Textbooks and Books (T&B): June 2013

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Cheap Textbooks For College Students

If you are a college student, you know how expensive things can be. The average cost of tuition for college annually at a four year private school is around ,000 these days. Many times students have to pay for a lot of that out of pocket; financial aid only covers so much and not a lot of parents can foot the whole bill.

Students also face other necessary expenses, one of the biggest of which is their textbooks. College textbooks are not cheap either – they can run into the hundreds per book. Luckily the internet has created an avenue where it is fairly easy to find cheap textbooks for college students – but you have to know where to look.

Just a decade ago, if a student wished to get a textbook, they were limited to their campus bookstore, or just a handful of places that sold them online. Many of the online places only sold new books – so there was not much of a savings offered – especially when shipping and handling was added into the cost.

Now, there are numerous places where one can buy textbooks online for cheap or even rent books online for college. But where to go? And how do you know if you are getting the best deal?

Luckily, there are websites to help you with that to. You simply enter in the name, author, or ISBN of the book you are looking for, and you can find out at a glance right on one site where the book is being offered and for how much.

You’ll also be able to compare the price of buying the textbook used or renting it – so you’ll know which option is best for you. Is it a book that you know you aren’t going to want to keep? Then renting may be the way to go. Not sure if you’ll want to keep it or not? Simply look at the search results and choose the best price on it used!