The Annual Scramble for Textbook Deals: Tips on how to get the best prices

There's a vast realm of information available to college students regarding the best way to save money on textbooks. While some of this information is useful, a lot of it is downright misleading, and can actually cause students to spend more money! It's important to sift through all the information thrown your way, and make educated decisions on how you want to get your textbooks.

  • Don't automatically go for the newest option. Every year, companies cash in on back-to-school season and introduce some "new, groundbreaking" system for saving money on textbooks. While these new ways of saving money may receive a lot of press, that doesn't mean that they're the best thing, they're just the most recent addition to the market. It's always more beneficial to research all of your options, rather than hopping on the bandwagon.
  • Ask your professor if you can buy an older edition of your textbook. If they say okay, go for it! Older editions are always less expensive, and generally aren't much different.
  • Compare prices, if you do decide to buy a book. Websites like CampusBooks.com compare prices to buy, sell, and rent, finding the best deal for you, whether that's an e-book, used, new or rental textbook.
  • Don't discount e-books. Although the new textbook rental service for Kindle is really limited, you should still search it for your book, because if it is there, it will be a good deal.

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Where to Find Back to School Deals

It's practically time to go back to school, which means students everywhere are loading up on back-to-school supplies. While this is always a big money drain, there are a ton of deals and bargains that will help you save every penny possible.

Books:

  • Barnes and Noble is currently offering books at discounted prices on their website, in their back-to-school bargain section.
  • CampusBooks.com offers wonderful textbook price comparisons for buying, selling, and renting, so that you get the best deal possible.
  • Amazon.com has a new textbook rental service for Kindle, and if you can find your book, odds are, it'll be a super cheap deal.

Dorm Supplies:

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Start Freshman Year Right: How to Have a Great First Semester in College

As an incoming freshman, college can seem foreboding, huge, and scary. It can also seem like a fresh start and a new meaning of the word "freedom." When most freshman actually get to school, they realize that college isn't scary, and they're totally equipped to handle the volume of people there, and for the most part, it's really fun! However, there are still roadblocks once you get to school, which is why we've comprised this list of tips to get you through the sticky social challenges of your first year.

1. Roommates

Whether you love your roommate or hate them, you will, at some point, undoubtedly get into an argument with them. Granted, it probably won't happen until you've been at school for a couple of months and you're finally comfortable with each other, but comfort hanging out turns into comfort with confrontations, too. Even if you're moving in with your best friend, it's hard to live with somebody. You're constantly around them, and sometimes people just need alone time. Luckily, there are tons of ways to combat occasional annoyances with your roommate!

  • Study in the library instead of your room.
  • Put some sort of pretty fabric in a canopy around your bed to create the façade of alone time, even when they're in the room.
  • Talk things out calmly, and hear them out if you're fighting. If it gets bad, turn to your Resident Advisor (RA) to mediate. They're often trained to do so!
  • Try to be respectful of their space.
  • Even if you're in the same group of friends, make friends with lots of people so you're not always together outside of the room, too.

2. Class work

College is fun, but you need to keep in mind the fact that you're not there to party. As much fun as it is to arrive and be swept up in the constant whirlwind of "extracurricular activities," if you flunk your classes you'll have a lot more to worry about than missing out on a night of fun to study. Find the right balance of school and fun by forcing yourself to stay in until you've finished everything that you need to do for school. Don't miss class, either. It's a myth that professors don't care and that you don't need to go to class. Every class contains important material that you will need for your final, even if you don't need it for the paper due in three days.

3. Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen.

The freshman fifteen is not a myth, unfortunately. Combine late nights of studying, unlimited food in the dorms, restaurants around town that are willing to deliver food for almost no money, and (possibly) less exercise, and you get some weight gain. You may not gain 15 pounds, but in my experience, almost everyone I knew gained weight in their first year of college. Here are a few ways to maintain your weight:

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Ready for Fall? 5 Decorating Tips to Spice Up Your Dorm Room

One of the best and worst things about going to college is the dorms. On one hand, you have acquired an entirely new sense of freedom, you meet hundreds of new people, and every night is a slumber party. On the other hand, dorms are a far cry from what most students are used to, which is their own room, with plenty of closet space, and a semi-private bathroom. Moving away to college removes a lot of the comforts of living at home, such as home cooked meals, too.

Luckily, you can completely personalize your room to make you feel like you have more of your own space! Although it's important to make sure you're not infringing on your roommate's territory, there are a plethora of ways you can make yourself feel more at home.

1. Buy Fun Bedding

Since your bed is going to be one of the biggest objects in your new room, make it pretty! Beds in dorm rooms are always singles, the least expensive size you can buy, which makes the possibilities for your new bed endless! Stores like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond have deals for college students, and it's easier to match your bed to the rest of your room if you buy everything in the same place.

This fun bright bedding was from Target, while the great canopy inspiration comes from blogger Lovely Undergrad.

2. Get Organized

Because dorm rooms are so small, they get messy really easily, and keeping your things neatly stored in drawers is a great way to keep everything organized. You can even buy closet-insert hanging shoe pockets, so your shoes don't end up all over the floor. You can get great containers to match any décor at a variety of stores. As stated previously, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond are great for this sort of thing, and they match, but there are other stores like The Container Store and Ikea, which are also inexpensive and helpful! These purple organizers are from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

3. Cover the Walls

Plain white walls beg to be covered in fun colors, but unfortunately, you won't be able to paint the walls in your dorm. On the bright side, you can cover the walls with corkboards, magazine clippings, art, and photographs. The great thing about a corkboard is the fact that you can pin anything to it without the walls looking like you've had a woodpecker infestation. Also, you can change what it looks like whenever you want! This vintage-inspired design is from Sarah Thomas.

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Our First Video Blog! Solutions to 3 Dorm Dilemmas

Hey everyone! We know... we've been MIA for a while. And not in an awesome "Paper Planes"-singing, hip hop star sort of way. But, we're back and better than ever with our first video blog! Nick is here to give you some tips for solving three common dorm room problems: lack of space, lack of cash, and dealing with that ugly standard-issue college furniture. HP was generous enough to provide us with a Pavilion DV5 laptop to film this little webisode. And here's the exciting part:

They'll give a brand new DV5 laptop to a lucky DormDelicious reader IF we get at 200 comments on the YouTube video!

So get out there and start commenting! Details to come. In the meantime, enjoy the video:

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