How do people spend so much on text books?

"YSI-what can brown do for you" (ysi-what-can-brown-do-for-you)
01/18/2014 at 19:58 • Filed to: None

I only spent 110 bucks this semester. Rule 1: never buy from the book store.

DISCUSSION (33)

Nibby > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:00

Leadbull > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:01

Holy crap. I spent more than that on one of those BS "access cards".

davedave1111 > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:01

What's the point buying textbooks anyway? It's not like they go back and change the contents once you've read them.

midengineer > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:02

The real question is how do you spend so little?? I take all the shortcuts I can but around $250 is average though I have to spend quite a bit more before.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Leadbull
01/18/2014 at 20:03

I had one this semester. The textbooks were 80 bucks, the access code was 30 bucks. Last semester, my math class access code was a hunderd bucks.

YSI-what can brown do for you > midengineer
01/18/2014 at 20:05

Rule 2: don't buy every book for every class.

I didn't buy books for calc, physics or psych last semester. Saved so much money, but then I got screwed by calc. They required you to buy the online book to do the homework. . .

Anon > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:06

I don't know. I spent $40 on my world poetry book which I thought was a pretty good deal considering it's 1330 pages. Also I'm planning on keeping it after the semester ends because it's such a great anthology and has almost any poem you can think of. Also there's the fact that I'm a big poetry nerd.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Anon
01/18/2014 at 20:08

That's not too bad. I checked out the Chemistry book I am going to need, used it is 140 dollars. Ahhhhhh, no thank you. I am going to see what is it on amazon.

YSI-what can brown do for you > midengineer
01/18/2014 at 20:09

I should also add, that I need to buy one more book.

midengineer > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:13

Good rule, I don't buy books until after classes start. If I'm lucky a professor will allow us to use an older edition or maybe not have us buy a book at all. On another note: screw online math. Seriously though, I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate online math. Yes, I understand that I can (and I do) write the problems down and solve them but it feels sooo wrong for whatever nonsense reason of mine.

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:14

Lab manuals killed me this semester. I spent almost $160 on just those, plus Webassign for physics for another $100 at the bookstore, which is the only place you can get it for Purdue, apparently. Add in an MET-only book (we're working in IronCAD and the problems are all in it) for $110 ( ON AMAZON ) and I've spent nearly $400 this semester. Texbooks are a goddamn racket, man.

Leadbull > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:15

Can't you people just put homework up on Blackboard and let us email it in?

Is that too much to ask?

StoneCold > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:17

I love chegg.com and renting on Amazon; even if it would be cheaper to buy, say, my Calc book for the first semester and use it until Dif Eq, I still like spreading out the spending of the money

M54B30 > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:20

I always rented from Chegg.

TinFoil Knight > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:21

Education is expensive

Devilishprune > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:58

Protip: Search for "(bookname) pdf" on google and be rewarded.

Yeah, it's not totally legal, but it also is not totally expensive. I haven't purchased a book for my classes in 4 years. Also most of the time they don't even make you read the books and just get you to buy the books because the professors wrote them.

cardcheat > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 20:59

$250 on all the materials for organic chem was the most I've had to spend at one time. At least that covered both semesters. Book stores are truly awful though, not sure how they keep in business. You can almost always find the same thing online for at least half price, often even cheaper.

promoted by the color red > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 21:01

I work at a college bookstore and even I can barely afford to shop there. I've seen people have to decide between rent and books, people make horrendously stupid decisions, and I've saved some people from making expensive mistakes.

Here's some extra tips:

1.TALK TO YOUR PROFESSOR: A lot of people don't do this and they go buy $400 of books they don't need because their professor uses a custom book (only $50!) and makes the $300 book optional. Then they tear the shrink-wrap open and they're stuck up shit creek.

1.1a. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the whole book. There's a particular engineering course that's required for everybody (sans Electrical) and thus the book is split. The Mech/Aero people need part 2, so it's cheaper if they buy both halves at once. Watch out for things like these.

2. Know the deadlines and requirements. Do you need to keep your receipt? What's the rental return policy? The refund policy? Did you check the box that lets us sub a new book ($$$) when we run out of used books ($)? People will tear up the receipts and then come crying because they want to return and we won't let them.

3. The people behind the register counter only sell the books. Yes, we know it's fucking expensive. Don't be a dick to us. We probably don't know what's in stock, what's the cheapest option, and we don't set prices or policy. Some guy bitched me out because we wouldn't waive the return policy because he wanted to buy the book for a wait-listed class and had no guarantee of getting in.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him
01/18/2014 at 21:02

Right?!!? I spent 80 bucks on two lab manuals. They are like a hundred pages a piece. . . Last semester, for Calc 3 they made you buy the online book to get to webassign. 100 bucks for that. Completely useless. I spent close to 250 last semester so I didn't do to bad.

YSI-what can brown do for you > cardcheat
01/18/2014 at 21:17

I spent like 200 bucks on O chem as well. Luckily that was also for two semesters.

I learned my lesson about a year and a half ago. Now I try to never buy from the book store! So far it has worked very well.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Leadbull
01/18/2014 at 21:18

No, they have to screw us!!!

YSI-what can brown do for you > StoneCold
01/18/2014 at 21:18

Plus chegg has solution to some homework problems!

YSI-what can brown do for you > davedave1111
01/18/2014 at 21:18

Ask the professors, not me.

YSI-what can brown do for you > promoted by the color red
01/18/2014 at 21:21

I work at walgreens, so I know the feeling of number 3. People shout at me for the stupidest things. Some dude got angry at me for the Pharmacy not answering his phone. . . alright dude.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Devilishprune
01/18/2014 at 21:21

I need to try this. This would be AMAZING, free is alway

YSI-what can brown do for you > Devilishprune
01/18/2014 at 21:22

Free is always better is what I wanted to add!

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 22:38

You really didn't, that's a lot less than I've seen for most people. I don't think I've spent less than 300 any of the semesters I've been here, and I know a kid in nuke who spent almost $600 on Amazon for all his books, so by comparison we're definitely not doing bad at all haha. Plus it helps that you can always sell your stuff back on Amazon by the end of the year.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him
01/18/2014 at 23:13

I do like that. I still need to buy my chem book. Hopefully shipping will be fast! Otherwise, I might be screwed for two weeks.

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 23:33

Before you buy, sign up for a trial of Amazon Student, which is like Prime for college kids. They have a six-month trial period, everything ships for free and arrive in two days, and every now and again they have student-only discounts on a bunch of other stuff on the website, not just textbooks. Plus once those six months are up, Prime is only like $40/year. It's saved me a ton of money on a bunch of stuff to the point I just buy everything on Amazon. Definitely worth having, especially if you've just blown a bunch of money on headers that don't fit :)

YSI-what can brown do for you > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him
01/18/2014 at 23:44

Hey now! They are sending me new ones. Hopefully they fit, they said they changed the jig so it will.

I might as well give it a try. I have nothing to lose. Not even money, cause you know it is free...

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/18/2014 at 23:55

I never bought any. Only lab manuals. Which we then scanned and distributed amongst us. Even if there are assignments you have to turn in, you might still be able to get away with borrowing fro a friend. Text books are a scam. There is a world of information on this thing called the internet. The have it on computers now.

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > YSI-what can brown do for you
01/19/2014 at 01:06

Glad to hear you're getting that sorted out, that's really cool of the company to do that. Did they give you a timeframe for getting you a new set? I'd imagine you'd be first on their list, though the current weather here really isn't great for working on cars, is it.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him
01/19/2014 at 04:46

They should be here soonish hopefully. I will try contacting them next week about it, they are closed for the weekend.Pretty sweet company though, they even cover return shipping!