Tips for buying your study books

Only a few weeks until my bachelor program starts. And like a good student I am – or I would like to be – I want to buy the needed books forehand. The university published a file with the books you need for the first semester. What do you think how expensive these books are? In my middle and high school was an option to borrow the books you needed from school for something around 50€ or 75€. I thought the books for university would cost around 150€ per semester in fact of you buy your own books and don’t borrow those. How naive I was! To be exact: For the first semester you need five books for 242€ overall. ONLY THE FIRST SEMESTER! Until the second semester you need four new books for a total of 249€. These books are only the necessary ones. There are also books which are recommended to buy. I was shocked how expensive these books are. I mean... Well, I understand that people put a lot of work in the books but 80€ for a single one?
After I overcome the shock, I thought about how I can get the books I needed for my program:


1. Buy the books online on Amazon (or every other bookstore)
Oh wow! What a genius Idea. I know it isn't a special tip but for completeness I have to name this option AND there is often the possibility to buy used books. Furthermore, you get a receipt and can use this to get your income tax back if you payed some. Please inform yourself in which way you can use this in your home country. Maybe there are some funding opportunities where you get a part of the money you paid back, when you have a receipt?


2. Buy the books online via Facebook

Huh? Facebook? Everyone is on Facebook and there is a group for everything.



- You buy used books and save resources and money too: There are a lot of students whom offer the books they don't need any more via Facebook for a fair price. You have to compare the offers and find the best one for you but it's not hard to find books for the half price as the new one. And students are always broke, so you can save money before you need to.


- Tips for free: According to my experiences you can ask the seller so much more than only what the price is. Remember these guys had taken the courses you are afraid of. I asked one person how hard the statistic course is, another one told me, that book XY only was used a few times from the prof. I think these tips are really helpful and first-hand.
Sounds great right? But where light is also shadow.


- Be aware of scams! Unfortunately, there are some people who aren't helpful, honest and kind. These guys lie about the condition of the books nor haven't the books. Let the seller send you a variety of pictures from the book(s). If it's a problem for him/her don't do it. Maybe the seller offers you an old version of the books you need. If they told you, the choice is yours. I heard the most Profs haven't a problem with older versions, but you don't know this exactly in forehand.
- The needle in the haystack. At the beginning I told you that you find everyone on Facebook and so, so many groups. Some of these are very useful to build connections, get to know new people or find help for... For everything. Only for Groningen there are more than one or two groups. This has the consequence that you have to look in each group who offers his/her books or post your own announce. But this isn't the only difficult part in my opinion. Facebook has an annoying spam-filter. If a person who isn't your friend on Facebook send you a message, you don't get a normal notification. You have to go into your "spam-filter" on your computer. In the mobile messenger you don't see the messages in the inbox. Honestly, I only found one time these requests on the mobile version. The other times I missed these, or I saw them on my computer at the first time.
All in all, there are pro's and con's about buying your books on Facebook and you have to put a big amount on time in finding your book.

3. Ask your university about discount options

Often universities give you the chance to order the books together with many other students. In fact, of this big order, some shops give a discount and you can save money and get a receipt. If your university don’t offer this, there are maybe study association from your faculty or degree program? In Groningen for example you can order your books with a discount up to 20% if you be part of the psychology study association VIP. This is also an awesome possibility to get to know new people during events or workshops. But this is a different theme and will be another blog article, so stay tuned!

Do you know other ways to get your needed books? Please let me know! J

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Follow