K9Leader

My daughter has been looking over the paperwork she has been receiving from Bucknell and mentioned to me that students do not find out what books are required in their courses until a day or two before classes begin, so they are stuck buying their textbooks from the Bucknell bookstore at full price. With my son, a junior at W&M, he has always gotten as many of his books online, used if possible, and at significant savings over buying them all from the college bookstore.

So, current Bucknell students, is this true? Is this the way it works? Or is there something she misunderstood? If this is correct, is there a good system for recycling used books? Please shed some light . . .

BucknellBubbly

First semester freshman year, I bought all of my books in the bookstore. They have new and used, and stock enough for every class. The thing with first year is that your schedule is pretty random, so even if her classes are online I would not recommend buying books until she's sure she's going to stay in those classes (I had to do some switching when I finally got my schedule).

However, after first semester, you know your courses ahead of time, and then bucknellbookstore.com will tell you what books go with what classes at least a few weeks ahead of time, or you can email your professors. I like to order many of my books off of half.com, although for some it's actually cheaper to just get them at the bookstore.

We also have a message center, so people will send out emails to the campus saying what books they want to buy or sell, she could try that when she gets to campus and makes sure her schedule is settled.

Pickwick

BucknellBubbly -- what are the chances of getting 1st or 2nd choices of classes generally as an incoming frosh? Does it help to submit choices quickly (i.e., do you get any priority that way?)

BucknellBubbly

I can't say this with absolute authority, but I believe it doesn't matter if you submit early. I'm not sure of the exact numbers or anything; I can tell you I got into my first choice of foundation seminars, and two of my other first choice classes (American Politics and French 150, although I switched down a level after going to the first class). Then they put me in a math class, but I didn't have to take math because of my AP credits, so I switched into another political science course.

I believe in general they try to get people into classes that will fulfill the CLA (common learning agenda aka general education) requirements, but it's really easy to find another class to switch into if you find yourself placed into a class you really don't want to be in.

It's a bit more structured for students entering the college of engineering, I think, because there are more courses you are required to take. But it'd probably work on the same general principles; I know some of my engineer friends took one of their english requirements first semester freshman year.

bucknell12

K9Leader- if your daughter is an engineer (i think i've seen that in your previous posts) then she'll take engineering 100, physics 211, calc (1, 2, or 3, depending on APs), and probably a class that fulfills a W1 (writing) requirement at the same time as an engineering humanities or engineering social science requirement. (for me, this was a foundation seminar course, which A&S students have to take but engineers do not because of engr 100...)
anyway, 1st semester i didn't spend a lot on books- engr 100 only needed a small (<100 pages) paperback about ethics that was written by a bucknell professor. physics was a paperback book as well as a lab manual. i think those needed to be purchased at the bookstore because the lab book covered the costs of various toys we were given throughout the semester.
calc should be the same book, but if your daughter has a chance of being placed in calc 3 (again, she wont know this until orientation) then there is a smaller, paperback book that has only calc 3 material in it, instead of the larger book with everything.