textbooks

What’s the worst part of the beginning of the semester, you may ask a college student? Buying your textbooks for hundreds of dollars and knowing you won’t even crack them open. As a student, we’re pinching pennies for college tuition, and we simply can’t afford the books “required” for courses. In many of my classes, I’ve gotten to the first day with my $200 books only to hear the professor say we won’t use it the whole semester, or that we'll only be reading the first chapter. Sure, at the end of the semester you can sometimes sell your books — if the bookstore will actually buy them back. This is so easily fixed; all we need is an understanding with professors to only put on students’ book lists what will be needed throughout the semester. Until that happens, here's a piece of advice for the students: even though it may give you an extreme case of anxiety to not have all your books on the first day of class, wait a week to get a feel for the class to see if you’ll actually use the books. That could save you hundreds of dollars (especially if you switch out of the class later on).

At the beginning of each semester, many students ask themselves if it is better to buy textbooks and try to sell them back later or if they should just rent them.

Many students have felt the sting of swiping their debit cards and shelling out hundreds for textbooks each semester.