The Many Decisions Behind Textbooks

With one week left until school, it’s definitely time to get into the mindset of preparation. As an online student, one of the more interesting practices that differ from many “in-person” students is the book choice. Some books are available in online form where you simply get a license to an online copy of the book until the semester is over. There are upsides to this, of course, but downsides are there, too. Generally, getting the online copy costs less than the bound face value. You can usually use features like ctrl+F to find a specific phrase, making it easier to look things up than in a hard paper copy. However, with paper books, you might be able to buy a book for $90 and sell it back for $70, essentially only spending $20 on your book. There’s no buyback for digital textbooks. You pay the access fee and that’s pretty much that.

I have yet to decide what I’m doing for my semester books because as I’ve gotten further into my school career, I’ve found it’s a lot easier to wait until school starts before making a textbook decision. The UM-Flint Bookstore is helpful in letting you know what will probably be needed for each individual course, but sometimes they’re mislabeled. You could end up buying the textbook and two supplements that are listed as “required” but the instructor actually just considers them optional. You may also converse with other students that have taken the class and find out about the professor. Sometimes the in-class discussions, presentations, and notes are so good that you don’t need the book to succeed and can save some money that way. Other times, the instructors recognize that a version behind the most recent one really isn’t that out of date and consider it acceptable to get. The previous version is much, much cheaper and can help trim your academic budget as well.

When I started out, I always made sure I had the materials ready to go before the beginning of the semester. But often, I spent money I didn’t have to and worried too much about something insignificant. Most professors give a week grace period at the start so you can get yourself organized based on the syllabus. So, as of now, I’m still not sure which directions I’m going to go with my textbook selections. I’ll soak in the  environments, read through the syllabi, judge the class and its requirements, check my bank account and make my decision then.