My textbooks could have cost $350 this semester, and I would have been stuck with them for the rest of time unless I chose to resell them for a cost lower than when I purchased them. But, all six of my books have been rented for a total of $150.
How did this money magic happen? My secret is a website called Chegg. I discovered this semester Chegg is a secret I have kept to myself for too long. I assumed we were all using Chegg and found no reason to bring it up in conversation, because who wants to talk about the plain process of purchasing textbooks?
Even though it seems mundane, the cost of textbooks is something worth talking about. The price of textbooks increases by an average of 6% each year and doubles every 11 years, which means textbook prices are rising roughly 3 times the rate of inflation.
According to the Education Data Initiative,
- The average undergraduate student pays between $339-$600 for books and supplies in one academic year.
- 25% of students reported they worked extra hours to pay for their books and materials
- 11% skipped meals in order to afford books and course materials. 66% of college students skipped buying or renting course materials such as textbooks at some point in their career because they were too expensive.
This semester, I was struck by the vast difference in price and product quality I found on Chegg in contrast to what was available in our campus bookstore. I began asking friends if they too knew my secret, but they did not.
To remedy my silence and save you a few hundred dollars, here are the reasons Chegg is far better than Slingshot.
Every text you need can be found for a lower amount on Chegg by a simple search for the ISBN number. Chegg offers paper copy and digital options on most of their books. If you choose a paper copy, feel free to highlight! For the semester, it is your book.
Say you decide you do not like the book or you drop the class. You simply put the book back into the box provided by Chegg when they shipped it to you. You take the box back to your local UPS store and you are done.
Emphasis on Chegg shipping the books to you because having an orange box delivered right to your door will save you from wasting time at the campus bookstore.
Chegg also puts little gifts from their sponsors in each package they ship. Coupons from HelloFresh offer you food, sports drink samples can fuel your study efforts and there is usually a beauty product for some self-care too.
What are you waiting for? Log into your campus bookstore account right now and turn off the automatic purchase feature under your dashboard preferences! When you’re done, you’ll have cash back in your pocket you can use to buy yourself lunch, a gourmet coffee, pay the student loans you already have and fix your car.
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