So I know textbooks can get pretty pricey, and I want the cost of going to college to be cheaper where it could be. I saw the site for chegg which another user posted in a thread @ the ucsc forum, and there's the bigwords.com one.
Can you guys please suggest efficient, reliable, and cheap textbook sites? Rental or buying is fine.
Thanks!
Half.com is good for textbooks (and things beyond textbooks) no matter what level you are. So is ebay, but you have to wait for things sometimes a little longer if it's an auction and not a buy it now. Amazon also will have some good deals. You can even sometimes find what you need on craigslist or fliers posted around your campus by students.
Getting textbooks cheap is not typically that difficult. Now, if it's a computer science book which seem to like to recycle themselves every other month, you're going to have trouble finding those cheap. Or any book for that matter that comes out with a new edition.
Always check to see if an older edition is acceptable. Sometimes instructors will insist on the newer edition, but much of the time many of these "new" editions are merely minor changes and some reordering of chapters. A biology instructor I had insisted we needed the brand new 4th edition text that cost $120. I found the 2nd edition for less than $1 on half.com and I left that class with an A.
So is there really no way to find out what books you'll need like after class starts? If that were the case, it might be a rush, huh? Like 'cause like aren't some professors like, "oh, you don't need to get that edition, just get this one instead?"
Back in the Jurassic Age when I attended college (pre-internet), there was a list of textbooks posted for each class you enroll. When I was in graduate school (more recently), the description for each class also included a link to the textbooks. Class registration is usually mid-semester/quarter for the following semester/quarter, so I think you have plenty of time to get your textbooks even if shipment takes 3 weeks.
