Cutting the Cost of College Text Books

Cutting the Cost of College Text Books

With the cost of College or university books being so high nowadays, everyone needs to know how to go about cutting the cost of college text books.

Go straight to our discount finder or read on for more tips on cutting the cost of college books.

Most colleges will only use a particular book for a year or two it is very tricky to purchase them in advance. Yet there are some good ways you can catch a break when it comes to paying for the text books you need. Pretty much, all colleges have bulletin boards so you can place an ad for the various books you require for your course. Hopefully individuals who have just finished the course will gladly part with the book for much less than they paid for it.

If you have text books from courses you have finished you may be able to trade what you need for what someone else needs. If you are in a particular type of program such as business or education you will likely find other students who need to take the same classes as you. Setting up a text book swap is a great way to maximize the amount of money that you do spend on text books. There may also be a local bookshop that rents out text books or sells them at low cost.

It can be very frustrating to get the newest edition of a particular text book and then find out it hasn’t changed very much at all from the previous edition. Have a talk to your instructor as they will likely have gone through the new edition and make comparisons to the old one. Most instructors are fine with you using an older edition of the same book. You can save a substantial amount of money if you are able to do so.

Another area of frustration can be to find out after your purchase such a text book that you won’t need it very much as the instructor mainly teaches from notes. If this is the case consider purchasing a book with a classmate and splitting the cost. This won’t work well if you will have a great deal of text book reading or assignments to complete though. You may also consider renting a text book as this is yet another way route to cutting the cost of college text books.

Check to see if the college library offers copies of text books rather than purchasing them. Most libraries that offer this option don’t allow the text books to be checked out but you can use them in the library as you need to. If you choose this option make sure you start on assignments as quickly as possible so that you don’t have to stress about someone else already using the book.

Some book stores offer to place used text books on consignment for students. These are often placed in the bookstore with the new books on the shelves. While they may have some wear and tear as well as highlighting they will serve the purpose of a one semester course. These consigned books generally sell fast so make sure you go to the bookstore at the very end of the semester. As students complete their finals they will take their books into the bookstore.

On the back of each textbook is an ISBN number. It is generally found above or underneath the bar code on the book. You can use this number to search for the text book on the internet. There are several places where you can purchase new and used textbooks at a price that is much less than what you will pay for it at the college campus bookstore.

Don't forget also that you can buy used text books from Amazon at a fraction of the retail price. Try entering the ISBN number into the discount finder to find out if this will help you go some way towards cutting the cost of your college text books.