Ways To Keep Textbook Costs Down – Part One

It can be challenging hunting for textbooks. So here are four ways to ensure you find your textbooks!

Pick your classes early

Why?  Because it’s an observable fact that the textbooks you need get more expensive the closer to the start of the semester you get – probably because other people are buying them up. So the earlier you pick your classes, the sooner you can start buying textbooks and the cheaper they’ll be.

And here’s the related corollary: pick your classes wisely, so you don’t have to drop any and return the books or lose what you spent on them. And the corollary to that: have a good idea of your degree plan – what you need to take and when. Actually registering for your classes will probably require one of those dreaded trips to your advisor, but the sooner you get this out of the way the sooner you can relax!

Search out textbooks on the bookstore

The bookstore doesn’t automatically display your course materials until maybe a month and a half before classes start, but you can usually find them as soon as registration opens (about half way through the semester). In the MyRegent portal, the third box down on the left, ‘Popular Links,’ has one such link titled ‘Bookstore Online (MBS).’ If you’re taking classes right now, that link will take you to a list of your course materials with a little blue link down at the bottom, ‘Add or Change Courses.’ If you’re not taking classes right now, it will take you either to a page called ‘Getting Started’ with boxes for term, school, and course front and center or to a page called ‘Let’s Get Started’ with a ‘Getting Started’ link that will take you to the same. However you get there, that page with the boxes allows you to look up the classes you will or might take.

Print books versus e-books versus rentals

Before you buy anything, consider the pros and cons of the available formats and what will suit you best. Do you already know that professor bans computers in class? Don’t buy e-books for that course. Do you learn better when you can markup or highlight your books? Buy your own copies, print or electronic. Do you have limited space, carrying ability, or funds and a reliable device? Try to get as many e-books as possible. Do you have eight-week classes? You can get shorter term rentals that are cheaper or borrow with worrying about due dates (see below).

Libraries!

The University Library doesn’t have an extensive stock of textbooks because they turn over so often, but it certainly has multiple copies of classic works (like most of the books read in your English classes) and may well have a copy or two of your other books, especially if they’re not traditional textbooks. Do keep in mind that someone else might check a book out before you do. Anyway, it doesn’t hurt to check.  If you’re a distance student or a local on-campus student, you should also look at your public library because its checkout period is usually more generous too.

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