Saving money on textbooks
June 7, 2012
For those public school students who tend to walk into a Barnes and Noble and pick up a new paperback for fifteen dollars, the college bookstore can be a 1.21 gigawatt shock. Suddenly textbooks are going to cost you a full paycheck, and you're worried that you'll never be able to spend your Christmas money on anything fun again.
Fear not, although it's always nice to help out your school with a donation after you graduate, if you don't patronize the school bookstore while you're a student no one will hold it against you (they'll make plenty selling you mozzarella sticks and curly fries at 2am). Consider these tips to help you keep an eye on your funds while sticking to your class syllabus.
1. Use the library. Most schools have a mandate that any book assigned in a class must also be carried in the library, and often it will be placed on hold, so that while you can read to your heart's content inside the building, you can't take it home with you. This is a two-way street though - while you're using the book, someone else might be waiting, and vice-versa. If you're the sort to leave a major project to the last minute, you can be sure that someone else has too and they'll need that book or may already have it.
2. Scan the internet. This is also an occasionally reliable option. Between Abebooks and Amazon Marketplace, you should be able to find some vastly reduced prices on textbooks and literature anthologies. The downside is that there will almost never be photos, so you've only got the seller's word that his volume is in "very good condition" and hasn't in fact been used as a toy by his dog.
3. Ask your friends. By far your most reliable route - and the most social one. Seek out those who have taken your class before, and do it early in the semester so they still have their copies of the course books. This way you get to see the book itself, and all you have to do is offer the guy or gal a little more than the bookshop would (pennies) to find yourself equipped for class.
If all the above fails - and even if it doesn't! - seek out scholarship opportunities to help you manage the costs of textbooks. There are tons of options out there, and they can help relieve the bookstore financial burden or eliminate it completely.
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