March 13, 2013

College, Textbooks, & Money

As a recent college graduate, I know all the expenses that come with college classes. Specifically? Textbooks! When you start college, no one really tells you how expensive they are! Especially in nursing. Textbooks can cost upwards of $100 if you buy them from the college book store. It's ridiculous. Especially because you will probably never use them once you graduate!

And even if you try and sell them back to the book store at the end of the semester, chances are, if anything, you will only receive around $20 for a book you paid $120 for.

Well, forget all that trouble! Have you heard of CampusBookRentals.com?

This site rents textbooks to students for 40-90% less than average book store prices. They ship you the book & you use it for as long as you need thanks to flexible renting periods. When you are done, you just ship the book back to them (and they pay for the shipping!).


During your time using the book, you can highlight in it too! I'm a visual learner, so being able to do that is a life-saver! They also donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented.

Operation Smile is a life-saving organization that performs cleft lip surgeries on children whose families could not otherwise afford it. The improvement in quality of life of the children after these surgeries is extraordinary. Having personally known two children with cleft lip and palette and being a nurse myself, I can attest to the benefits these surgeries have on children.

CampusBookRentals.com also has set aside $90,000 in textbook scholarships to be distributed to students throughout the country.

What more could you want from a textbook renting company?!

Oh yeah, a new initiative called RentBack.com!

RentBack allows students to rent their textbooks to other students. Each time the book is rented, the owner of the book earns money! Altogether, it makes them 2-4x more than selling it back to the book store would!

My sister rented her Psychology textbook from last semester on RentBack and it has already been rented once & made her $22!

If you're concerned about how much you would make each time your book is rented, you can go to the RentBack website & type your book's author, name, or ISBN number into a search bar and see an estimate of how much you would be making. They'll even be honest and tell you if you probably wouldn't make any money off it!


I wish I had known about these programs while I was still in school! I could have been making some big bucks!


4 comments:

  1. I am actually getting ready to order(rent) my books for my upcoming classes through them. Thanks for the reminder :)

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  2. Hi!

    I found your blog through postcards and it's super cute-I'm excited to follow! :) Lets be blogger friends! I'm over at lbinwonderland.blogspot.com

    Slash I love all of these textbook ideas!! Thanks for sharing!

    LB

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  3. hey there. I'm Laney and a Newbie here. Found you thru Postcards From Rachel, and I'm glad I did. cant wait to read more of your blog. Hope you can come and follow me back! http://owltellyoulikeitislikeitornot.blogspot.com/

    fb: http://www.facebook.com/LaneysNightOwlVenting

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  4. I wish this had been around when I was in school!

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