AAh! Textbooks....take a lung and a kidney for payment.

Miss_TT · Dec 16, 2009

I bought all my textbooks from Half.com

The used books are less than half the prices at the college bookstore. I spent about $250 on all my used books online during first semester. If I had bought them at the college bookstore, I would've spent more than $500. You can also try Amazon.

TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP · Dec 16, 2009

Welcome to buying textbooks in a field where information updates more than once every fifty years. The colleges aren't the ones charging the big bucks - the publishers are. They charge so much because they can, basically. They also tend to base their decisions on when to release a new edition of a textbook by how many used copies of the previous edition are circulating - though this is more of a pain for Gen Chem, low-level Orgo, and calculus, where things really don't change much yet books are on eighth or twelfth editions.

If you need to keep down costs, try buying used and/or online if you can (making sure you get the correct edition, of course).

morningland · Dec 17, 2009

They may be pricey but your books are an investment in your nursing career because you will always refer back to them as a knowledge base. That is why I never sell them back to the bookstore... Well also because of the insult that is their buy back offer

CrunchyMama, ASN, RN · Dec 17, 2009

I also think it's ridiculous! Thank God for financial aid! I'd rather buy the books on other sites where it's cheaper but my school makes packages so I can't buy them seperate because I don't know what's in the package to buy them anywhere else. Plus CD-ROMs are in the packages sometimes that I can't buy anywhere else. It's crazy! :/

studentnurse2175 · Dec 17, 2009

Talk to your nursing office about financial aid specific for nurses. I got enough money in nursing school and not just goverment money, to pay for everything. :yeah:

Also try amazon.com for lower price text books. Just double check the edition your buying is th emost up to date one. Or ask your teacher if an older edition will work. Most time there is little to no changes to the editions and the older edition to a $150 book will be like $10 bucks. No kidding.

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Dec 17, 2009

I would take back ones that I could find on amazon.com used.....punch in the ISBN number and search em out....saves a ton!

9livesRN, BSN, RN · Dec 17, 2009

i actually could not aford afew books along the way (pediatrics, mental health, and a couple others!) so I just acted like i had it, got some other book on the same subject that i found on craigslist (for a couple bucks) and used it!

nursing is nursing, regardles, its on google, its on ATI, its on cheap, and its the same on expensive books!

it all depends how you read it and what you read from it!

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Dec 17, 2009

I usually buy mine online, the few times I bought them at the bookstore I got good prices on the buy back. I usually never spend more then a couple hundred but I try not to think about the price. I am a supply junkie so that is where most my money goes.

zaxiom · Dec 17, 2009

i'm hoping this info will change your bookbuying life as much as it did mine. i rent all of my books from chegg.com all my nursing, statistics, chemistry, everything is on there. i usually get the books in a couple days and right now their offering free shipping. if you use code cc107789 in the coupon box at checkout it saves you 5%. just check it out and see how much you'll save. the same code gets you an extra $5 on buybacks. you can send me a pm if you have any questions. please pass it along and avoid being ripped off.

CharlotteDarcy · Dec 17, 2009

I only paid about $150 for my books this semester. You should really try to purchase stuff online. :smokin:

CeilingCat, ASN, RN · Dec 17, 2009

stop buying them from your school bookstore! Online I'm finding brand-new ones for 30-40% less and no sales tax. Last semester I got everything I needed from amazon (cheap), plus free shipping.