Sometimes the Books Hit You

It’s the dirty little secret of higher education: textbooks can cost as much as tuition. Students can easily spend several hundred dollars each semester on books that are required for classes required by their majors. While tuition can be financed with loans, scholarships and grants, textbooks usually aren’t. Here are some tips to decrease the bookstore bleeding:

Buy used. Assuming your professor is using the same text as last semester, this is the most conventional way to save. The best way to garner the most used texts? Shop early and compare the used books to the new ones. Even if they are different versions, many times the new version has only minor changes. Certainly try your campus bookstore, but don’t forget about Half Price Books stores located in Plano and Frisco.

Check TextbookDepot.com This site serves primarily the Collin County Community College crowd as an online classified ad source for textbooks. Students can offer to swap or buy books from each other.

Buy online. This option can pair convenience with thrift: sites such as half.com, amazon.com, and goodwillbooks.com carry used textbooks. While you’ll pay for shipping, it’s usually less than the cost of your time to hunt through the college bookstore.

Rent. You read correctly! Ybuytextbooks.com goes live on August 1, and it rents books to students through its website. Textbook rental will average $7 per month per book.