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5 Tips for Saving on College Textbooks

August 3rd, 2010 by Howard Brady | 4 Comments | Filed in Personal Advice

By Howard Brady

More than eating dinner at the dorm cafeteria, more than trying to hoof it 5 miles across campus in the 10 minutes between classes, and more than showing up to find out your roommate is a goth who only speaks in tongues, buying textbooks is the bane of every college student’s existence.

Rip Off

You know it’s a rip off, you’re sure you’ll only use those incredibly-expensive (not to mention heavy) books for one semester, and there’s no guarantee that the profs will even require you to open them. But head to the money-grubbing campus bookstore you will, because you’re more than likely going to be assigned homework and reading the first night. (And everyone knows the chances increase exponentially if you don’t buy the book.)

While the sad reality is that nothing can make the it fun to scan the aisles for the 50-pounder you need, wait in line for hours and fork over more money than you’ve ever seen, there are things you can do to make the whole process cheaper (i.e., less painful). Here’s how.

1. Beg, borrow or steal Why buy a brand new book when you can rent one or get a perfectly good used one (hopefully with entertaining little jokes and doodles in it)? Sites like TextbookRentals.com and Chegg help you get the best deal on every book, and you can even find Chegg coupons and other discounts to make sure you don’t pay out the nose for something you’ll only get through half of.

2. Auction them off Lord knows you don’t need old books hanging out collecting dust on your shelf, and you’re definitely not going to read them again. (Did you even read them the first time?) Practice your urban graffiti and draft love notes to the hottie on row 3 in a notepad instead of in the margins so you can resell your textbooks once class is over. (Hint: Higher-quality books go for more, so try not to drop them in the turtle pond this time.)

3. Take your business elsewhere No matter whether you’re buying new or used, smart students who want to save their cash for more recreational activities broaden the search by shopping for books online. Lots of campus and local stores have the market cornered, which means they can basically charge whatever they want for books because you’re too lazy to do your research. But spending a few minutes using sites like Textbooks.com to look for the lowest price on those study materials can pay off when it’s time to see how much of your financial aid is left for partying.

4. Phone a friend One of the best strategies is to find a friend who’s taking the class you just finished (or someone who’s finishing a class you’re about to start). This kind of symbiotic relationship (you’ll pick that term up in Bio 101) can give you a guaranteed buyer or seller every semester, especially if you plan your schedules together and just swap materials every time a new class starts.

5. Go digital or go home In the modern age of iPads, Kindles and phones have higher IQs than humans, there’s no reason to support deforestation and injure your back dragging around huge piles of bound paper and ink. The time has come for etextbooks, and lots of schools are considering making the switch. Being an early adopter could pay off; these digital editions are sometimes cheaper than the real thing, and you’ll get the exact same content for a fraction of the price.

Save Money

You can’t beat getting something for nothing — or at least getting it for less than everyone else did. Save on books every semester and use that money for more important things (like pizza and video games) with these no-brainer tips.

Author Information

Howard Brady is a representative for Offers.com, the place to go for the best offers online. Check the site for most recent Chegg coupons and other discounts and save!

Photo Credit: billue_the_bear via Creative Commons

Adv. — Check out Peter Buffet’s newest book, Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path To Fulfillment, especially if you are interested in pursuing your own passion and accomplishments for life.



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History of Online Education

June 18th, 2010 by Ann Smarty | 3 Comments | Filed in Online Education

By Ann Smarty

Online education has created possibilities that previous generations couldn’t even fathom.

Literally, students can earn their entire degree at home, by working when it’s convenient for them, while wearing their pajamas. This amazing innovation has allowed for greater access to universities and targeted specializations that may not be locally available. It has also been especially beneficial for working adults or stay at home parents who are eager to earn a degree.

So, how did online education programs get started? Here is a brief history of online education.

The history of online education extends back further than you may think, with the very first virtual classroom environments being created in the 1960s. University of Illinois scientists created a classroom system based in linked computer terminals. There, students were able to access informational resources while listening to a professor whose lectures were brought in remotely, via some form of television or audio device.

Certainly not a form of “online learning” that stands up to the web learning of today, but it was the beginning of enhanced distance learning and the utilization of computer resources for educational purposes.

Universities quickly began to take advantage of these new resources by offering distance learning courses, using computer networking for information and resource sharing, and more. By the mid 1980s, college resources frequently included online access to course information and student networking tools.

Online only courses began emerging in the late 1980s, with some moderate success. The concept was further popularized as major corporations began using similar utilities to trim their training budgets. While businesses began with software training programs, the largest corporations started utilizing online tools to minimize software distribution costs.

Another phenomenon that contributed to online learning was the correspondence school. The original correspondence schools worked in a very straightforward way: You registered by mail, received materials by mail, then mailed the course work back for grading upon completion.

As the digital age swept across the nation, the correspondence school became more grounded in the virtual world, and the first online correspondence school, the University of Phoenix, made its way onto the scene in 1989. It was not a fully accredited institution at that time, however, and it wasn’t until 1993 that the first accredited university, the Jones International University, really opened the floodgates.

It was at this same time that a new innovation in the online world made more universities of this kind possible: the Mosaic web interface. This was the first graphic interface that reached out to more common users, allowing for unprecedented access and support. Since that time, hundreds of standard universities have started offering a variety of online courses.

Many institutions, as well as a number of digital correspondence schools, offer full degrees online. As the web continued to open doors, these universities expanded their degree selection. These days, it’s literally possible to graduate with the degree of your choice without ever having to set foot in a classroom.


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Diaspora Fully Funded & Then Some

June 14th, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 3 Comments | Filed in Fun News, Social Networking

6500 contributors fund budding project

Last month, we shared news about Diaspora, the under development Facebook alternative platform. As the budding innovation of four New York University students, Team Diaspora had sought $10,000 in private funding to help launch the program this September.

They beat that goal handily, raising $200,641.84 instead.

Thanks to the Kickstarter fundraising tool and their story appearing in The New York Times, Mashable, BBC and elsewhere, Dan Grippi, Max Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer, and Ilya Zhitomirsky are doing their work this summer without financial worry. And that’s good news for people wanting an alternative to the Facebook juggernaut with its near 500 million users.

Facebook Follies

Perhaps the sole reason for Diaspora is anger toward Facebook, which has done everything over the past many months to cause worry for people who value their privacy and want full control over their contributions to the site. Security breaches, a lack of opt-in features when certain sharing tools have been added or changed, and the aloofness of Facebook management in response to user angst has worried some.

Diaspora promises to deliver a different package for users, with each participant possessing their own seed containing videos, photos and articles. That seed will be shared via Diaspora, with users having full control over who sees their information and how it is shared. At any time, Diaspora users will be able to remove their seed with no traces of it left behind. With Facebook, your information (or at least part of it) stays behind permanently.

Project Diaspora

So, where is the project at this moment? It appears to be coming along nicely. On the Diaspora site the team shares, “We already have a rudimentary prototype of Diaspora running on our machines, and are working like mad to make it all we can be. Our current implementations include GPG encryption, scraping Twitter and Flickr, awesome design aesthetics, and the initial stages of connection infrastructure (“friending” other Diaspora instances).”

By September we’ll have access to the first version of Diaspora with an easier to set up very public version emerging soon thereafter.

Zuckerberg Contributes

And what does Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg think about Diaspora? According to a May 28, 2010, report in Wired, he made a personal donation to the Diaspora project, though that amount was not made known. Don’t forget: Zuckerberg wants to change the world, so perhaps he realizes that Facebook won’t be doing that alone. Besides, he thinks Diaspora is a cool idea. Go figure.

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Facebook Survey Reveals Teens Give Parents Profile Access

June 3rd, 2010 by Matthew C. Keegan | 3 Comments | Filed in Fun News, Social Networking

Do you know what your children are viewing?

Techie Teens

Teen use of the Internet has many parents concerned and rightly so. Lots of young people are wired and globally connected, raised in an environment that demands technological prowess and the thinking that goes with it.

FacebookThere is some good news parents should know when it comes to Internet usage and teen activity online. According to a new Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions survey of high school students, teens who say that their parents are on Facebook are much more likely to give their parents full profile access–status updates, party photos and all–than no access at all. 56 percent of teens give their parents full access while 34 percent do not, with the remaining 10 percent falling somewhere in between.

Not Involved

Before you sigh in relief, there was one important point noted in the survey: 58 percent of the teens surveyed said that their parents weren’t on Facebook at all. Yes, kids are going online and interacting with strangers, people you may not want them to be in contact with.

“In a Facebook era, the online arena serves as a new channel for parents to keep tabs on what and how their kids are doing, and it’s notable that a sizable percentage of today’s teens seem comfortable with that dynamic,” said Justin Serrano, Senior Vice President, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.  “But for the most part, the parent-teen online relationship is still relatively uncharted territory.  What we’re seeing is that parents are increasingly expressing interest in being able to monitor their kids’ progress online, and teens are adjusting to this in different ways.”

Parental Oversight

Parents should know that they have every right to know what their children are up to whether they are given “permission” to view their stuff or not. The survey doesn’t say that children are making these decisions to share on their own or are being told to do so by their parents.  In any case, it is your computer and your Internet connection as well as your home. Enough said.

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