Buying Textbooks

baktrax
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:48:42 +0000

Depends on the class. Sometimes when professors said a book was required, I still never used it because it was more of a reference than material that was going to be tested on. You can ask the professor, if you want to be able to get the text earlier, but I always waited until classes started to see if I wanted to buy the book or not. But just use your judgement as well. Also, the library has textbooks on reserve, so if you’re only going to use a book occasionally, you can see if they have it on reserve.

Yes, the only difference is that the looseleaf version isn’t bound. Something to keep in mind though is that the bound version is often a lot easier to sell back (either to the bookstore or to other students), so you might be able to recoup more of your cost if you buy the bound version and then sell it after the quarter.

And there are always weird situations like that. I’ve seen textbooks where the used edition was more expensive than the new edition, and I’ve seen times with the older edition of the textbook was more expensive than the new edition. It just depends on supply and what they’re selling it for. It’s not a big deal. Just buy the cheaper one.