My first semester at college I naively went to the university's local bookstore and bought all my textbooks there... one for each of my 5 classes, all new. I wanted to cry when the register rang up to $755.

Since then its been better, looking on Amazon and such.

 

This semester I had to buy 4 textbooks. The bookstore's price was $674 new, $516 used. I bought them all new on Amazon for $498, with free shipping.

 

How many textbooks have you had to buy or rent (this semester and past semesters), and whats the damage been?

Computer Science doesn't tend to have many textbooks from what I've seen and my Uni appreciates that a lot of it's students are from lower-earning backgrounds so they don't often require many books. This last semester I paid £70, which I thought was quite a lot in a way (obviously not compared to you) for 2 books. I got them from Amazon but I only saved £5 compared to the price at the Uni bookstore.

 

Not sure what books I'll need to get for next semester.

Oh wow, my books have never gotten that high. I roughly expect about $300 worth of books a semester. My worst was a little over $400. Luckily I have one semester left, so I can kiss those woes good bye and say hello to my loan payments which will be much worse. <_<

Yeah I don't think I've ever had more than $300 worth of books D: I won't be buying my books for next quarter until early January, but I'll post again then and report back on the damage done to the bank :P

www.chegg.com

 

Very reputable site that you can rent textbooks from at a fraction of the price. Highly recommended for classes that don't specifically relate to your interests/majors (I'm looking at you, writing composition.) For courses relating to your major, I think it's a good idea to keep those books, and I'd look on amazon for them.

 

Also, nothing beats networking. In some cases you can ask a classmate to go in half with you on a textbook and share it, or find an upperclassmen willing to sell you the book at a song.

 

With all the saving strategies I use (a mix of second hand, renting, book sharing, etc) I usually expect a 150-300$ dent in my wallet for 6-8 textbooks on a 15 credit/18 credit courseload.

Since I'm studying electrical engineering, most of my textbooks are pretty obscure, written by professors at Purdue or other large universities. I think that's how they subsidize their salary...

This semester is relatively high because two of the books had new editions printed recently, and the professors were requiring those. Other semesters where the books were a few years old, I could buy new for about a 1/3 of the listed price.

I haven't had to buy a single textbook for more than a year using the Uni library and the State library, and if I needed to, I still could use the City library for 15 a year or so. :unsure:

3 books. One for sociology, one for English, one for precalculus. Total was around $350. At the end of the year I sold them back for around $150. Not counting a $6 copy of All's Well that Ends Well because $6 is nothing compared to the other books :lol:

Next semester I'll try looking for better deals.

Some books like my economics book come with a key code that's required for the class (graded online homework)... :wall: And if you don't wanna spend the $95 or so on the textbook/key code combo (shrinkwrapped, mind you), then you can find that key code on the Aplia website for $80.

 

-.-

 

Looks like I'll be down about $300 this semester for an Accounting book, Macroeconomics book, Meteorology book, and an Intro to Psych book.

 

So far I only have the Psych book that I've rented for $48. It appears I can perhaps rent the Meteorology book for ~$38, which seems mint, but I'm sol for the other two. <_<

Psychology, Sociology, and Music textbooks, in addition to a poetry book for creative writing.

Grand total will be from $ 300-400... I can take off $150 because I sold back last semester's books.

Yeah I don't think I've ever had more than $300 worth of books D: I won't be buying my books for next quarter until early January, but I'll post again then and report back on the damage done to the bank :P

I got off very easy this quarter.

 

Astronomy - No book required.

Reading Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics - One book: $60

Computer Art - Lynda subscription: $25

 

QUARTER TOTAL: $85

 

Easy peasy. Though I'll have to tack on about $30 worth of flashcards, I'm sure.. lol.

I rarely buy books. I'm in my third year now and I've bought 4 textbooks so far, totalling no more than $250. I have more books, but I don't buy them :P

I'm only taking three classes this semester and my books ended up totally somewhere between $200-250. :(

 

Last semester I was taking 5 classes and my books only cost me $150. The most I've ever paid for textbooks in a semester was around $400 during my first year of university.

Check out

 

catalog.openentry.com/stdlbooks

 

The have great prices on textbooks if you compare to amazon and other online sources. I use these books for almost all my classes and have saved a ton of money.

Starting Fall 2011 - anyone want to share their damages?

 

So far I've bought 3 textbooks for $322, I expect to have to buy another for $130 plus an electronics kit for $63, so I'm in for $515 this semester.

Bleh.

Going to order my books later today.

 

EDIT: Just under $300 worth of books for two. Had to buy workbooks new (Roughly $60-70 ea), and one used textbook was $120. Two classes either didn't require a book or the professor didn't list one, and I'm waiting to see if that isn't the case with a third.

 

So, I've got a psychology textbook and workbook, and a computer sciences workbook.

I forget how many books (quite a few), but I only spent $250. That's nice.

Two days in, and I have three more textbooks to find. At least one I can get as an E-book for $80, and I'm going to trawl Amazon for the others.

If they're big textbooks (like, the cost is $100+), try Chegg. You can rent those books for like $40. Don't have to worry about selling it back or anything. Plus, they just give you a box to send them back in for free with a label.

www.chegg.com

This.

 

My first semester in college, my books came to $547. The next semester my books in the book store were $435, chegg it was right around $220.

 

Our book store this year added to were we can rent the books, sort of what chegg does. Most of the time, it cuts the price of the book in half. The problem is though it's only on some books.

 

This semester, I had to buy a German 101 book, and 6 books for English 203, grand total was $192. This was cool, because the books I use the most (my music books) carry over through all the semesters and courses.

I'm sorry to offer you advice this late but hope it'll help.

 

For classes that have really required readings (there is a big diff between required and REALLY required reading), esp those pesky humanities/english classes, library/photocopy the books. Buy used/older edition on AMAZON/half.com as a last resort if you really need a copy. And for most books, you honestly don't.

 

You will find that most profs will give you good enough notes/ppts that you can study off those and books are totally unnecessary.

 

After you're done with the class, DON'T sell it back to the bookstores for pennies - keep it if possible and sell it the next time the class rolls around. And if you can't...dump it on amazon for less - but it will always be more than what the bookstore pays for buyback.

 

I have literally went through the last 2 years of college paying <$300 total in books after reselling.

Another semester is about to start. I'm looking at buying/renting 11 books so far for a total of about $200. My computer science prof's books aren't up yet, so those will push me above $200. My physics class textbooks are really killing me. Renting one for $43 (the new one costs >$100) and buying the other for $45 because that's how much it will cost to rent it (so why not just buy it).

 

I dunno if renting books is practical. I've always thought it was. I usually pay around $40 to rent the big textbooks (ones that cost >$100 to buy). I figured I save myself the hassle of trying to find someone to buy it.

Well, so far for one class I have six monographs each about $25 a piece, none of which are in the library <_< Often my history courses' required reading materials are found in the library which has saved me hundreds of dollars in rentals or purchasing. I typically purchase and keep almost all of my history monographs if I can (but never the shitty textbooks they assign, I don't typically even purchase those) and articles I have to print off. They are all surprisingly handy for cross reference.

I have 5 classes per semester, so 10 total this year

 

Last semester I only had to buy 2 books. One for $180, and one for $90. 2 classes didn't require a book, and 1 used the same book as a class I had last year (although it was ~175 then).

 

This coming semester I'm looking at 1 for $200, 1 for $130 + some sort of software package for $150 (but only "suggested"), 1 that isn't listed so hopefully that means I don't need one, and 2 that I already have.

 

 

So... really expensive books, but at least there are a few classes now where we have a textbook that covers enough material for 2 courses. First year was the worst, requiring an expensive book in almost every class.

Thanks to Chegg and used books, 5 classes this semester is only gonna be $150