Looking for ways to reduce college expenses? Don’t overlook the high expense of college textbooks. This year my daughters have enrolled in classes that required books ranging from $4 (used paperback on Amazon) to $300 (textbook requiring the newest edition).
Considering that my two girls taking classes right now will purchase between 160-300 books before they complete college, this is an area we can find significant savings.
- When you enroll them in a college, immediately ask around for the best ways to buy textbooks. Ask the school administrators, ask other students. ask other parents. Often colleges, and even sub-disciplines within college, will have facebook groups where the students swap/buy/sell/loan textbooks to one another.
- Price check and ask for price matching. Check all the sites we will list here as well as the campus bookstore. If you find a cheaper price online, but need the book quickly, ask the local bookstore to price match. Many will.
- Don’t always assume you need the latest edition of a book. Ask professors (or check the syllabus) to see if the newest edition is the only one allowed. If not, investigate whether you need the newest or not, depending on the changes.
- Ask if a book is actually necessary. In one online class, my daughter was “required” to buy an English textbook that was basically a style manual. Most of that information can be found quickly using a google search. She asked the instructor if she MUST buy the $200 book, and he said no! I had two daughters enrolled in the same class! This saved us $400!
- Prices change on textbooks. Buying books on the week class starts is going to cost you the most and give you the least selection. As soon as you get your book list, start checking and ordering.
- Rent textbooks. In one class, Economics, my daughter needed a textbook. It was the new edition, and it was over $300. Rather than buy it, we rented it from Amazon. Students on Amazon can get a FREE student PRIME account- which means free two-day shipping, plus lots of little perks like free prime music and free movies.
- Consider Kindle. Depending on the book, and your student’s learning style, and the rules from the school regarding in-class technology use, a kindle book may work just fine. This will be particularly helpful for reading books, but less so for textbooks. Sometimes the Kindle version is significantly cheaper, and sometimes not. The downside is you can’t re-sell a kindle book. You CAN, however, loan or borrow Kindle books from other Kindle owners. This may be a viable option.
- Borrow from the school or a public library. If you let them know you are using it for a class, the library may be willing to loan it for longer than the usual borrowing period without requiring you to renew it. Also, if your library does not have it, ask for inter-library loans.
- Look ahead. My daughter is enrolling in music school classes. She will be taking Aural skills in the fall. The editions have changed once in the last decade- last year! This is good news. Just ask the professor if he plans to keep the same edition. If he says yes, start looking early. You can check websites, or if your student has friends in their disciplines ahead of her, have her ask if the can buy or rent their textbooks for the following semester. This will work at a small college and may also work in a larger college if a course is only offered by one teacher.
Here are some sites to check:
Half-price books
http://www.slugbooks.com/
http://www.student2student.com/
ecampus.com
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/
http://www.bookfinder4u.com/cheap_textbooks.html
http://www.allbookstores.com/
http://www.half.ebay.com/textbooks
http://www.bigwords.com/cheap-textbooks
https://www.chegg.com/cheap-textbooks
http://www.valorebooks.com/buy-textbooks
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/h/textbooks/used
https://packbackbooks.com/
http://www.affordabook.com/
http://www.abebooks.com/books/Textbooks/
https://www.bookbyte.com/rent-textbooks.aspx
http://bargainbookmole.org/
https://www.bookrenter.com/store/index_new
http://www.campusbookrentals.com/
http://www.gettextbooks.com/
http://www.skyo.com/
