How to: Save Hundreds on Books!

• by

We all know that outside of tuition and rent one of a student’s greatest expenses will be books. A lot of this stuff you probably already know, but hopefully I can help everyone save some money with a trick you haven’t seen before. Last semester I spent a grand total of $30 on books and that was with a full slate of 5 classes! With a little prior planning you too can save lots of money!

1. Stay away from the book store: The book store is outrageous. Have you ever sold your books there? It’s insane. Also the whole place is a madhouse the first week of the semester. Only use the book store as a last resort.

2. Don’t buy books: How many books do you have that are just sitting around? Did you have intentions of using that book on population biology or gifting that book on religion in sports (both of which are real classes at SU) and you never got around to it? There are some great ways to avoid buying books such as…

3a. Use the library: I know what you’re thinking, so 1900s. But did you know that you can search online for any books in the  library? Okay, that was probably obvious so I’ll give you the link where you can search for any books in the SU library system (that includes those as ESF’s Moon Library). You don’t even need to get up!

3b. Use interlibrary loans: This is one that most students never touch and it is great, especially for relatively new books that you can’t find used yet. I’ll even give you the link! Just use your SU NetID and Password and click on “book” underneath “new request.” Make sure you give as much information about the book that you can, especially the ISBN numbers so the request goes smoothly. The books take about a week to come in and you can use them for a month and then renew the book for another month! If you have a detailed syllabus then you should never have to worry about being without the book for a paper or other assignments!

If you use both number 3’s you should be able to find ANY book completely free. Obviously, sometimes you’ll want to keep books or you’re willing to pay a nominal fee for the convenience of having the book, writing notes, and any other stuff you can do with a book that is yours. You can pick and choose some of these strategies that work best for you.

4. Don’t buy up-to-date editions: Most of the time the page numbers are exactly the same from one edition to the next or there is an additional introduction chapter. Do your homework and check page counts on Amazon to make certain. Another tip is to buy international editions rather than the English editions. For this semester I saved over $100 on a book by buying the international edition rather than the English. The international version is still written in English and other slight variations, but I double checked with my Prof. and it was completely fine.

5. Buy used: Amazon, eBay, etc. are great if you want to buy the book outright and you can find used books on many different websites. I paid $6 for last semester’s statistics book that was slightly used, that’s counting shipping.

6. Share books: I am not very keen on this one, but I know many people that it has worked well for. Just make sure that everyone can access the book and it can be a very viable textbook solution.

7. Talk to your Professors: A simple e-mail can help you understand what your professor wants to use a book for, or even if you need the book. Many professors put a book on a syllabus, but rarely use said book. The Maxwell Professors are very understanding of the fiscal plight for graduate students so solutions can certainly be found. If you are in doubt, ask if you can buy a previous edition or if they have a copy you can borrow.

Doing a little bit of leg work can save the average student a lot of money. I have personally saved over $200 on books just in these past two semesters alone. If you have any questions or need any help using any of these tips send me an e-mail or leave me a comment.

How To: Apply to the Maxwell School!

• by

As many of you prospective students are aware, we are quickly heading towards the application deadline for many programs here at the Maxwell School. That being said, we don’t have any questions at all on our blog. Do you have any concerns? The weather, classes, financials, lifestyle, assistantships, or the application itself? You should let us know! Post a comment or send us e-mails. All of us writing for the PAIA Insider would love to help you out and answer some of your burning questions. I can’t wait to get some of your questions and answer them.

Typical Thursday

• by

Hello all! My apologies for not posting last week, but I did double posts the week prior so don’t get too mad Christine! A typically busy Thursday for me as we had a joint session of Public Organizations Management and I attended an information session with Govloop founder Steve Ressler. For those who do not know, Govloop is the “facebook for the public sector.” It currently has around 60,000 members that work in local, state, and federal government. The site also boasts many professionals and students with interests in government perspectives. It was great to meet Steve and hear him talk about how to get into government work and how Govloop evolved from a hobby to a job. Very Inspiring!

Switching gears a bit, a few of us at Maxwell have been participating in Movember. Movember is a campaign to raise money for prostate, testicular, and other men’s cancers while encouraging members to grow mustaches. Frankly, it has been quite the experiment since I thought my mother would make me shave it over Thanksgiving and that I would not be able to grow a mustache. However, I am pleasantly suprised with both results. We are having a big party tomorrow night to celebrate all the money we have raised, and, of course, our ‘staches! It should be a very fun night. If you would like to donate to the Maxwell team you can do so here until Dec. 9th!

Tomorrow is also a BIG game for the basketball team. Well, not that big, but the biggest game of the year thus far as we play Arkansas at 8:30 tomorrow night. I am definitely hoping for another banner year for the Orange as we return a lot of our core players from last year and it will be the last year we will be in the BIG EAST. While we are on the subject, a big shout out to the SU soccer team as they went to their first NCAA tournament since 1985 then went on to win their first and then second games ever in the NCAA tournament. I went to a couple of games this season and it is great to see them do so well. Finally, congrats to the mens cross country team for winning the BIG EAST championship and coming in 15th at the NCAA championships. Enjoy your weekend and G’Orange!