Paying for Textbooks
Buying College Textbooks for the First Time? Here’s How to Save Money
For most students, buying textbooks is the first rude awakening of the college experience. You arrive on campus during the final weeks of August, excited to move into your dorm, bond with your roommate, meet new people, and get started on a new life chapter. For good reason, there is a lot of excitement and energy on a college campus at the beginning of a new school year. If you want to find the least excited and energized spot on campus, though, all you need to do is pay a visit to your campus bookstore.
Did you know that, according to The College Board, the average college student spends $1,200 a year on textbooks? The national average in per-course spending for textbooks and other materials (such as workbooks, course packs, and other necessary supplies) is $153. These figures exist on top of what new students and their families are already paying for tuition, fees, room and board, parking passes, new computers, dorm room supplies, and more. Put simply, if you ask 10 people what their least favorite moment of college was, at least one of them will probably mention the dejected walk back from their first campus bookstore visit—their arms weighed down with bags of heavy books, their wallets $600 lighter.
So how can students avoid spending a fortune on college textbooks? Here are a few strategies to keep in mind:
Think twice before buying from the campus bookstore
Rather than have your welcome week excitement ruined by an expensive trip to the bookstore, turn that first visit into a research exercise. Once you know which books you need for your classes, stroll through the bookstore and jot down titles, authors, publishers, editions, and prices. If your professors have compiled any course packs for your classes, you will likely need to buy those from the bookstore. However, with most textbooks, you have the option of buying elsewhere. Many college and university bookstores are notorious for marking up prices on books, simply because they know students will pay for the convenience factor. At very least, look around online and do some comparisons before deciding where to buy.
Buy books used (or opt for rentals)
If you can, you should buy your textbooks used. This tactic can be easier said than done in some cases, for a variety of reasons. For instance, some books come bundled with “access codes” to important digital content, which expire after a semester. If you buy one of these books used, you’ll have the core textbook, but you won’t have access to online quizzes or other digital content you might need. Most textbooks also get updated with new editions every few years, and it’s hard to know if an older edition of the book will do the trick for your class.
Still, buying used is almost always a better option than buying new. Used books are cheaper, and because so many students are buying and selling textbooks every single semester, they aren’t that hard to find. It’s often possible to score incredible deals by shopping for used textbooks on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chegg, Half.com, or Student2Student. There are also a lot of services out there now that allow you to rent textbooks for the semester. Amazon, Chegg, and Half.com all do rentals, as do sites like TextbookRentals.com and Campus Book Rentals. Sit down with your booklist and spend an afternoon going through these sites and comparing their prices for rentals and purchases. With some luck, your small investment in time will result in hundreds of dollars in savings.
Hedge your bets
Before you buy a single textbook, attend a few sessions for each of your classes. While there will certainly be courses throughout your college career that use the book heavily, there will likely be other classes where the professor assigns a textbook and then never even asks you to open it. Going to a few classes and trying to get a sense of the course structure and the professor’s teaching style will give you some clues about whether you really need the textbook. If might even be worth asking your professor point-blank how much the book will be used, or if you would be able to get away with using an older edition. Many professors are more empathetic to the plight of the cash-strapped college student than you might think.
Go to the library
It’s always worth a trip to your college’s library to see if they have the books you need. While the library is unlikely to have copies of every textbook on your booklist, there is probably more to be found there than you think. If you are an English major, for instance, and have been assigned to read a list of 10-12 classic novels throughout the semester, you should have no problem finding those books at the library. In addition, some professors request to have a copy of the course textbook kept on reserve at the library, so students can access it outside of class and even photocopy key readings.
Share with your classmates
Do you happen to be taking any classes with friends? If so, it might be worth having a conversation about potentially buying one copy of the textbook between you and sharing it throughout the semester. This option isn’t workable for every course, as some professors will want you to have your book available to use during classtime (and might frown upon you sharing with a classmate every day). It can also be stressful to trade a book back and forth, or to schedule study sessions with your pal so that you can both use the book to get homework done. If you only really need the book for outside-of-class study, though, and if you can work out an agreeable swapping arrangement, sharing a book can save you a lot of money. It’s especially worth considering if you and your roommate have any of the same classes, since sharing a book with someone you already live with is a pretty easy thing to do.
Sell wisely
At the end of the semester, you can make back (some of) your money by selling your used books. Again, avoid the campus bookstore for this part of the process. The bookstore will have a pre-set rate that it will pay for each book you have, regardless of condition. Plus, if the textbook publisher has put out a new edition of the book since you purchased it, the bookstore probably won’t buy it back at all. Selling your books online is a bit of a pain, but you’re likely to get $20 or $30 more per book than you would at the bookstore. Alternatively, use a site like Student2Student, an online book exchange which allows you to connect with students seeking textbooks at your specific college or university.
Get strategic with your schedule
Finally, don’t be afraid to orient some of your course selections based on materials costs. Sure, there will be many classes throughout college that you are required to take for your major. However, when it comes to general education requirements, you will have a fair amount of flexibility when choosing which specific courses to take. Doing some research to find classes with cheaper books (or no textbooks at all) is a smart college budget decision that will help you keep the already-lofty cost of higher education in check.