I just dropped $300 for textbooks. Let me cry on your shoulders.

[Beware the Beast Man]

:cry:

Oh, and I almost forgot- I still need to get an engineer's sketching set, and probably a graphing calculator- that's another $250.

[jpgray]

1. I have an extra TI86

If that 'ol bit of equipment will do, you can have it. It has some pretty sweet games on it. :D

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. I think that's precisely the calc I will need.

Thanks, old chum!

Have I mentioned I haven't taken a math course in 15 years?

[jpgray]

4. I loathed math with every fiber of my being

But I went all the way through AP Calculus in High School. :puke:

PM me your address and I'll get it sent out on Monday to yer.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. Done.

Thanks! :yourock:

[CatholicEdHead]

21. I have a Math Minor, I had to take it but could not stand the profs

Now the applied physics courses were really fun by putting the math to use.

[Mutley]

3. Only if I can cry on yours.

I'm in the same damn boat. Fucking schools are some seriously greedy bastards. I guess they don't get enough money from my tuition, fees, parking permits, meal plan money, etc.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. I remember those days.

I'm just going part-time for my CAD Design Certificate. That's still more than what I spent for full-time courses.

[Mutley]

12. Damn. That sucks.

Don't come to my school, then. You'll wanna do more than cry. :D

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

6. Could you have bought them secondhand?

Or did the prof insist on using the latest edition with the 5 additional pages?

Univeristy bookstores are just one more way post-secondary education robs us of our hard-earned money. Try looking for specialty second-hand bookstores that carry textbooks. Amazon can give pretty good prices, too.

This year, I finally wised up and started using the book consignment shop near my school. Now I only deal with the school store as a last resort.

[Beware the Beast Man]

9. There were no used books available.

Most of these are first edition books- which means, more than likely, I can't sell them back, either.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

18. That depends.

Never try to sell your books back to the campus store; they pay only a pittance. But next year, if the new students in that class are allowed to use your edition, you can sell it to one of them. You should have access to a bulletin board, physical or electronic, where you can put up a poster saying "The following books are for sale:...". It's like selling your car, only there's slightly less money involved. Ask around 50-75% of what you paid for the book, and both you and the buyer will walk away with more money than you would have had if you'd gone through the bookstore.

Referring to my post above, you can also try to find a book consignment shop serving students at your school. You give them your books and set a price, and they sell it for you. It's much less hassle than selling your books directly, well worth the store's small cut of the money.

[kedrys]

8. Shoulder right here

:hug:

I don't have anything you can use, other than my shoulder, unfortunately.

[Beware the Beast Man]

11. Are you sure you don't have some protractors lying around?

:D

[kedrys]

13. Hmmm... pretty shure

:rofl:

Any ones I have are packed away, and they're antiques I inherited from my land surveyor grandpa. No can do. :)

[tigereye]

15. I do somewhere

people still use those? Well, they\re are plastic ones somewhere that I bought for the kid.

Need a slide rule? j/k old fart joke.

good luck; think of the expense as the needed good stuff for your future!

[unsavedtrash]

10. $286.00 for books so far and I still have more to buy. grad school will

kill me or at least break the bank.

[CarpeDiebold]

14. Our library has "reserve" copies of textbooks

I have saved a lot of money ever since i learned this fact(our budget is ~3000 a year for textbooks...*shudder*) starting this phase, I'm never again buying a textbook if i can help it.

i'd say check if your school library has a copy of your texts, that'll save you oodles of money. if your local university has an engineering school, oyu can pay a membership fee to use their library too! kick ASS!

[radwriter0555]

16. Do you check on amazon.com first? I've bought used books there from

private parties and when a friend of mine was going through law school, that's where she bought her required texts at a massive discount.

[TheMightyFavog]

17. I'm abouyt to make you jealous

My campus has textbook rental!

You don't buy your most of your books, in exchange for a fee that's added to your tuition (a little over $150), you go to the bookstore at the beginning of the semester, check out your books, then return them after you are done with finals. It saves us a shit-ton of money!

[johnnie]

19. What are you taking?

Do you do electrical engineering?

[Beware the Beast Man]

20. I'm going for a CAD Design Certificate.

I really don't have any experience with electrical engineering. At my last job, I used a little bit of CAD for manufacturing.

[CanuckAmok]

22. This doesn't mean you have to learn to read, does it?!

That's all too much to bear.

[RebelOne]

23. My daughter is crying about the price of her textbooks,

but she has one advantage, her education is free. She works for a college in North Miami, so her only expense is her books.

[Nikia]

24. I always waited to see if I actually needed the book

I also checked the library. One time the library plan backfired as another student had the same idea and got the book recalled from me and it was a book that I definitely needed. Another time, I tried that stradegy for a literature class. Although I found the books and knew my material quite well, I had a hard time following along if a page number was referenced during lecture or discussion because most of my books weren't the same editions.
At my school though, some books really were sort of optional because the only things on the test was from the lecture.
I bought the books that I had to, preferrably secondhand. I was always sure to check out what books were required for classes. I noted which ones seemed to be less expensive and took that into consideration when choosing electives.

[catmandu57]

25. I've been there, you have my sympathy

Especially when you have to buy the text new, even though the one they used the previous semester was fine, someone added a paragraph and jacked the price twenty bucks.
Then when buy back came you couldn't get anything because they had added another paragraph so that new book was now obsolete.

[AccessGranted]

26. This will make you feel better (I think) . . .A Little Motivation

I'm paying back a student loan and still owe $37,000 LOL. Seriously, I know that the books and supplies are expensive. It's ridiculous. I feel your pain. I just graduated from college in 2003 at the age of 41. It was a lifelong dream and I am proud to say that I am officially edjamacated LOL. Trust me.....it's worth it! You'll look back at this one day and laugh. Maybe you can get some of your books secondhand. That's what I tried to do as much as possible. Best of luck to you with your education and your future career.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

27. I'm in the same boat as you

I'm just returning to school after a 5 year absence due to not being able to afford college. The last go around books for 5 classes cost me $275 and a parking permit was like 35 dollars. I come back 5 years later 500 dollars for books for 4 classes and 65 dollars for a parking permit :banghead: thats crazy everything has doubled in cost in 5 short years, or I guess you could say 5 long Bush years.

[deadparrot]

28. pricemonk.com and half.com are always helpful for me.

For textbooks, anyway--books are sold at huuuge discounts. :)