You learn something new every day!

[Mystic Muse]

And what I learned today was, don't buy or rent your college textbooks until about a week before your semester starts. You might regret it.

Today, I got a call from my college. Semester begins in 12 days, and what am I told?

"Your Java Programming class is being cancelled, you need to choose a new one if you want to remain full time."

I am so thankful I haven't bought or rented any of my books yet. Looking over the alternative options tonight to find something else that'd be good.

[HalfTangible]

And what I learned today was, don't buy or rent your college textbooks until about a week before your semester starts. You might regret it.

Today, I got a call from my college. Semester begins in 12 days, and what am I told?

"Your Java Programming class is being cancelled, you need to choose a new one if you want to remain full time."

I am so thankful I haven't bought or rented any of my books yet. Looking over the alternative options tonight to find something else that'd be good.yeah, i never buy my books until the first week of classes. Usually because I don't actually know which books the class requires.

What I learned today is that being told my time playing games, writing roleplays and writing novels is a waste of time will bother me for a lot longer than it should, even when it's said indirectly by someone whose opinion i no longer care one damn wit about.

[Eldan]

You can rent textbooks? Damn. I just had to spend a few hundred bucks every semester to buy them used.

[Intermelo]

You can rent textbooks? Damn. I just had to spend a few hundred bucks every semester to buy them used.

Same. And then I seem to always get screwed somehow. Like the one year my college had a special edition of a book made JUST for them, and then at the end of the semester they went back to the older version, enabling the students to sell it back.


My college allows us to "reserve" books online. As long as they're reserved they're yours, and you can pick them up anytime after book sales start.

[Marnath]

yeah, i never buy my books until the first week of classes. Usually because I don't actually know which books the class requires.

What I learned today is that being told my time playing games, writing roleplays and writing novels is a waste of time will bother me for a lot longer than it should, even when it's said indirectly by someone whose opinion i no longer care one damn wit about.

Isn't that his job at this point in your life, to run you down and make you feel bad about wasting your life? Mine sure does. :smallyuk:

[Silverrida]

Same. And then I seem to always get screwed somehow. Like the one year my college had a special edition of a book made JUST for them, and then at the end of the semester they went back to the older version, enabling the students to sell it back.


My college allows us to "reserve" books online. As long as they're reserved they're yours, and you can pick them up anytime after book sales start.

I personally would rather buy the textbooks instead of worry about the idea of returning them in an acceptable condition, especially since I want to keep all my psych and math books and I generally mark them all up.

Anyway, TIL that Nepal is in desperate need of help, just like everywhere else. It'd be interesting to live there for a little while but I'm not willing to give things up

[Balain]

I just buy my books and keep them. That way if I ever need them in the future to check something I have em. Also I don't have to worry about returning them.

[Karoht]

I don't buy/rent a textbook until the prof actually assigns us something from the book in question.
And even then, the textbooks are usually in the campus library.
Late fees on a library book are typically cheaper than buying the book used.

Also, there is this thing called the internet.

I actively refuse to buy a textbook unless I absolutely must, especially after I spent 500 dollars on a used copy of my Statistics textbook, and never actually took off the plastic wrapping all semester. :smallfurious:
And I'm still baffled at how that book cost so much money. Less than 300 pages, 500 dollars used. Figure that out. I'm pretty sure the profs are required to sell or contribute to the sales of a certain dollar figure of textbooks a year.

[Ravens_cry]

Part of the costs could be because they are fairly short run, maybe, but the real cost is almost certainly like airlines and all their delightful little 'fees'.

[niks97cobra]

I never bought books until I absolutely had to have them. Most of my college courses ended up coming off Power Points. The profs always let us print them off blackboard.

[thubby]

I never bought books until I absolutely had to have them. Most of my college courses ended up coming off Power Points. The profs always let us print them off blackboard.

basically this.

[EmeraldRose]

You can rent textbooks? Damn. I just had to spend a few hundred bucks every semester to buy them used.

I am getting digital editions of as many of mine as I possibly can. Having done this a few times, I can tell you the number of times I've gone back to look at a text after having graduated = 0. They just sit on the book shelf.

I'm incredibly happy I can just rent books now. I don't really want to keep them. Especially when a new copy of a text can cost over $150. I refuse to pay that much on a text I likely won't even read all the way through. :smallannoyed:

[Emmerask]

I never bought books until I absolutely had to have them. Most of my college courses ended up coming off Power Points. The profs always let us print them off blackboard.

either that or online resources... there is really zero need for a textbook anymore.

And that goes double for stuff like programming, the textbooks I have seen where mostly horribly outdated, had really bad layout etc.
For java you need a basic tutorial (of which there are millions online) and afterwards stackoverflow for specific questions.

[Keris]

Less than 300 pages, 500 dollars used. Figure that out.
:smalleek:

I can't imagine ever spending anything close to that much money on a book. Though I guess there may be a cultural difference going on here - textbooks where I am average maybe £50 each.
And I get to consider myself luckier than most in that regard, since the university I go to gives students a £300 stipend which can be used in the student bookshop, and in addition my course (computer science) provides all the necessary textbooks either for free or on a year-long loan from the library.

Not that I ended up using said textbooks much anyway. We also had one lecturer complaining that the textbook didn't cover some of the material very well, despite said textbook being specially compiled for that module by that very lecturer. :smallconfused: