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January 09, 2008

New Semester, New Classes, New Books

Hello All,

What a lovely winter break. Two large snowstorms, yes, but in the last few days it has all melted away and left sunshine (after the eerie fog cleared up) and moderate warmth. It's a nice 41 degrees outside (not too shabby for January) and only a few stubborn snow piles remain. Of course, it will snow again by the end of the week. Welcome to Michigan.

In my constant quest to save you all time, money and frustration, I would now like to share my own University of Michigan book-buying experiences, in hopes that they might prove useful to you in the future.

Books are expensive, no matter what. If I had a dollar for every class I've taken with less than $50 in (new) textbooks, I probably wouldn't have enough to buy lunch. In SI, most classes draw form a wide range of texts, and so professors make every effort to provide resources electronically through Coursetools or electronic course reserves. If one text is used in its entirety, it might be assigned, but thus far, most of my texts have been available online.

Note: If you, like me, value your eyesight more than trees, this might still mean some sizeable printing fees, not to mention the task of organizing all of your printouts, but it's significantly cheaper than buying whole texts.

However, the best way to save money on SI texts is to be aware of all of your resources.


The Benefits of Social Networking

If it is a class most people take *cought*foundations*cough* you might find other students willing to sell or even loan key texts to you (giving you four months to decide whether or not to buy it). Also, they can often point you in the direction of cheap places to purchase it, other than Amazon, Borders, or the student book store.


The Benevolence of Professional Organizations

Some texts are directly available from professional organizations that offer discounts to its members. Sometimes this discount is sizable enough that it almost covers the student membership fee (something to consider if you are already interested in the organization). The Society of American Archivists is a great example of this. A $44 student membership saves you $28 on the required textbooks SI 580 (Introduction to Archives and Records).


The Beauty of E-Commerce

If your professors and classmates have no suggestions for inexpensive copies of the text, then do a little comparison shopping of your own. Sometimes professors will mail their classes in advance with the syllabus and/or text lists, but even if you must wait until the first day of class, take your information straight to your computer (search by ISBN if possible, or at least make sure you have the correct edition). Check out online book sellers. I usually stop by the student book store to see what they're charging, then check both half.com and amazon.com for cheaper copies. Sometimes you can find a used $40 textbook for $26, which is cheaper than the book store copy ($46), even after shipping costs.

Note on shipping: Amazon (especially around the holidays) loves to offer free shipping with new items, while used items are always subject to individual shipping charges. Sometimes the difference in new and used prices is negligible. If this is true for 3 or more books, compare the price of buying your books new and getting free (or cheap) shipping, if there's less than a $3 price difference per book, you might end up in better shape with new copies.

Getting them on time: In most situations, texts will be available on course reserves, or you might find upon viewing the syllabus that some texts will not be necessary for 2-3 weeks. Keep the date by which you need this book and the availability of temporary copies in mind when buying your books. Patience can save you money. That's why Halloween decor is so cheap in November.

-Megan

Posted by messelti at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)