<p>Registration is less stressful than it used to be, but you are never guaranteed of getting a class, especially if there’s only a few spots left. I would definitely not buy any textbooks until I was registered; not only might you not get the courses you planned for, you might totally change your plan after talking to all the advisors. You can still buy textbooks online as a First-Year and just use course reserves from the school library to tide you over. I highly recommend buying books, especially textbooks, online versus in the bookstore. Most of the time you can save a lot of money versus buying at the bookstore. My actual book bill is usually about half what I would pay in the bookstore for new or like new quality books, and someone who didn’t mind more marked up books could save even more.</p>