Paying for College and Saving Money

I am going to skip the tuition part, as I think each individual's circumstances are different, so I am instead going to focus on books, and commuting to school. For me, I felt that paying for books on top of paying exorbitant tuition fees was just plain robbery. Now, I wouldn't have complained if books weren't that expensive, but college required books are very expensive. A lot of books run into well over $100, it's almost as if the professor has some back door deal with the publishers whereby he or she gets a cut from publisher for using their books. When it was my first college semester, I diligently bought all the required course materials, which cost me about $300 if I remember it correctly. The one thing I noticed was that, I never opened the books at home, and the only time I used the books was while I was in campus. Not only that, I spent most of time on campus rather than at home, so when I did get home, I was usually tired so I rested for the most part - I did not read, study or prepare at home during any time my first semester. I also came to know that the university library had reserve copies of the books that were required in the courses. Essentially, the books that are required reading for me are available on campus for free. On top of that, the libraries of universities usually have multiple copies of the current or previous edition of books that are taught in courses. 

What this means is that you don't really have to buy the books, all of you to do is make sure you know the syllabus of course before hand. One option would be to make friendship or have a few acquaintances with people who are ahead of you so that you can ask them for the syllabus of the courses you are going to take. With the syllabus on hand, check for the books that are available in your university libraries, and if they are checked in, check those books out, and voila! You don't have to pay a few hundred dollars each semester. Of course, the books would have a due date of a month or two depending on the university policies, but you can renew those books. If your University doesn't allow you to renew the books more than once or twice, what you could do is know people who are in graduate school. Usually, Universities allow graduate students to check out books for an entire semester - Yes, an entire semester. So, having graduate friends can be real helpful in these matters. I had a few graduate friends and they let me check out books, and thus I didn't have to worry about renewing the books or having to return them only to be forced to buy the books half way through the semester.

Now, this method is only advisable for courses that are generally required in order to get a degree and are not related to your major. I make it a point to buy my major related course books, whether online or offline. The reason being that you might need these books in the future as a reference and as such would be very handy to you when you forget something and need a quick refresh. Sometimes, internet might not have your issue addressed the way you might want or remember, so a book can be very useful. For my major related courses, I bought them either on Ebay, Amazon, or Half.com.

For those of you who commute like me, gas can be a pretty big expensive, especially if you the university is a long drive from your home. One of the ways that you can save money is by car pooling, which is a very general answer. I remember my university ran some sort of car pooling program, where the university or some third party company contracted by the university arranged meetings of people who lived close by to commute to university together. Now, there are quite a few inconveniences of car pooling, especially if you didn't feel like going to campus that day, but you have to go anyway, as someone else is depending on you.  Also, you might have to stay in the university an hour or two longer if the schedules don't sync perfectly. Barring these few annoyances, car pooling can save you money in the long term, especially if gas prices are very high.