so I'm starting grad school....

[sleepybadger]

Technically this is like grad school light - all you really have to prove to get in is that you have your bachelor's degree. I'm going to a school that has a masters certificate option. This means I can take 4 classes in my chosen area and get a certificate, and then if I decide I want to go ahead and get my master's degree, I have to do the full application with letters of recommendation and the test results and all that jazz. I'm going into Business Analytics. I'm currently a project manager, and I'm more interested in the data and business analyst side of things so I'm working to get more education in that direction. I'm nervous and dreading group work. But right now I have to decide what I'm going to do about books.

I got my Bachelor's degree in 1996 so things have changed a lot since then. Back in the day, you'd go to your local bookstore, sigh in crushing defeat as you ended up spending $650 on books for the semester, and at the end of the year, if they were actually buying back the books you used, you might get $30 if you were really lucky. Now I have options. I need a book called Modern Database Management. My options are: 1. buy the physical book (used) (~$160 - 180) 2. buy the electronic/kindle version of the book (~$150) 3. rent the physical book (~$90) or 4. rent the electronic/kindle version of the book (~$100). While I've taken some courses as an adult, most either had fairly cheap books or used handouts that we got in class. This is the first time I've had the option to go electronic. I don't highlight in my books (typically I'll take notes, but I don't find highlighting useful) so that side of it doesn't really matter to me.

I didn't think I would ever enjoy reading books on an electronic device, but I actually read on my kindle a lot now and really like it. I download library books all the time and it's so wonderful.

Speaking of libraries, the physical book is available through my local library system, but loans are only good for three weeks, and you can renew it once for an additional 3 weeks. It's not at my physical library, so theoretically, if no one else put a hold on it, I could keep it out for 6 weeks, return it, and try to borrow it again before the next class meeting (this would work best if we had a holiday in the middle, but I don't know of any Wednesday holidays coming between now and June ;)). However, worst case scenario is that someone else puts a hold on it and I have to return it in 3 weeks (and then scramble to buy/rent/etc).

Any thoughts? Tips? Suggestions? Ideas? Something I haven't thought of? My sister is in school and she typically buys the physical book and then resells it on Amazon for a bit less than whatever the going price is. One semester she actually made money on a book. I'm not sure I'm ambitious enough to do that though.

Comments

[yesididit2.livejournal.com]

i would be unwilling to risk only having the book for 3 weeks. thats just too much of a gamble to me.

my worry with a textbook on kindle is that its not easy to flip thru the book. its not easy to jump from this section to another section, and back again. and if the teacher says go to page xxx, pages arent numbered like that in kindle... so how do you find it?

i've never heard of renting books, but its been years since i was in college. where do you rent books from?

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

yeah, the book from the library would be free, which would be awesome, but there's all that uncertainty. Plus if things went bad, I'd have to buy or rent one anyway.

My kindle has a couple different page options and one of them is matched up with the actual page numbers so I could probably do that, but it wouldn't be as fast. I think you can also do a search, so that possibility would be nice (if it works).

Apparently I could rent my books from the school bookstore or from Amazon. The Amazon one said it will even send you what you need to ship it back when the rental is over.

[yesididit2.livejournal.com]

the renting option sounds promising, especially if you're not one to mark up the book. i always marked up my books with highlighting. thats really neat that they do that.

i dont think my kindle has that option, but its just the cheapest base model. it has different displays at the bottom for how far you are thru the book, but it doesnt tell you what the *actual* page numbers from the real book are. granted all i've read on my kindle are fiction novels. perhaps they make that a part of the display with textbooks. it would be neat if you could see how it would work on the kindle before you committed to it. i wonder if amazon gives any examples.

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

I don't really know why the kindle default is that odd way of displaying where you are in the book. Maybe it's because the pages get screwy when you change it from portrait to landscape?

[yesididit2.livejournal.com]

i think some of it is for font size. some people choose a larger font size to read in than the book page would have been printed in. and even going just one font size up skews all the pages.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Maybe she could do it for you?

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that might be a possibility. She's a bit testy when she's in school so I wasn't sure if I should ask her or not ;)

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Maybe after you are both out for the semester?

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

i'm on a quarter system and she's on a semester system but at some point we'll both be off (or, really, she will be, which is the more important thing). I should see her on Friday so maybe I'll ask her then

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

sounds like a plan and I forgot to say, go, you! Congrats on going back! I went back after twenty years and was a much better student the second time around.

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

It surely makes a huge difference when you're going when you really want to go and learn versus when you're still trying to figure out what you want to do. At least that's how it was for me. My parents insisted I go to college right out of high school, and I had no clue what I wanted to do, what I wanted to major in, etc. I changed majors several times (and schools once) and ended up with a degree in English. I took some other classes for fun years later and did so much better because I was really *interested* in learning and not just trying to slog through to get a degree.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

That was me as well, although my college had a general studies degree for those of us how couldn't make up their minds. The second time around, I was much more focused.. Plus there's something to be said for being the same age or older than your professors.

[meathiel]

I think I'd buy it from Amazon and sell it there again. I've never done that but maybe your sister can help?

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

and this is my first of 4 (maybe more if I decide to move ahead with a masters degree) so if I find this is not as hard as I'm making it out to be, I can keep doing that as I move forward with my classes :)