posted by admin on Nov 3
“How to get cheap college textbooks”…this is a question which, unlike “how to calculate accelerated depreciation” or “what is the sampling distribution of a statistic”, you probably won’t be taught in college. And yet college textbooks are very expensive- so expensive, in fact, that a full-time student can expect to spend hundreds of dollars per semester on books alone! But what if there was a cheaper way?
The most straightforward way to get cheap college textbooks is to buy them from you college bookstore used. These used books are simple to locate- they are typically shelved right next to the new copies of the same book- and will work just as well for your class as if you had bought them brand new.
Another rarely-used trick is to speak to your professor about the edition of the book you’ll be using before purchasing the one listed for the class. Sometimes, a textbook’s latest edition will contain important new material and information that the professor specifically wants to reference. Oftentimes, however, a textbook’s latest edition is similar enough to previous editions as to make the two virtually interchangeable. If your professor tells you that this is the case, then buy the previous edition, and expect to save around 50% off what you would have to pay for it the same textbook new!
Half.com is an excellent tool for buying cheap college textbooks. You can typically find a large selection of the books that you need for your classes, and browse prices based on book condition. An added benefit is that sometimes you can find the teacher’s edition of these same books, which may have CD’s or other supplemental materials that can help you with your lessons.
Lastly, you can choose not to buy your textbooks at all, but to rent them instead! Chegg.com has an excellent textbook rental program, where students oftentimes enjoy a 40-80% discount over buying the books new at their college bookstore. Better yet, for every textbook that is rented out, Chegg.com plants a tree.
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