<p>I found it pretty amusing myself, @GertrudeMcFuzz. It threw me the first time I drove BarnardGirl to school. I paid at the Washington bridge and then made sure I saved $13 for when we were leaving and then we didn’t have to pay. Then all of a sudden we had this toll when we got to PA that I had no recollection paying on the way there. I was quite confused! </p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about how their kids will be handling textbooks?</p>
<p>Are they typically bought new, bought used, or rented? And does one do this at the on-site college bookstore, or through Amazon (or some other on-line text sales/rental site)? Does anyone have experience with this? Thoughts, recommendations?</p>
<p>I want to get a start at least thinking about how we’ll do this. To me, it’s even more important than whether my son will be wearing cargo vs. flat-front shorts in September.</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel – I guess I assumed that they wouldn’t be able to purchase textbooks until they attended the first class and received the syllabus, but it has been a long time since I was in college! Hopefully parents of current college students will weigh in.</p>
<p>I bought used whenever I could as books were expensive and I was paying for them myself. </p>
<p>
This is true, since sometimes the published textbook requirement is not necessarily the one that the professor wants.</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel
You can check Emory’s bookstore if they have rental or used.</p>
<p>At Cornell store, they have new/used/rental. There is also a store in College Town that compares prices of their own, Cornell Store and Amazon:
<a href=“http://www.kraftees.com/ithaca/bookcart.html”>http://www.kraftees.com/ithaca/bookcart.html</a></p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel I have had to purchase textbooks for high school the last four years. At some point, before school, we were able to access a list through MBS Direct which handles all levels of textbooks. Law now dictates that the ISBN number be provided and I used that to search for the books through other sites. Half.com is usually among the cheapest of those with reliable ratings. I truly saved over half the cost that I would have spent ordering from MBS direct. I assume there will be a list available at some point for each course (ahead of time or on the first day of class) and the students will be able to access the ISBN number. One word of caution, make SURE the ISBN is IDENTICAL to the required text, not just close. </p>
<p>@2018dad, I live just out of NYC & grew up in RI. I agree that the best way to handle your trip (although I have no idea how you’re managing moving the college dorm stuff) is to fly into Boston first. Get into the city to do your touring via mass transit. Either take amtrack to NYC & stay in city & then rent car to drive to cornell OR rent the car in Boston to drive to NY & stay in New Rochelle & take metro north into grand central, whichever is cheapest. And then drive from new Rochelle to Cornell. Actually, you can even take amtrack to new Rochelle and then rent car there.</p>
<p>Regarding textbooks: most college bookstores offer a choice of used/rent/new, although there may be a limited number of used. My D usually does some comparison on amazon vs bookstore for each required textbook and sometimes one or the other is cheaper. However she usually waits until classes start to buy, because professors sometimes have some different requirements from the published lists, or not all the books are really needed.
This year one of her roommates is in almost exactly the same classes as her so they were actually able to share a couple of books.
I’ve been asking her to try and buy from the students in the class ahead of her but it hasn’t worked out so far. </p>
<p>S11’s school posts a book list before the year on their student portal. He has acquired his books mostly buying used through Amazon Prime. He has rented books a couple of times (I don’t know the vendor) and was satisfied. He has checked books out of the library as well. He held off on many of the supplemental books for GE classes till he knew how important they would be and in several instances never bothered with those books. He actually has spent much less on books than the suggested amount states in COA. </p>
<p>I’m reeling. My husband’s company underwent a reorganization yesterday, and he was laid off. It was a new job for him, so there was no severance package. </p>
<p>Do I call UCSB and ask to submit a new FAFSA? We were expected to be full pay, and the dorm housing isn’t cheap. Do we wait until next year to look for any aid? The job market in our area isn’t great. Layoffs are continuing to happen and lots of people are looking for work, so I don’t have a lot of confidence he’ll easily get another. I’ve been reading dismal statistics about job opportunities for 60-something year old men. </p>
<p>I work, but can’t carry the whole load. </p>
<p>Any words of wisdom?</p>
<p>Schools are now required to provide information on what textbooks are required for classes (including ISBN numbers), which has made it much easier to purchase books on-line.</p>
<p><a href=“Higher Education Opportunities Act (HEOA) | AL$”>http://als.csuprojects.org/heoa</a></p>
<p>As minnymom says, my kids also saved a lot of money by buying books either new or used on line.</p>
<p>@callla1 definitely contact the fin aid office for direction and help. So sorry to hear about this.</p>
<p>@calla1,</p>
<p>So sorry about the job loss. It couldn’t have come at a more delicate time! I know a friend had to fill out a form for dislocated workers when her dd was in school. She was a single mom and lost her job. I don’t remember the outcome but for whatever reason I remember that form. </p>
<p>Can you call FAFSA now? I know they had late/weekend hours at one point. I’m sure that when this happened to others in the past and it worked itself out. </p>
<p>@calla1- I am very sorry to hear about this. Start by calling UCSB FA office on Monday. Hopefully they will give you information for filing an appeal due to change in financial circumstance. They will also know whether FAFSA even needs to be involved. We have appealed twice at S11’s school and our award was amended to our benefit, so be optimistic.</p>
<p>@calla1 - I’m so sorry and I agree with the others about calling.</p>
<p>Having grown up in NJ and most family lives there - I totally get it - lol Consider that most border states and beyond largest population generally comes from NJ. </p>
<p>@calla1, I don’t have any helpful words of advice on the FA, but you have all my sympathy for a tough situation. Best of luck to you and your husband in finding something else quickly.</p>
<p>@calla1 - I’m so sorry. I’m with everyone else in thinking you should definitely call the FA office. Hoping an even better job opens up for him real soon.</p>
<p>@Snowme - Congrats to your D!</p>
<p>@calla1 I have no words of wisdom but I am so sorry you are dealing with this. hoping and praying for a better job very quickly.</p>
<p>for textbooks we use cheapest textbooks.com</p>
<p>darn posted too soon and I can’t edit on my phone… cheapest textbooks dot com is one word and it lists a whole lot of different book stores which gives you the best prices.</p>
<p>@calla1 good luck with the FA folks! Hopefully they will be able to help you out, though sometimes schools want to wait and see if the job loss ends up being very temporary first. Horrible timing for you guys! Good luck!</p>
<p>re: textbooks, my DS11 buys almost all of them used through Amazon, and then sells them back to Amazon – he doesn’t get the maximum back by re-selling them that way, but it’s super-convenient, and they pay the shipping. Students can get Prime free for a year, and after that it is discounted (or you can add them to your prime account if you have it). Since they can get 2-day shipping with Prime, they can wait until class starts in most cases, though I will say that my DS pretty much always orders in advance. The books required are available to him online several weeks before the term starts.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.addall.com”>www.addall.com</a> is pretty good for comparing used prices at a number of stores, but Amazon usually wins due to fast free shipping, even if their price is a bit higher.</p>
<p>Some books are available in an “international” edition for much less. My son decided to give this a try once but said he would not do it again. The quality is fairly poor – like a phone book or SAT prep book quality, and I think he said some of the printing was smudgy as well.</p>
<p>I included books in what DS11 was responsible for, since I figured that would motivate him to be smart about finding the best deals, selling back, etc. For DS14 since he got a full tuition scholarship, we said he only has to cover his “incidentals” (pizza, etc.) but I’d like to have him learn to budget for books anyhow, so I think I will probably deposit in his checking account the amount that the school estimates for books in their COA, and any difference he can keep (or has to pay, unless he can convince me that he got the best deals but it still cost more) but he has to save me receipts, since I will need them for the American Opportunity Tax Credit. </p>
<p>@calla1 I am SO sorry to hear bout your husband’s job loss! Hang in there.</p>