Buying textbooks in college can be very stressful because it is a financial burden (especially when you are a nursing major). By the time you reach the register you may rack up a grand total of anywhere from $500.00-$1,000.00! Do not be frightened; it is not impossible to save money on textbooks, and I will be sharing some tips with you below!

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Note: This post is in no way sponsored. Any links provided are resources that may be helpful for you. I am not receiving any benefits, nor am I working with any companies.

 

Check your professor’s syllabus.

Normally professors will post or email their syllabi out to students a couple weeks before classes begin. My school is pretty helpful; we simply log into our registration account and our schedule link sends us straight to a list of all the books we need for our specific courses.  If you do have access to your syllabus, one of the first things you will see is about your textbook or your online access code, whichever one they use.

Note: Sometimes you may not need the physical text book and an access code unique to your course. Access codes typically have an eBook already include with it (check before purchasing another textbook). Also make sure you will/will not need the special codes that come with brand new textbooks.

Check the bookstore.

After accumulating a list of all the books you will need for all of your courses, check your school’s bookstore website for prices. Write down each price (used and brand new), you will need this for this next tip.

Compare prices.

Textbooks in the bookstore tend to be overpriced, there are other resources you can use to compare costs. My favorite so far is slugbooks.com. Amazon ends up being a HUGE money saver!

Decide: buy/rent and new/used.

An important  aspect of purchasing textbooks to know whether you will need the textbook later on or not. This is how you will decide whether to buy or rent. For example, as a nursing major the rest of my schooling will depend on anatomy and physiology and I may need to refer back to my book. As a result, I bought my A&P textbook and turns out I will be needing it to review some things for next semester. If think you may need the book again you can always keep it and re-sell it later; however, if it is for a typical prerequisite like History/English, you would save a lot of money just renting the book from the bookstore.

Quick tip: Some textbooks are available in a binder form (the pages are three-hole punched), this option tends to be cheaper and is much more convenient. You could simply take the pages you needed with you and leave the large binder back at home/in your dorm.

Another option: Purchase from other students!

If you “do” social media, keep up with your graduating class’ hashtag for your school or the Facebook page for students at your school selling books (if there is one). Another thing you could do is ask your roommates if you live on campus.

 

That’s all I have for you all! I hope this can help someone!

Thanks for reading,

Anna