Don’t break the bank account.
Forget the balancing act: Eat or buy textbooks?
Never be upset again about the college book store buy back rip-offs.
Don’t raise your student debt by 28 percent using credit cards to pay for textbooks.
Don’t go without a textbook that you must have for an assignment or two but will never use again.
I could not resist writing a silly rhyme about my text book souvenirs. These are the buy-back rejects and I store them on a dusty shelf near my study desk, many of them never once opened.
The Bookstore Blues: Rhymin’ and Stealin’
By HollyJoWard
35 Textbooks sat on a shelf;
13 hard-backs and 22 paper backs, most of which were little help.35 topics chronicling three;
Years of college, that were far from free.
35 bound texts: Algebra, music, and government;
Speaking in public, books on art, and one about wealth.History, sociology and one never opened — The title? “Your Health.”
35 deposits multiplied by one-hundred and twenty-four;
The average price of one book at the college bookstore.
Put your money in your pocket or save it at the bank.
Close your purse and your wallet now…don’t wait;Plan your semester in advance;
And you too can avoid the textbook rip-off dance.
Hope is here. There are options. One must never step foot in the college book store again if they so choose. Anyone can find reading and learning materials needed for college classes without going there. Never fear “old” friends; there are several small solutions to one big problem, the college campus book store.
The campus book store is the Neiman Marcus of book stores and I always get tagged for a t-shirt and a hoodie along with my books if
I set foot in that store. For those that pay nearly every dime of educational
expenses this is a very scary place. Honestly, when I walk or drive by the
fancy book store on campus I feel a pang of regret for the amount of money I’ve
spent there. I don’t have happy stories to tell you about that place. It is the
place where I dropped over 500 hundred dollars for three text books my first
semester at UTA and at the end of the semester was refunded only 15 dollars for
“like-new” textbooks.
See below my ten tips on saving big money each semester on
books.
Never Say “Never.”
Onward!
Holly
- First and Foremost: Never, never, never go to the UTA book store first. If you must go, at least go there last. Exhaust all other resources for locating textbooks (note the next two words) IN ADVANCE for the next semester. In advance means you must sign up for your classes at the beginning of the prior semester. Look up your classes and professor and read the syllabus to find out required class texts and materials.
- Be ahead of the pack. Know what books you will be hunting for and save a ton of money.
- Friends = Resources.
Every time you set foot in a
classroom there are at least 30 chances to make friends with a classmate who
shares something in common with you – they have to buy books too. Every
friendship with a classmate is freaking fantastic. We’re all in the same boat,
so don’t be shy. Get to know at least five of your classmates within the first
week. When I say “get to know,” that means: Get their first and last name, exchange
text/cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses, become FaceBook “friends.”
Make no bones about the fact that
you would like to partner up and share a book. There are at least 30 people that
you know who need the same book you do and would much rather pay 35 dollars for
a shared book rather than 70 dollars (or more) for a personal copy of a textbook.
- FREE BOOKS – these two words excite me. You can check out a textbook for one month and then check it out for the two months consecutively following. Free books that are yours for the borrowing do exist all you have to do is look at the four libraries available to UTA students.
- Arlington Central Library: arlingtonlibrary.org
Search for a textbook: http://arlingtonlibrary.org/browse
Apply for a library card online: http://polarisweb.arlingtonlibrary.org/Polaris/patronaccount/selfregister.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.1
- UTA Central Library: Search for a textbook and check it out here: http://www.uta.edu/library/.
- Rent it. Visit https://rental.bkstr.com/TextRentalWeb/logon.orca to rent a textbook for one-third of the price of owning it.
- Discount Digital textbooks are a great alternative if you can’t rent your book from UTA. One of the best sites is Chegg.com, they have great prices as well as student help and tutorial availability: http://www.chegg.com/etextbooks/.
- Walk-in
and Internet book stores: Local stores -
Book stores on the Internet. http://www.chegg.com/etextbooks/; http://www.textbooks.com.
- Remember rule one: “First and Foremost.”
No comments:
Post a Comment