Tips for students to save on text book expense in the US

Studying in college has its own problems. College education is expensive and it has some traditions that are outdated too. Also, colleges produces graduates who find it difficult to find a suitable job due to the changing economy.

It is a common talk in today's technological world, that college education is subject to disruption. We can confidently say this as most of the students are either choosing to be entrepreneurs or are opting for MOOCs instead of regular college.

However, traditional colleges are still considered to be the hero of education and most students are taking better advantage from college education instead of the education of the future.

Student's life on - Cutting book costs, choosier shopping and digital rentals

With respect to the education market, textbooks have a ripe target. According to reports, in the USA, there has been about 82% increase in the prices of text books from 2002 to 2012. An average student is said to spend about $600 on text books and other study materials over a year. But a smart shopping can probably cut book costs significantly.

• Most of the colleges post the lists of required materials online before students arrive on campus. This helps for cost comparisons on online stores.

• Certain online stores sell books at a considerably lower costs than that of the book stores on the campus.

• Some schools encourage students to buy books in the campus book stores and some vouchers from the financial aids are valid only at the campus stores. But students can choose other options when available and also make full use of the library.

• Some online sites offer tools for pre-comparison of prices to find better deals on specific textbooks. Also, there are options to rent text books instead of buying them. Universities like Berkeley offer text book rentals.

• Online sites like Amazon.com offer rentals but shipment is restricted to certain states. Also sites like Packbackbooks.com offer on-demand digital book rentals for a day, assuming that students don't always need textbooks. Other companies are hoping to set both books and teaching with a sort of open source approach towards teaching materials.

Students can also expect services beyond text books to help them be become smart college consumers. Another option is that sites like Chegg.com is evolving from a textbook search rental site into full-fledged resource for digitally savvy students. Also, students can now opt for online tutoring services which are available at low costs.