In her two years at UCLA, Sumedha Singh has bought only one
textbook, and that’s only because she absolutely needed
to.
The second-year neuroscience student is often found in Powell
Library, her nose buried in textbooks she doesn’t own. Her
strategy is simple: Don’t buy textbooks, check them out at
Powell for free.
“Besides saving money, which is of course the main reason,
it forces me to go to the library,” Singh said. “Then,
once I’m back in my room, I don’t have to worry about
finishing anything. I can just relax.”
With the high prices of textbooks at the university’s
bookstore, students such as Singh are turning to alternative
methods to save money.
The one textbook Singh did have to buy was for her Economics 2
class, because the book was not available at the circulation desk
at Powell.
Students can check textbooks out from Powell overnight as long
as they do so within two hours of the circulation desk closing and
have the book back within one hour of it opening the next
morning.
“Going to Powell is quite a hike, but it’s worth not
paying for your books,” Singh said.
Students aren’t the only ones moving away from traditional
textbook use.
Professors such as Alex Hall do not require students to purchase
textbooks. Instead, Hall, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic
science, posts lecture slides on the Internet that contain all the
course material to save students money.
To buy an atmospheric science book suitable for Hall’s
class, students would have to shell out about $80. Hall said that
because education fees are constantly increasing, he is trying to
help students save money by not requiring students to purchase a
textbook.
But most professors still require their students to purchase
textbooks, so students are turning to outside sources to save
money.
At Textbook Plus in Westwood Village, students can buy books at
a slightly lower price and sell for more money.
“The books are cheaper. I try to go online to buy books,
but sometimes it’s just more convenient to come here,”
said Christina Granados, a fourth-year English student. “I
went once to the school bookstore and the bill was horrendous, so I
go online or come here.”
Web sites are becoming an increasingly popular place for
students to buy and sell textbooks without ever setting foot in a
bookstore.
Students can use bruinwalk.com to buy and sell from fellow UCLA
students. Information about books for sale is posted on the site,
along with the seller’s contact information. The seller and
buyer can communicate through the Web site to coordinate where they
will meet to complete the transaction.
“I’ve sold a lot through Bruinwalk. You just meet
the person, they give you the money and you walk away with
cash,” said second-year sociology student Marissa Lashbrook.
“It’s convenient because you don’t really have to
wait for your textbook to come, and it’s way cheaper than
other places.”
While bruinwalk.com is exclusive to UCLA students, other sites
such as amazon.com, ebay.com and half.com are commonly used among
students as well. Students usually receive their books via mail
within three to 14 days of their purchase. These Web sites also
allow buyers and sellers to communicate with each other.
Helen Nguyen, a second-year undeclared student, said she has
bought many of her textbooks from eBay. With eBay, the highest
bidder wins the textbook.
“I get my books for cheaper through eBay,” Nguyen
said. “You just have to watch the bids, especially in the
last 10 minutes, to make sure you’re the highest
bidder.”
While online textbook shopping is often reliable, some students
have encountered difficulty.
“It is reliable most of the time, but sometimes it can be
deceiving,” said second-year business economics student
Jessica Ngo.
“Once, I thought I was buying a textbook ““ the
picture looked exactly like the textbook ““ but I ended up
buying a study guide instead,” she said. “Shipping is
(also) sometimes an issue because it can take up to 14 days, so you
don’t know when it’ll come.”
Even with these setbacks, Ngo buys and has recently started to
sell books on the site.
“I use Amazon to sell back. You make easy money that way
and it’s easy to contact the buyer if you have an
issue,” said Ngo. “The buyback at the bookstore is a
rip-off, but with this, I get back almost what I initially paid
for.”
ASUCLA is offering its own alternative method to students by
allowing them to purchase books that can be read from a computer
instead of a hard copy.
Students can purchase “eBooks” online through the
ASUCLA store by going to “Digital Textbooks” on the
bookstore section of the UCLA store Web site, uclaestore.com.
The textbooks can be downloaded on to a computer and are
available for a lower price. For example, the Management 1B
textbook, which costs $150, is available for $90 as a digital
textbook.
ASUCLA is also trying to combat the problem of high textbook
prices by allocating money to reduce textbook prices and
introducing a new textbook bonus program.
The bonus program, which starts this quarter, gives students a
$5 gift certificate for every $100 they spend at the bookstore. The
gift certificate is redeemable at the bookstore the next
quarter.
“I think it’s a great way to get students invested
in buying their books from ASUCLA,” said Gregory Cendana, the
Undergraduate Students Association Council internal vice
president.
Also, ASUCLA has allocated $250,000 for this school year to
lower the prices of textbooks.
“We’ve made real progress. Our prices are now a lot
more competitive in the market than they used to be,” said
Andy Green, vice chair of the ASUCLA board of directors.
Anil Sharma, a second-year biology student, said he finds buying
books from the ASUCLA bookstore to be best because other methods
are often stressful and inconvenient for him.
“I’m worried that I might get the wrong edition or
the wrong book or it might not come in time, whereas if I buy it at
the bookstore, I’m guaranteed I’ll get the book I need
and I can sleep soundly at night,” Sharma said.
Sharma also uses the ASUCLA buyback program to resell his books.
He gets between 10 percent and 50 percent of the original price,
depending on whether that book is going to be used in the following
quarter.
“Even though I know I’m getting ripped off,
it’s just more convenient to give it to the buyback
people,” he said.