College folks..

I buy used copies of old editions off of Amazon and use the reserve copies in the library or a friends text to make copies of any readings that are missing from them (which is rarely). Not sure about other majors, but economics texts don't vary much from one edition to the next and the old ones can be bought for $10-$40.

 

Some courses,the instructer was kind enough to hand out summerized notes and we simply had a "fill in the blank" during lecture. Other profs didnt like the schools chosen reading material and simply taught without it,you had to go to class everytime or you would miss something vital to understanding the lecture.


Others, I remember back in the 90s, books cost for 1 class roughly twice what the course cost.Then when it came time to sell them back,they gave you maybe a third of what you paid,if anything at all.Books on psychology and criminal psych became outdated every year and I never got any of that money back.lol.


The lab manuals were an absolute waste of money, but were required. None of the cadavers remotely resembled those colorful drawings.

 

I got to use my same calculus book for calc I, II, and III. The bad news is the book was $350!!

Still a deal by some standards..

I paid $147 for my Differential Equations Book, and I still need another hundred something for my German books.

Physics book was about $150 also.

 

This year was kind of ****ty for new editions being released. I'm over $600 for 4 classes and one of them is a used edition. This includes looking on Amazon and many many other websites. Managed to save about $100 by buying online.

 

hanging around after the finals for the class you're going to take the following qtr/semi. Ppl usually unload their books for cheap after finals.

 

I'm not I'm school anymore, just wanted to rant that I had a professor once who wrote textbooks.
He'd update it every year and make it required for the class. And it was $400

 

Buy them online instead. I purchased my books at the book store at school and my GF rented hers from a website for 1/4 of the price I paid....Shes obviously smarter than I am....If you want, I will ask her for the web address.

 

It appears that not much has changed in the 40 years since I graduated. Back then, you could try to score used books if the prof didn't change texts and your ONLY alternative was the campus (ripoff) bookstore.

 

www.bookscouter.com

I used the site to sell back all my old books.
It lists a ton of sites that also sell textbooks, so you can shop around for a cheap(er) copy.

Ive been fortunate/thrifty. Most I payed for books so far was $250-300 for a semester.
I refuse to patronize the campus bookstore! I can't believe its a student run organization either!

 

Chegg.com is my best friend for books. I'm renting one book this semester for $10

 

My classes cost $5000 each, but so far I've been lucky with books. Haven't spent more than $200 for a single class. Only one teacher has posted the required text so far and it's $116 new, or $87 used on Amazon plus $13 shipping if I want it before Thursday. I'll just spend the extra $16 and get it new on campus.

 

This semester should be pretty good...one class is just the 2nd half of one I was taking last semester (so i already have the books) and the other classes' books should be mostly covered by my gi bill book stipend.

 

I had professors who wrote books purposely to lower the cost for the students. They would write them, and then take a really low royalty or none at all, all the while being told the book would only cost the student $50-$60. Well when the books were sold, they were still selling them for the regular price of $150 and up. That happened twice, once the professor told us NOT to by the book and said screw them and gave us notes, but in the other one we had no choice but to buy it, he needed something to use..

 

My college had a book co-op, which was a lower-priced alternative to the book store.

It pays to check bulletin board ads around campus. I was looking for a low cost alternative to my wife's nursing book. I was haunting the psychology department asking professors for suggestions. I ran into one part-time professor who was selling the book for a student. It was $140 new and $102 used in the book store, but $40 from this professor.

 

Only rubes shop at the campus book store. Amazon, Bookbyte, etc... Save 90%

 

I hate buying books. 1500 or so per semester here

 

my books were free...