Okay so school starts in a couple weeks and I haven’t gotten my books yet. I really want to know if I’ll actually need my books in some of these classes. Would it be weird to email my professors and ask them if I’ll need the book?
Time to chill. You’ll get a required book list when on campus, if not before. Plenty of time to deal with that later. 
yes. very weird and not the kind of thing you should be doing.
colleges are REQUIRED to post books lists for each class so students can buy them ahead of time.
you need to check the class registration website to see what books are required.
Okay I know what books I need lol…I’m asking if I should email teachers and ask if these books will actually be used!
This is the kind of question that many profs will find offensive. If they indicated the book is required- it is required. Profs assume you are here to learn and would want to use the resources available to further your knowledge.
Okay that’s kind of what I thought, thanks
Getting to know your profs = good idea. Wasting their time- not so much. Think of it as the difference between saying ‘hey mom, do you know where my shoes are?’ and ‘hey mom, can you help me complete our FAFSA?’. One you can do on your own, the other having some expert help makes sense. Same with ‘hey prof, do I reaaallllyyyy have to buy all those books you said are required’ or ‘hey prof, I’m trying to refine my topic for the research paper- could you give me some feedback on my hypothesis?’
If you are concerned about buying the books and never using them, do some sleuthing. If it’s a science or math class, and there is a core text book, it is a pretty good bet that you are going to need it. If it is an English literature class and it is a well-known novel, you may not need to buy it. If you are willing to pay college bookstore prices, and/or pay shipping to order online (or have Amazon prime) you can order them as needed- giving you a chance to find people who have already taken the class to find out what critical and what isn’t (though if you are in a class with several sections, be sure that it is the same prof- they may have different expectations).
Some professors put copies of the required books on reserve in the library.
But I’d ask the question on the first day of class rather than risking making a bad first impression in an email.
Professors on campuses where you get to spend a more intimate time with them are more likely to be happy to answer your question. It’s a legitimate one and sometimes the book lists online are just there and aren’t used much… Professors I know will be honest about how much the book is actually used.
I disagree with this. I’ve had many classes where the textbook was listed as required, but it actually wasn’t (and the professor said so themselves). Some books are used as a reference, some books are used so that you can learn things a different way than how the professor teachers, but not all books are required (even if they are l listed as so). It is not an unreasonable question at all, and it was one that was asked in nearly every college course I’ve ever taken.
However, I don’t know if I would email the professor about it ahead of time. I would generally just wait until the first day of class and look at the syllabus, which usually makes it clear if there will be homework assignments from the textbook or if there will be material that is tested on from the book that is not covered in lecture. Some professors will be clear about how the textbook is mainly to be used (as a source of test questions or homework problems, as supplementary material or a companion to the class, as a reference book if you want to learn more about a topic or get into a topic in more depth, etc). Sometimes, professors will know of other ways of getting a textbook (like through the library) or they may be able to tell you that an older edition would be perfectly fine. If it is not clear, then I would ask them on the first day or after class starts. I don’t know if I would ask if the book is useful or not, but more how the professor thinks the book will best be utilized by a student in the class. Then I would figure out if that would actually help me or not.
^What baktrax says is true; a lot of times the bookstore messes up the order or the directions from the professor. The professor might list one textbook as required and two as recommended/supplementary, so the bookstore just orders all three and slaps them on the class. Wait until the first day of classes to get the syllabus and get a sense of what the professor expects, and then purchase the books.
Also, don’t rely on the reference copy of the textbook if the book is required and homework/reading will be assigned from it. If the book is on reserve, that means you can’t take it out of the library and there’s a time limit on how long you can use it in the library (usually 2 hours). Often the library only has 2 copies and both will be on reserve. You could find yourself without the required book to do the reading.
However, a trick that I used in graduate school was to borrow a textbook I knew I wouldn’t want to keep from another library, through interlibrary loan. The textbook might be on reserve in YOUR university’s library, but not necessarily ANOTHER university’s library. My lending library had semester-long lending periods for grad students so I was able to borrow certain textbooks for the entire semester and just return them when the semester was over. But many textbooks are not popular reading for students, so you might even be able to renew it once or twice if your lending period is reasonably long.
Third-ing above. I actually just revamped a course that has a book listed as required on the student website that is NOT required- it is only recommended. We put in a request to change it but it hasn’t gone through.
Wait until the first day of class. The prof will probably tell you and if not, you should be able to tell by the syllabus (ie how many readings are out of it, whether the readings are required, etc).
I did what julliet did for a few classes where I knew I didn’t want the textbook long-term.
First, search for the professor, find their website, and then look for the syllabus for your class. That will have info about books…start their first.
My son’s school posts lists for each class. The lists indicate whether each book is required or recommended. The bookstore has a return policy so if a professor indicates on the first day of class that a book will be used only rarely, students have time to return it.