books!

That sounds about right (((hugs))) I would just look online and for used books I think if you spend some time/leg work you will be able to find cheaper books GL!

that sticker shock will get you everytime!! after my first semester purchase though, i only needed(need) 3 more at about $100 each new. so take a deep breath.

So I just looked at my book list for "Fall 09", my first semester in the nursing program... $1,109.45! Hello, heart attack! The only thing giving me some consolation right now is that it is ALOT of books and looks like it could also be for Spring 2010, as it includes at least one Med-Surg book which I don't take until the spring.

Time to start looking online for cheaper books, school bookstores are such a rip off!

*rocking back and forth in the corner hugging my credit card* LOL

waaaaait wait wait, don't buy ANY books just yet. Here's why...my first semester everyone rushed out and bought the "box" they packed up for everyone. It had all the textbooks, study guides, blah blah and some more crap. $950. I bought ONE book that first semester, the skills book that we needed to write in and use to practice in skills lab. I never used the Patho book, Pharm book, Health Assessment book, Dosage book, no study guides. I studied my notes and looked on this website, oh and spent my days in clinical actually looking through charts and looking at patients to see what the disease looked like on paper(labs, drugs, etc) and in person(the patient). I saved $900 and made A's and B's...while some people tried to read all that mess and study all those books and got burned out and almost failed. But you know everyone is different...I, for one, wouldn't buy all those until I knew I needed them. Ask around and see what other students said. AND even ask the teacher, they'll usually tell you if they test from the notes or books. I did buy a book 2nd semester, but that's because I've known that teacher and we had talked, she told me she gets her stuff from the book. But yeah, look into it first.

Many of those books will be used throughout the entire nursing program. Search for used. Also, before you purchase make sure you do not want to use a Blackberry/iPhone/PDA. Software versions cost the same as new books and Skyscape gives you both the mobile and desktop versions for the same price. I had already purchased my books and had to rebuy for my electronics.

My first semester I had the same experience. I did purchase all of the books, but not through the book store. I used textbooks.com and Amazon and rather than paying about $1200 I ended up with a total just over $700. Most of my books were reference than actual instruction, but I used every single one of them for clinical prep and for looking up things that I didn't know. I've been buying additional reference book (off of the recommended but not required list) and have built up quite a library for use during school. I start my 2nd semester soon and only had like 3 or 4 books to buy and have spent about $200 so far with 1 book left to get. So, it gets better!

Yep, that sounds about right. I managed to get a lot of my books on Amazon so I only spent about half that but it still was a lot. Amazon and Half seem to have the best prices.

Our book list was for the entire 2 year program. I looked up each book on both Barnes & Noble (with their membership) and Amazon and bought it where it was cheaper. I like to have brand new books, so I'm obviously paying more than a lot of people. But I'm sure there are a lot of great used books out there to save you some money (:

I'll definitely chime in for Amazon. The books there were cheaper NEW than used at the college bookstore. For about 1000 I got all the required and "recommended" as well. The bundle the bookstore was selling was only about 8 books. Granted, I didn't get the electronic copies, but oh well. I don't like reading on a computer screen anyway.

I also wanted to add they will 'recommend' some that are nice but you can find the info other places. Unless you have a couple hundred $$$ just to have a tadbit of info you can most likely find somewhere else

Exactly my point. With some of our textbooks, my teachers said they didn't like them, therefore they didn't use them. The reason I didn't bother studying those certain books was because the book would say something different from the teacher. Plus you can find plenty of info on here

Check Craigslist in your area, too! I bought an expensive textbook/DVD bundle from a student who had failed the previous semester and saved myself a ton of money on that set.