Who else is feeling the burden that is college textbooks?

[marzipanmermaid]

I hate how much these books cost...
I hate when teachers saw the books are required, but we hardly use 'em.
I really wish I was approved for my loan. :/

 

[MozzarellaSticks]

I still haven't registered oh my God. I tend to torrent my book, though. Or wait a few weeks and see if they are really used and I need to buy.

 

[Liquid Ocelot]

I never buy them unless they're like YOU NEED THIS WE'RE GOING TO USE IT FOR REAL.

Even then, I try to make do with the internet.

...I just can't deal with the prices.

 

[Shirohibiki]

I never buy them unless they're like YOU NEED THIS WE'RE GOING TO USE IT FOR REAL.

Even then, I try to make do with the internet.

...I just can't deal with the prices.

literally same
i refuse to buy books anymore until like past the first week
i then judge how much we use it
ill be going to math class soon, so im GUESSING well use it, but still. /huffs
my favorite part is when they wont buy the books back because theyre "too old" like **** you i just bought it THIS SEMESTER

 

[MrPicklez]

You can rent them super cheap on Amazon. Free two day shipping for Amazon Students, plus you get Prime 50% when you sign up. Almost all of my text books are on there, but two of them.

But yeah, all of my textbooks total would be $500 if I bought them used from the bookstore.

 

[marzipanmermaid]

I'm renting mine from some site called eCampus. I'm getting my books and my brother's for a little over $160 somehow which is a relief because renting one textbook of mine at my school's bookstore costs more than 7 books combined. All my books are required, aside from one, which means I'm not getting it at all.

 

[CR33P]

yeah i had no idea textbooks were that expensive o_o

 

[Kaiaa]

College textbooks are outrageous. I just spent $150 on a code for my online math class and $97 on my textbook for education 201. At least I only have to deal with this for one more semester, then I graduate

 

[marzcrossing]

To be honest, I never buy my books. I did my freshman year: every single one. Sophomore year, I shared with people. Junior year, I maybe had 2 books? This last year I'm probably not gonna buy any because I'm poor and don't care enough. But I'm also an English major, and almost everything we read can easily be found online.

 

[epona]

doing a fine arts course in a german college next spring and went to get my books/materials today because i figured i ought to nab them in the back-to-school/college sales

still ended up coming to just under 400 euro, which is bloody extortionate

 

[Ichigo.]

I haven't bought books in a couple of years. I just rent them off of Chegg and they tend to be much cheaper than selling price. I remember paying like $400 for book freshman year. that was absolutely ridiculous.

 

[4A-GZE]

Last year, I finished with about $500 worth of books STILL PLASTIC WRAPPED. I'm taking this year off, though.

 

[AskaRay]

The only books I bought after freshman year were my Japanese ones because I knew I was going to use them for real

the rest? I pirated them. It's ridiculous.
One of my teachers even encouraged it.

Though if you have professors who write their own textbooks...good luck

 

[Victor]

I heard about this site once.
http://www.slugbooks.com/
I'm not actually sure if it is good or not as I'm still a few years away from college and haven't looked into it.

 

[Freckles]

Yeah textbooks are absolutely ridiculous and such a money maker it's embarrassing. At least here in the States, it seems to be such a sham but I'm not a big fan of the way our higher education is set up for the most part anyhow. I really hated buying books written by the professors because I feel like they're just padding their pockets-especially when you use it in class one time for a single paragraph.

There are always other options though! Buddy up with someone in your class. If you're a good note taker, offer to share your notes in exchange for use of their textbook. I will leave some links to tumblr posts here that may be useful. I haven't tried all of these resources and I'm not encouraging anyone to use illegal download sites if there are any linked. But libraries and online resources were a lifesaver for me since I only got one grant and it was about 1/20 of my yearly tuition. So if these can help save a student from even a little debt, I'm happy to share!

Resource post 1

Resource post 2

Resource post 3

Again, not my tumblr posts but I hope they can save everyone a bit of time, stress, or money! I remember having to specifically buy a brand new edition in my freshman class and someone in the class compared it to his brother's (who's was one edition behind) and there was no difference in information. They split a couple paragraphs up and changed a few diagrams and that was it. He uploaded them side by side to our class's online info share board and I wish I would have screen capped it because it seemed like such a sham!

 

[seigakaku]

Oh gosh don't even remind me. I had to buy 6 books for my English class which cost $62 -_- I use chegg and try to find books online but the sites either don't have the books or they have a virus attached.

- - - Post Merge - - -

The books were novels btw.

 

[marzipanmermaid]

http://www.ecampus.com/
This site basically saved my parents' money. You can buy, rent, or get eBooks for a great price.

Every semester, I end up missing a book or two (or three) from lack of funding. Last semester, I had to choose between my math book and the required calculator that cost the same. I failed. Bad. I also bombed Astronomy because I didn't have a book. I had to choose the actual book or the workbook that had all the lab assignments. The teacher let me borrow the old edition of it saying it was basically the same, but it wasn't. At all. I usually manage to bulls*** my way pretty good if I don't have books, but math? I needed that book. I'm retaking it this semester and that's the first book I got. At least I don't have to buy another calculator.

 

[vriska]

I found and already bought most of my textbooks in the last week of July, thankfully one of my classes didn't have any textbooks and another two had textbooks that I found for about $15, and another had a textbook that I found for $40. The last one though broke the bank quite a bit, more on that below lol.

I'm a huge nerd so I like getting my own books to have in a physical copy, whether by renting them or buying them. A lot of times I can find cheaper stuff on Amazon though so I just go with that, most of the used textbooks I've needed so far I've found for $40 or less. The most I've had to pay for a textbook was $100, and that's just this semester since I had to buy it new with some sort of access code (Before that, I'm happy to say the most I've had to pay was $70, which isn't too bad imo especially since I'm a stickler for having a physical copy lol).

The bookstore at my school charges so much more for them it's ridiculous and I feel so bad for the people who just buy their books from them without looking elsewhere first, plus they're so busy and have such a long line at the beginning of the semester.

 

[IncendiaryPyro]

I'm feeling the burden of actually attending college in general.
If memory serves me right, it's going to cost me ~$800 for textbooks in the fall. Haha...