I wanted to take a few
minutes of your time to write to you about one of your biggest expenses in your
college career: your textbooks. Textbook prices have continued to
increase. Many professors are aware of
this and try to choose books or use older editions to help students out. Others seem to be oblivious to book prices
and students find themselves shelling out $200 on books for one class! To keep
that from happening, give some of these ideas a try.
1.
The
Library. Visit the university
library. Many textbooks are available on
the shelves of the library. Check the
catalog to see if a copy of your text is there.
If it isn’t there consider an interlibrary loan. Libraries share their materials from city to
city and across state lines. You’d be surprised and what you can get by just
asking. Don’t forget to try the public
library. Chances are they won’t have too
many technical books on their shelves, but they can get you what you need via
interlibrary loans.
2.
Buy used. Your university bookstore and textbooks
sellers close to campus almost always have used textbooks. You can save about 30% off the new prices
when you buy used. The key is to buy
early; the used textbooks go quickly.
3.
Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powell’s Books. Once you have scored your schedule for the
semester, check with the university bookstore to find out the titles, authors,
and editions of the various textbooks you will need. Then visit one of the previously mentioned
electronic booksellers to see what they have available. If you have the time to wait for shipping,
you can often find textbooks for as low as $5.
4.
Rent your
textbooks. Not all university bookstores
participate in textbook rentals, but you should always check and see.
5.
Buy directly
from a friend and cut out the middle man, I mean the bookstore! When you buy a textbook for $75 and sell it
back to the bookstore they only pay you a fraction of the original price. If the book is going to be used by the same
classes in the next semester you’re likely to get a little bit more for the
books, but if the text will not be used till the following fall semester, you’re
out of luck and they’ll offer you $5. If you’re lucky. They then turn around and sell that book to
the next semester’s students at a used rate of about $50. And the cycle continues. Cut out the middle man. If the bookstore offers you $5 for the used
book and you know they’re going to sell it for $50 to your friend, offer to
sell it to your friend for $25. You make
$20 more and she saves $25. It’s a win-win.
6.
Book Swap. At the largest of the three universities I
have attended the Student Senate hosted a book swap based loosely on the idea
above. What if you are the only one of
your friends in biology? Well, you won’t
have anybody to buy your books. With
this in mind, the Student Senate got together and students wrote their name and
price on a card in the cover of the book and all the books went on giant
cafeteria tables. Other students then
came up and picked out what they needed.
The students selling made more than they ever could selling back to the
bookstore and the students buying saved more too! Does your university host something like
this?
7.
Consider buying
an older edition (Note: This does not work well if your professor gives you
homework from the textbook. However, if
you are mostly discussing in class and writing papers, this may be the way to
go!). I am teaching a science class for
elementary school teachers. I have used
the textbook in question off and on over the past ten years. I have copies of
the third, fourth, and fifth editions. I
was told that I needed to use that textbook for my course where I am teaching
now. Of course, I complied. A student
and I were later talking and I said something about how ridiculous the cost of
that paperback science textbook was at $95.
She laughed and told me it was $120 in the bookstore. I nearly choked! I quickly informed her she could use the
previous edition! Chances are you won’t
be able to buy the previous edition from the bookstore, but you can buy them
from the online booksellers mentioned in #3.
If you chose to do this, always let your professor know that you are
using a different edition (because of financial considerations). Additionally, you will want to make certain
that you compare the syllabus and reading assignments to the chapters in your
different edition. Often times a new
edition has a few new citations, perhaps a new chapter, and many times, the
chapters have been reorganized.
8.
Borrow the book
from your professor. Nearly every one of
your professors wants you do to do well in his or her class and understands the
correlation between having the materials for class and success in the
course. Professors often get desk copies
from publishers and they sometimes have more than one copy on their
shelves. Take for instance the science textbook
I mentioned above. I have two copies of
5th edition and two copies of the 4th edition. So far this semester I am using one and have
shared two of the three extras to students who have come to see me. The only difficult part of this suggestion is
asking.
9.
Book share. This suggestion should only be done with
someone you trust and live relatively close to (say say dorm or apartment
complex). You will need to create a
schedule for sharing the textbook and stick to it. You can see the possibility for troubles with
this suggestion. But my sister and I
have successfully shared texts (She studied wayyy more than I ever did.) as did
my friend Alayne and I during our doctoral program. You can make it work.
10. Look for an online edition of the textbook. Many textbooks are available for free or for
a reduced fee online. You may not think
you enjoy reading an HTML document or a pdf, but if it saves you $130 that
semester, it may change your mind!
It is summer and you have time to consider saving money on your books for fall. I strongly urge you to read, consider, and
share the above mentioned suggestions. I
suggest that you seriously consider item #8.
You may not have met the professor of record for your fall classes yet,
but you know me. If you happen to be
taking classes that I teach or have taught, I may have those textbooks on my
shelf.
I hope these
suggestions help, my dear! And here’s to
another successful year!
Love, Kat
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