<h1>1 - How necessary is a bathrobe? I was told that I’d need one, but for some reason it just seems impractical.</h1>
<h1>2 - I’m getting around $1500 [per semester, if I understood it correctly] back from my financial aid that I’m going to use for books. Should I go ahead and buy new books since I have the money, or should I buy used ones instead? Secondly, how likely is it that used books would’ve been marked in?</h1>
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<li><p>i was never a bathrobe girl, although some people claim it is a necessity and majority of people in my dorms did wear them. i didn’t like wearing that big heavy thing around, and then changing into my pjs after… meh. i just brought my clothes with me into the bathroom, stashed it in my locker, and when i finished showering, towelled, wrapped myself up (get a big one!) and grabbed my clothes out of the locker and changed in the stalls. not that hard 
but whatever floats your boat! you definitely need shower shoes - flipflops - though. MUST. </p></li>
<li><p>used books. you can save a LOT of money by using used books, and since you are on financial aid, i would save any money i can get. my rule of thumb is usually if the used book cost atleast a 30$+ difference than the new book, i’ll get the used book. if it is only a few dollars difference, i’ll just go ahead and get a new book. i’m like you, i like shiny new stuff nobody’s ever used before 
and used books are usually pretty nice, if you order online, make sure they say “no highlighting/some highlighting/not written on”, etc. if you order from bookstore, they usually have strict guidelines on what can be sold as used books, so i wouldn’t worry. </p></li>
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<p>good luck with freshman year!</p>
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<li><p>If the room where you’re going to be taking a shower is large and a lot of people you don’t know well use it, you’re probably not going to want to be getting dressed and undressed there (even if modesty isn’t an issue, convenience is). If it’s a small room, then the other people who use it are not necessarily going to be happy waiting for you to get dressed before they can take showers too.</p></li>
<li><p>If you need a book to be a clean copy, look into buying used in a way that will allow you to know what the copies are like. Go to the bookstore and flip through them; use Amazon.com or Half.com or Valorebooks.com or Alibris.com or whatever and pay close attention to descriptions of the texts. You will not always find that a clean copy can be easily found. (A non-marked-up copy is more important to me than is reasonable.) But often you can find one, and then you can avoid paying new-book prices. That said, for the most recent versions of books that are written as textbooks, you’re not going to be getting that great a deal when you buy your books. If you’ve got a professor assigning the third edition of a book whose sixth edition just came out, on the other hand, you can end up with very good deals.</p></li>
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<p>@ soledad</p>
<p>Get the bathrobe that fits your body (not those huge ones). You can change into your clothes in your dorm room. People don’t like to wait to use a shower. You will want to bathe and leave the bathroom as soon as you can, especially if it’s a communal one for the entire hall.</p>
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<li><p>I tried using a bathrobe. Didn’t work out. I just walked down the hall in my towel. Everyone did except for like one or two people.</p></li>
<li><p>Def. buy used. This is something I learned after spending far too much from books at the bookstore, even if they were used. I’ll be buying online for the rest of my college career. You can save the money for something else. I sell my used books on half.com and most of them I sell back have no marks (because i never even had to actually use it). Usually on websites people will say whether or not the book has marks in it or not.</p></li>
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<p>My D’s don’t like bathrobes either, so they use shower wraps.</p>
<p>From using the showers in my orientation stay, people were seriously jealous of those who brought a bathrobe. A lot of girls who went under the impression that they wouldn’t need one were literally chattering in the halls about how they were going to get one as soon as they got back home.</p>
<p>I suppose that’s because of the way the showers are set up at my school. There’s really no place in the stall, nor a locker, where you can keep your clothes dry and secure while you shower. In the towers, at least, there was a bench in the stall, but the curtains protecting it from the water were torn down.</p>
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<li><p>Some people use a towel, but others use a bathrobe. I’m really clumsy and tend to drop things, so a bathrobe is a good idea for me.</p></li>
<li><p>Buy used if you can. The people I know usually get to keep the left over money for whatever. Why waste it if you could use it for something else? Used books aren’t always marked in. I’ve found that usually if they are, the first few readings are highlighted, but it suddenly ends after that. You can usually flip thru the book and make sure there are no markings before you buy it.</p></li>
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<li><p>I just walk around in a towel. I lived on a co-ed floor & didn’t have a problem with it.</p></li>
<li><p>Used, definitely!!! Buying online is cheapest. I look for ones that are in excellent/very good condition, with no writing (it distracts me). If they state the book is clean of highlighting and it isn’t, then you can get your money back as the seller misrepresented the product. Fortunately I haven’t had a problem yet.</p></li>
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<li><p>I felt more comfortable walking the halls in a bathrobe, but if it doesn’t bother you to be in a towel, then go for it. Just don’t bring your clean clothes to the shower with you. You risk them getting wet and/or taken. Getting dressed in your room is less of a hassel and having a bathrobe on makes it easier to put on clothes normally without giving your roomie and unwanted peep show (sorry if I’m being gross).</p></li>
<li><p>Go used unless you have a good reason to buy new. I know bio majors at my school pretty much have to buy most of their bio books new because new editions come out very close together. Also, there is no such thing as “extra” money when you are in college. Money goes fast when you’re going places and doing stuff with friends, and even faster when you have a car at school with you. Take what you don’t spend and open a savings account; you’ll be glad you did later on :).</p></li>
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