by Sarah Heller

Created on: April 26, 2010

Buying textbooks from your college bookstore will probably be one of the most expensive shopping trips you’ll ever take. Depending on course load, a full set of textbooks will average about $720 per student per semester in the United States this year. While no one tracks local figures, anecdotal evidence suggests that New Mexico students probably pay close to this amount when they have to buy new textbooks. Before dropping that money, consider some alternate ways to save money on textbooks.

Start by looking on-line for used books. Websites such as amazon.com and textbook.com have bought and sold used textbooks for years. While your on-campus bookstore will most likely also have some used books, compare prices between these sites and your store. Be careful of buying older editions of textbooks; some books undergo big changes between editions, while other publishers simply change the cover. If possible, ask your professor what edition of the text he or she uses, or check a “new” edition against older editions of the book in your school library. Be especially careful to check sample and assignment problems; difference here could affect your grade. If you see no difference, the savings on older editions of textbooks can be significant. For example, purchasing a new copy of Perceptions (a text required by many Psychology classes) will cost about $125. Buying it used in the campus bookstore costs $102. Buying it online costs about $85. By buying an older edition online, however, a student only paid $9. Since the text was only going to be used as additional reading for the class, the student never noticed the differences between the versions (which were only in the questions at the end of each chapter).

If you’re stuck with using the latest edition of a textbook, however, there are still ways to save some money. Start by seeing if your campus library is willing to loan the book to you for the semester. Students in very small classes have had some success with this, but expect your school to block off books that are required for larger classes.

One of the most creative ways (albeit time-consuming) to save money is by photocopying your text books. This is best for classes that only use a few chapters of a book. Obtain a copy of the text book, take it into your campus library (or preferably an office supply store that offers cheap photocopies) and photocopy each page that you will need for the class. Susan, a student at ENMU, did this for a class that required a $212 textbook that was 400 pages long. “It took all day, but at ten cents a copy I only spent $40. I put all the pages in a binder.” Susan estimates that photocopying took about four hours. Considering she saved $172, she considers it time well-spent; essentially, she made $43 an hour.

Buying college textbooks does not need to take up a large portion of your budget.  In addition to these ideas, many students have organized book swapping clubs, and some have successfully petitioned their professors to provide information online rather than have them buy it in textbook form.  Think creatively, and there are many ways to save on your college textbooks.

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