How much do you spend on books?

[Catlovers141]

For current social work students, how much do you spend on books per semester or per class?  I'm trying to budget my money early.

[pdwilks]

Really depends on the books you are asked to get. If they are school or teacher specific (I mean they put it out or there is an agreement to make it "special" to keep costs down) it will be more expensive.   This one book cost 138.00 (verse the previous edition 14.00 that wasn't special she told us in class we could use, ugh).

If you can shop amazon and rent the books verses buying them, a huge savings. Sometimes ebooks are good, depending on your learning style.

 

Figure at a minimum 500.00 for a full load. This was the most I spent including a 130.00 parking pass for a quarter.  I put time in shopping around, looking at previous editions, or if I feel ebooks will work then I go with them.   A note on ebooks I've found is that I do better with ebooks for online classes and in hand copies for on campus classes, Just me though.

 

Look up the classes you have to take see what books they are requiring and then shop the different book buying and renting sites.  So many options are available.

[Lillydale]

In my first class of BSW I was really excited and bought all my books that they said were "required".  However during the entire class out of four mini books, we used maybe two pages in one and one page in the other.  The other two books were not even mentioned and I was told to use them as "reference" in the future.  I was mad.  Okay so even if they were only $7 a book, I'm a full time student and that to me is a meal I could have used.  After this class I became more creative.  I am not proud of all my tricks but when you're poor, you're poor.  Here are my tips:

 

 

1.  Borrow and photocopy pages from a friend' text.  I use the app CamScanner which is great.  You can download the app through piratebay.org.

2.  Search online the textbook.  Sometimes people upload them illegally.

3.  At the end of the term, there was a research class that I needed to write a paper for.  This is super cheap but the book was over $100 and I didn't have that kind of money for a book I will never use again after the paper.  All my friends were writing the same papers and they needed their textbook too.  At the bookstore, the return policy is 14 days.  So I bought the book, wrote my paper within 10 days, cited everything in the book I needed making sure to treat the book like new and I returned it.  I did this once I'll admit.

4.  Check out your public library and see if it is available.  Check your school library. 

5.  Some books you can buy the ebook version of, save a copy for yourself and return the book online.

6.  Look on piratebay for the book uploaded illegally.

 

I am not proud of some of these things I did but I stopped buying books lets just say.  In college I used my textbooks all the time but when I went to university, I barely open it and use Google Scholar to do all my research for papers.  I would only buy books I know I would reference in the future.

[Lifesaver]

RENT!

 

I have ~$1,000 worth of textbooks from my first masters sitting and collecting dust in my house. The professors felt like they were doing us a service by not requiring the newest edition, however, when it comes time to sell an edition that's 2 or 3 behind, nobody wants to buy them, leaving you in my current position. I wised up and started renting anything that was going to cost me more than the rental price during the beginning of my second year. Not soon enough. I kept some from undergrad with the intention of using them as references in the future. Yeah, right.

[pdwilks]

RENT!

 

I have ~$1,000 worth of textbooks from my first masters sitting and collecting dust in my house. The professors felt like they were doing us a service by not requiring the newest edition, however, when it comes time to sell an edition that's 2 or 3 behind, nobody wants to buy them, leaving you in my current position. I wised up and started renting anything that was going to cost me more than the rental price during the beginning of my second year. Not soon enough. I kept some from undergrad with the intention of using them as references in the future. Yeah, right.

 

I learned that lesson a slight bit in community college and more so in the second two years. I agree, rent as much as you can, most are fine with notes and highlighting. I've used both the kindle to rent and in book form from Amazon. Easy to return.  I used the save the book and use as reference too. Fail...

I will say, selling my book back is going to bite me in the arse for one class in the MSW program. We used it in undergrad. ~sigh~... Oh well.

[kiki123]

It really depends on the semester and the professor. Books can be very expensive, however. I highly recommend renting an online/Kindle version if you can - I was able to get most of my books online through a Kindle app, which cut the price by a third. Amazon.com and local bookstores can be much cheaper than the school store, however. I would say that on average I spend about $200 a semester on books, but that's with renting through the Internet and only buying books that I felt we were really going to use. Good luck!