Textbook costs for 1st Year University

Mc_ers

Hello all,
I will be starting college in September, hopefully, and I am just wondering what would be an estimate of the cost of textbooks for the first year? I know it is going to depend on the course and the lecturer but I would be grateful of an "average cost" just to have a figure that I can add to my budget. I am looking at courses such as Economics & Maths, BESS, International Finance if that helps at all.

PunkFreud

What college do you plan to go to?

I'm in UL doing Economics and Maths. I've only bought one book in the last 2 years (which I had to buy in order to get some og the grades). From my experience, buying books aren't neccessary (no matter what the lecturers say). All the books are in the library, and lots of books can be got free online,

NTMK

Most college text books end up being 50-80 from my experience also unless the lecturer requires you to get the book and i mean he uses it every day dont waste your money

Annasopra

It can also work out cheaper photocopying an entire book or buying them 2nd hand

Four Leaf Clover

as soon as the college is opened (ie, the bookshop & library) go in and speak to the staff, tell them your course and they will most likely know the books that u need to buy early and the ones u dont need to buy at all.

I'm starting in GMIT this year and i plan to go in at some point in august to find out what i'll need to buy and what i wont. I'm doing a course in hospitality and need to buy a set of knives and stuff too so i'll hopefully be able to buy them off people who have just finished the course and dont need them anymore. u can save a fortune... and haggle for second hand stuff if u can!!

MissRealist

It's very very dependent on your course... I'm studying Pharmacology and have bought a four of five books... I use three of them on a regular basis and one of the other ones was a requirement for assessment in first year. You can easily not buy any OP. I know people in my course who haven't, but you have to ask yourself will you really take them out of the library? The UCD library only have three copies of our core textbook for example and over one hundred of us doing the course without even thinking about the years above us and below us.

I've found they honestly do lift your grades, particularly in CA because you can often have the book in front of you but in the end it is a matter of choice

hdowney

Four Leaf Clover wrote: »

as soon as the college is opened (ie, the bookshop & library) go in and speak to the staff, tell them your course and they will most likely know the books that u need to buy early and the ones u dont need to buy at all.

I'm starting in GMIT this year and i plan to go in at some point in august to find out what i'll need to buy and what i wont. I'm doing a course in hospitality and need to buy a set of knives and stuff too so i'll hopefully be able to buy them off people who have just finished the course and dont need them anymore. u can save a fortune... and haggle for second hand stuff if u can!!

when did you get your acceptance? which particular hospitality course are you going to be doing may i ask? with respect to second hand stuff i would say you would probably get the books easy enough but not the knives. i would say most of the students will continue using their knives in whichever job they progress too so there wouldn't be much second hand ones available. i think i would wanna buy my knives new anyway, they would be completely fresh and what not you know?

Four Leaf Clover

hdowney wrote: »

when did you get your acceptance? which particular hospitality course are you going to be doing may i ask? with respect to second hand stuff i would say you would probably get the books easy enough but not the knives. i would say most of the students will continue using their knives in whichever job they progress too so there wouldn't be much second hand ones available. i think i would wanna buy my knives new anyway, they would be completely fresh and what not you know?

i haven't got a letter of acceptance yet, and i wont til after the leaving cert results in august. i'm doing tourism & catering management (lvl7) in GMIT .

a good friend did this particular course as well and never needed the books for most of her classes, although some lecturers did ask for them, most didnt. i will use her knives for the course, as i dont think she'll need them for the most part now. although it would be nice to get my own set, they can be very pricey, and i'm not in a position to throw money away needlessly ATM

hdowney

Four Leaf Clover wrote: »

i haven't got a letter of acceptance yet, and i wont til after the leaving cert results in august. i'm doing tourism & catering management (lvl7) in GMIT .

a good friend did this particular course as well and never needed the books for most of her classes, although some lecturers did ask for them, most didnt. i will use her knives for the course, as i dont think she'll need them for the most part now. although it would be nice to get my own set, they can be very pricey, and i'm not in a position to throw money away needlessly ATM

oh believe me i understand you re the cash thing! i thought from the way you had been talking you got an acceptance from them already. good luck though. i applied as a mature student for culinary arts. had an interview a while back and they told me they were not going to write to anyone. the first you would hear is the round a cao offers which is either 6th/7th july (must ring in the morn to check!)