Tips On How College Students Can Save On Textbooks
As most UTEP students start to wrap up the semester with finals staring next week, many are already planning how to pay for not only tuition but textbooks for next semester.
With textbook prices continuing to rise, ABC-7 found some ways students can save and maybe have some left over for a six pack – of root beer.
Students at the UTEP bookstore agree on one thing about textbooks:
“Very expensive,” Priscilla Payan said.
Jasmyn Salaices, another UTEP student, agreed.
“We spend like $600 or $700 a semester on books,” said Salaices.
According to the U.S accountability office in 2005 the average cost of textbooks was about 26 percent of the cost of tuition.
In 2007-2008, textbook sales were estimated at $9.8 billion according to the National College Store Association.
“They do get really expensive,” UTEP’s book store manager, Fernando Badula said.
Last year, a new program started encouraging students to “Rent it, don’t buy it. “
“We rented over 12,000 books and the savings to the students was in excess of over $450,000,” said Badula.
All you need to rent a book at UTEP is a credit card. If you don’t return the book, you will be turned over to a collection agency.
”I prefer to buy the books. Because you can actually sell them back and when you rent them you don’t have that profit coming in,” said Payan.
Not every book is available for rent at UTEP, but there’s another option to save money — www.textbookit.com
“My husband had the idea to start this up, he was an MBA student at UTEP and was really just frustrated with the high cost of books, it’s ridiculous,” said textbookit.com co-founder, Angelica Talavera.
The textbook consignment store near UTEP on Blanchard allows you to list your books and sell or buy at a lower price.
“The beauty and the benefit about textbook it is that we’ve sold books to people in Houston, Austin, Dallas,” said Talavera.
So, whether you rent or buy on consignment, students say every little bit helps with the frustrations of college life.
“I bought a book and it was $120 and I used it twice!” said Payan.
Related Links:Link:textbookit.com
