Wednesday 9 January 2013

Adventures In Academia & Campusbookrentals.com Spotlight

When I was in university, I spent a two hour lab watching The Simpsons. When my Dad found out, he wasn’t too happy and said something along the lines of; “Why am I paying for you to watch The Simpsons? You can do that at my house, for free.”  It was for a Pop Culture class, which was mandatory for my degree. 

I was a Communication-Media & Culture major. Which means, watching reality TV (Television Studies), listening to music (Music & Politics), reading trashy romance novels (Intro to Pop Culture) and going to the movies (Popular Cinema) were all considered “research” and encouraged by our professors. 

Something else encouraged by my professors? Buy textbooks. 

My first day of Communication Theory (yes, Dad, I did take ‘serious’ classes too), the professor asked how many people had bought the textbook. Not one person raised their hand. During our first seminar, our TA told us that the prof was freaking out a bit because no one had bought their textbooks. 

Going to buy textbooks was not a highlight of my academic experience. 

I would wait in line for at least an hour only to be admitted into the cramped bookstore. I would elbow my way downstairs to pick up some textbooks and elbow my way back upstairs to get the rest. I would be carting around a small mountain of books with me, trying not to drop any, finally making it to the checkout line. I’d stand there for what seemed like forever, before being called up to the cashier. I would dig through my bag to find my student card before being told the final total of my purchase… My heart would break and I fought back tears as I parted with my hard earned money. My ordeal ended with lugging my textbooks, and praying my arms wouldn’t fall off in the process, across campus and home.  Does any of that sound remotely fun? Not. At. All.

Do you know what else wasn’t fun? How much I spent on textbooks, which was at least $1,000 a semester. 

If I knew about Campusbookrentals.com when I was in university, you could bet a $1,000 (or a semesters worth of books) that this is a company I would’ve used!  

Since 2007, students on over 5,000 campus’ have used CampusBook Rentals. Why wouldn’t they? The perks are endless! Some perks of renting your textbooks include:
  • The convenience of buying textbooks from the comfort of your own home/dorm room (no lines!!!)
  • Saving 40-90% off of bookstore prices (that’s money you can put towards Spring Break!)
  • You can highlight in the textbooks
  • Flexible renting periods
  • Free shipping both ways

One of the textbooks I used as a student was Communication Research Methods, which can be found on Campus Book Rentals here. I could pay almost $100 (my campus bookstore retails it for $98.25) or rent it for $26.77! That’s a HUGE savings!

On top of all this, getting your books from CampusBook Rentals, is actually a good deed. They’ve partnered with Operation Smile, which performs life saving cleft lip surgeries to children in need. For every book rented, they make a donation to Operation Smile. They are donating over 1,000 surgeries this year- or one surgery for every dollar I spent on a textbook, per semester.



DISCLAIMER: I was compensated to write this post, as is it being sponsored by Campusbookrentals.com. Content and opinions expressed here are my own.


3 comments:

  1. Ugh I remember that whole process and I remember how much fun it was NOT. Definitely the low point of each semester.

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  2. Hi there - new follower form the blog hop. Love your blog & can't wait to read more! Hope you have a great day :)
    Rachel
    http://sugar-stripes.blogspot.com/

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  3. Renting text books is definitely the way to go! Too bad I didn't figure this out until halfway through school :)


    Lacey @ And They Call Me Mommy

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