By Danielle Donovan ’18
Staff Writer
With the semester close to an end means another one is beginning in just a few short months. As many college students know, buying textbooks is an expensive ritual. Students spend an average of $1,200 on textbooks for various general education classes or ones that are specific to their majors.
Nowadays, there are many options of how and where to buy textbooks. The bookstore at Merrimack College offers a list of books that each course requires. Students who opt to buy or rent books from the bookstore can visit https://merrimack.textbooktech.com/ and enter their course code which prompts a list of class requirements or recommendations. There’s only one catch though, and that is that the books offered from the bookstore always seem to be dauntingly more expensive than other online companies.
Although buying your textbook at the bookstore ensures that you will receive the correct volume or edition of a book, plenty of students have resorted to buying their textbooks online for less.
Amazon.com and Chegg.com are the most popular websites that students use to buy their books and has proved to be more convenient, too. “I use a website called Coursesmart.com to find my textbooks, said junior Kelly Hartlige. “It gives you a number of places that have the book in stock and gives you each price so you can buy the cheapest option.”
While some unique textbooks are only sold at the bookstore, the choice is up for grabs. For those renting from the bookstore this semester, do not forget to return textbooks by May 15.