i don’t think people take into account the cost of textbooks when they calculate how high they can raise tuition. for example, if i buy all my textbooks new, it’ll cost the same as 25% of my tuition. so instead of paying $4200ish, i’ll have to pay $5200ish. that’s a lot for only four months.

and it’s not even easy to buy old books, you’d think that with a technological minded university, they would have some sort of system which would make it easier. the student-run “non-profit” old bookstore isn’t any better, it’s often a mad rush on the first day of classes to find the cheapest, best-condition copy of the textbook you want, if they’re even any left. i don’t think that many people sell books there as (15 div 80)% of the cost disappears into the bookstore overhead, but at least it’s better than other schools where you lose like (30 div 80)% or something <cough>university of toronto<cough>. although they provide a useful service at some cost, my beef is that you can’t order or even pay a deposit to hold books over the net.

so if you buy books new, you can either pay the full price at the bookstore or buy them somewhere like chapters.indigo.ca. actually chapters is kind of a lifesaver, cuz if you get the irewards card, you get 10% off all books, plus you can hunt for coupons online to save more. that is if you can beat the rush of other people who are going to buy from there and empty their inventory.

this term, i’m trying something new. i just bought one of my books at amazon.ca with a $10 coupon (canadavcards, only if you buy with a canadian visa and supposedly reusable), free shipping etc. but i also signed up to be an amazon associate, so i get 15% of it back if i add it to my shopping cart right away. so that’s an overall better deal than chapters if it pans out. i’m not sure how they check to see if you’re abusing the system or not tho, but i can always return it if it doesn’t work.

all of this struggle and waste of money is sometimes moot tho, because in the end you might not even need the book for the course at all. it just drives you insane.

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