financial aide you got this year, expect to probably get the same next year. When you transfer to a University, you'll get a different financial aide package.

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You get FAID/Grants every semester (usually... some might do a big sum each year). Every year you have to reapply for your fafsa and stuff like that though.

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Well I didn't use books in high school very much at all either, so... I'm hoping like you guys have been saying, I won't have to use them much now, even in Community College.

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