Avoid getting scammed by campus bookstores

One of your biggest expenses each semester are books and supplies, this is true especially if you're in either upper level classes or highly specialized majors. There are some tips that every student should know to avoid burning through a large portion of her financial aid before classes even start.

Books

• The first and most important is to avoid buying or selling books at local campus bookstores. The books are overcharged and their book buy back programs pay you pennies on the dollar for your books. The only exception for this would be for coursepacks which you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else.
• Does your school have a book exchange program?
• Search online for past syllabi or book lists before the start of the semester.
• Buy used books on ebay, half.com, or amazon.
• Sell your books on ebay, half.com, or amazon. If the books are in good to new condition, you can often recover 75% of what you originally paid for the book.
• If you're really in a bind, then see if your school's library has a copy of the book that you need and check it out whenever you need it.
• Unless you have no plans of reselling and wish to build a bonfire, absolutely do not write, highlight, or dog ear any of the pages in your book. Write your notes on post-its and use those colored strips of sticky paper to 'highlight' important parts of text.

Supplies

• Buy reams looseleaf sheets of paper. Notebooks are outrageously overpriced and by using looseleaf sheets and binders, you can reuse the binders next semester.
• Use college rule lined paper and write on both sides. You can fit more on each page this way.
• Do not buy new pens and pencils. Keep the giveaways you get from promotional material.

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