Textbook Help

[HorseyJesse]

Hello everyone,

i was wondering how you know what textbooks you need for certain classes..are you supposed to get them before classes start or do you wait for the profs to tell you on the first day?

thanks,
Jesse
AKA
Frustrated Freshman

[PandaMoOo]

There are many ways to tackle textbooks, it varies from person to person because some people are willing to do a little more work to save a lot of money.

The easiest way would be to blindly go to the school's online bookstore and have the books either mailed or put on will call. They would allow returning within the first week of school if there are any problems. This way is the most expensive. This insures you will have the books before you need them! (a lot of instructors assign homework using books within the first week)

The other alternative is to order your books online or at a used bookstore off campus. I am not familar with a user bookstore off campus, but buying my books online I save about 30-40% on books a quarter. To do this, go to the school online bookstore and look up your classes and get the book titles, authors, and versions. Then go to www.amazon.com or www.half.com and plug in the title/author and you should see the used price there.

This is a little more work however, and it's a matter of convenience.

If you're a student of Cal Poly Pomona, I've made a website to help in online book purchasing. Head over to www.gradecalpoly.com and select "book finder" this will give you an idea of how much you save by buying online and provides a link to the books for easy purchasing.

[lwong81]

How "legal" is it to buy the international edition (softcover)?

[PandaMoOo]

Good question, i am strongly believing that it is illegal to import a book from another country unless the publisher does not publish in that country.

It's pretty unethical from a capitalist business perspective. But... how ethical is it to run a business that manipulates student book prices by updating versions every couple of years to clear old versions out of use. Pretty unethical there.

Most professors I know allow, or even encourage international versions so don't worry in that ballpark.