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<p>Your first semester, you have to wait until mid-August (which still leaves plenty of time to have books sent to Oberlin before the semester starts). It’s easier for returning students; we register for fall semester in April and spring semester in November, so plenty of time to pick up books.</p>
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<p>You don’t know for sure, but it’s reasonably easy to guess. The course that’s required for your major and only offered every fourth semester? Probably not going to drop it. The really popular course that’s impossible to get into? Probably not going to drop it. The filler course that you picked up because you had a bad registration time and got on the waitlist for a bunch of courses, but needed to fill your schedule with something? Too soon to tell - so wait on buying the books.</p>
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<p>Mostly just by knowing your own study habits. I write all over everything, so I buy all my books. Some people like to make active notes in, say, chem textbooks, so they can follow the problems; some close-read novels, or put grammatical notes in all their foreign language texts. Others read straight through things and absorb them without making a mark. It all depends on the way you personally like to study.</p>
<p>In other words, if you want to be efficient and save money, it’s a good idea to think about which courses you’re likely to keep or drop, and which books you’re likely to *use<a href=“rather%20than%20just%20read”>/i</a>. That’s true whether you buy online, at home, at Mindfair, or at B&N.</p>