Correction: The original version of this article contained a few errors. Flat World Knowledge makes all of their textbooks, including Fallows’ book, available for students to read online for free. Also, Whitney Glockner Black is the director of corporate communications at BookRenter.
The rising cost of attending UCLA makes saving money on textbooks a critical skill as well as an art form.
Stephanie Grover, a second-year physiological science student, has become well-versed in the trade.
Her most reliable sources are upperclassmen, she said. She asks them to help her decide whether she needs to buy the textbook.
If Grover does choose to get a textbook, she said she rarely buys it new.
“I do a lot of borrowing and trading books,” Grover said. Once she bought a boba drink for a friend and was given a textbook to borrow in return.
UCLA Writing Programs lecturer Randy Fallows picked up on efforts like Grover’s to save money on textbooks. After publishing his new book, “Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis,” Fallows’ publisher, Flat World Knowledge, made it available for free online.
The book will be used for multiple UCLA writing courses in the fall. Fallows said providing the book for free will save students anywhere between $30 and $50 a quarter.
Grover said that by avoiding the ASUCLA store when she could, she was able to spend only $200 on textbooks one quarter, effectively saving $800. Some of the best deals were found on online shopping sites, she said.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council is also trying to help students save by expanding a loan library, where students can borrow textbooks for free for a quarter, said Raquel Saxe, academic affairs commissioner. The loan library runs out of the USAC Financial Supports Commission office.
Second-year anthropology student Katie Rodman buys textbooks with the same mindset as Grover.
“I go for the cheapest option first, like sharing, then work my way up,” Rodman said.” But I always make sure to have a copy available.”
Although Rodman will almost always buy the textbooks because she believes them to be an important resource to fall back on, once the class ends, she is less than impressed with textbook buyback at the ASUCLA store.
“I walked away with $12 at the end of spring quarter for books I paid around $200 for,” Rodman said. “It doesn’t make me feel better about all the money I’m spending.”
In fact, Rodman, who is paying out-of-state tuition until winter quarter, said she has decided to take fall quarter off from UCLA to avoid unnecessary expenses until she qualifies for in-state tuition.
Textbooks are a frustrating expense to add on top of tuition, she added.
Students looking for free options can also visit the UCLA Library, which makes an effort to have copies available for limited checkout. However, the library does not have multiple copies of every textbook students may use.
Another option is renting. BookRenter, available through the ASUCLA website, allows students to rent books for a discounted price and return them at the end of the quarter. Many students will never use a textbook again after they finish a class, said Whitney Glockner Black, director of corporate communications at BookRenter.
“When you buy a textbook, you have the burden of figuring out what to do with it (afterward),” she said.