Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

In other news: iPad for college

mystik610 said:
A full-on laptop is required for my graduate program anyhow, so I couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to. But carrying a laptop and an iPad is a lot easier than carrying a laptop and a set of books. I also work full-time and study during my lunch hour, and its easier to stuff an iPad in work bag bag than a text book.

I have no issue working out of an ebook, and can highlight, bookmark and annotate pages, so it all works out. Once you overcome the mindset of "I can't study out of an e-book and need a physical copy", life gets a lot easier.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Even though I can get 90 percent or so of my work done with my iPad, and usually only carry it to campus, a computer is still essential for the heavy lifting (pun intended). That pesky 10% is impossible to get done on the iPad, and in my opinion, will not be available in ultrathin computers for a while longer yet. The Pro is fabulous! But, it stays at home most days :)

Great point about ebooks. I was dead-set against them and the iPad not so long ago. My colleagues often poke fun at me, because they remember me scoffing at the idea of using either one. Now I am the zealous convert. LOL. The technology didn't exist to accomplish all of this a few years ago, but now that it is here, I cannot imagine any reason for students to carry around books.
 
cshearer said:
Be able to buy a house later on in life by starting to build credit in my early twenties by purchasing an iPad...
Click to expand...

Off topic with your original post:

You don't need to purchase anything with your credit card to build credit. Your credit history relies solely on having the credit card and that credit card being in good standing.

People get how to build credit up confused. When people say "start building your credit early", that doesn't mean start buying stuff with a credit card. It simply means to start a credit card and that is it.

Part of your credit score is the age of your different types of credit. In your situation, a better move that would have made a lot more sense would have been to take out a loan for the iPad and have the payments paid automatically every month.

Your justification for buying the iPad should not be advertised any further.
Of course the bank is going to agree with you. Your credit card and thousands more make them money.

This knowledge is something that you will need in life.

I'm here all week when it comes to anything financial.

ob81
 
ob81 said:
People get how to build credit up confused. When people say "start building your credit early", that doesn't mean start buying stuff with a credit card. It simply means to start a credit card and that is it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree but you do need to make some purchases to keep the card active, I was told to use it as a gas card and then pay it off each month. Then after 'x' amount of time try to get a credit line increase and just keep doing that. If you keep the same card over several years starting at college years and it stays in good standing it should boost your overall credit.

As for the original post, I don't know how you bought your books in the past but I don't think I ever even paid $500 for books. I get around spending money on books as much as possible for starters I always buy used. I prefer physical copies because I can sale back. Some professors will allow you to buy older editions because not much has changed in the text by doing this I save even more money. If I need literature books i'll just rent them at the library but there are some free ones in the iBook store like Jane Eyre I believe. Some teachers will put the textbook (latest edition) for their class on reserve in the library and i'll just check it out there and use it or photocopy and then I never have to buy it.

That's how you save money on books!
 
sumone said:
Yeah I agree but you do need to make some purchases to keep the card active, I was told to use it as a gas card and then pay it off each month. Then after 'x' amount of time try to get a credit line increase and just keep doing that. If you keep the same card over several years starting at college years and it stays in good standing it should boost your overall credit.

As for the original post, I don't know how you bought your books in the past but I don't think I ever even paid $500 for books. I get around spending money on books as much as possible for starters I always buy used. I prefer physical copies because I can sale back. Some professors will allow you to buy older editions because not much has changed in the text by doing this I save even more money. If I need literature books i'll just rent them at the library but there are some free ones in the iBook store like Jane Eyre I believe. Some teachers will put the textbook (latest edition) for their class on reserve in the library and i'll just check it out there and use it or photocopy and then I never have to buy it.

That's how you save money on books!
Click to expand...

good advice. any work produced before WWII or so is probably going to be available nowadays at Amazon or iBooks for free. that covers literature classes (except for annoying anthologies).

faculty at state and private institutions submit copies of their syllabi with readings listed on it so that the library can reserve copies of the books and/or produce pdfs. making use of these is a great way to reduce costs.

textbooks are a racket, of course, but i wouldn't get all stressed out about it. you spend tens of thousands of dollars for the dubious privilege of attending the university. textbooks are a tiny drop in the bucket. you'll surely spend more on alcohol during the year than on textbooks (unless you are a teetotaller like me, in which case pizzas and donuts may be your drugs of choice).

do what works best for you. work smarter, not harder. go digital :)
 
mystik610 said:
Or save even more money by renting a digital copy.

There are also *cheaper* methods of getting an e-book (if you catch my drift) if you're willing to look or go through the work.

You really don't save much by renting physical books anyway. The rental price seems to contemplate the cost of the book new/used, and the amount you would receive when you sell it back to contemplate the rental rate. In the long run, you aren't saving much at all by renting books. It might be different for undergraduate books (this was not a common practice when I was in my undergrad), but graduation books are expensive, and the rental rates were not a whole lot better.
Click to expand...

All false... Buying the book, $140 at the cheapest location available...renting e-book was $112 and renting a physical book was $76. I do a lot of research on this and these books are not available in your "secret location." I dont know where you are renting your e-book but I have never seen one cheaper than my physical rental cost.

Another plus to renting, say the book was $180 new from the bookstore(book in last example was). At the end of the semester I can plan on getting $90 back. Amazon doesnt pay that much for textbooks either so thats not an option and Amazon is the highest paying out of all the online book buyback places that I will trust. Some books the school gives me more, some Amazon gives me more. I found out in the end im getting about half of what I the book cost back of the SCHOOL STORE retail. So for the $180 book I will get $90 back, still more expensive than that $76 rental. That isnt a big loss but what happens IF the school stops buying the book? Old edition, no longer needed, etc... If this is a common book, Amazon may even drop the price considerably. At my rental place(www.campusbookrentals.com) I choose my books which are 99% of the time cheaper than anywhere except the international copies off ebay. I can buy them with insurance for like $2 per book so I am pretty much not responsible for anything that happens to the book and they deliver all the books in 3-5 days. End of semester, I throw all the books in the prepaid return envelope and bam...worry free.
 
cshearer said:
I see where you're coming from, because buying used and selling back is how I've been doing it. Whether it's cheaper or not, easier or not, I think it's just about preference (my same thoughts on the Mac vs. PC debate). I just like not having physical textbooks, even though someone else might think doing it that way is annoying. However, force me in front of a Palahniuk ebook to read and I'll have ten fits.

I do like your idea for digitizing the books. That sounds a great deal cheaper. Obviously I've never tried it, but would there be software that would allow me to format it in such a way that I can jump to chapters and pages like the Kno app can? I guess the question is which is best, because I'm sure it exists.
Click to expand...

u mad bro?
 
tjb1 said:
All false... Buying the book, $140 at the cheapest location available...renting e-book was $112 and renting a physical book was $76. I do a lot of research on this and these books are not available in your "secret location." I dont know where you are renting your e-book but I have never seen one cheaper than my physical rental cost.

Another plus to renting, say the book was $180 new from the bookstore(book in last example was). At the end of the semester I can plan on getting $90 back. Amazon doesnt pay that much for textbooks either so thats not an option and Amazon is the highest paying out of all the online book buyback places that I will trust. Some books the school gives me more, some Amazon gives me more. I found out in the end im getting about half of what I the book cost back of the SCHOOL STORE retail. So for the $180 book I will get $90 back, still more expensive than that $76 rental. That isnt a big loss but what happens IF the school stops buying the book? Old edition, no longer needed, etc... If this is a common book, Amazon may even drop the price considerably. At my rental place(www.campusbookrentals.com) I choose my books which are 99% of the time cheaper than anywhere except the international copies off ebay. I can buy them with insurance for like $2 per book so I am pretty much not responsible for anything that happens to the book and they deliver all the books in 3-5 days. End of semester, I throw all the books in the prepaid return envelope and bam...worry free.
Click to expand...

interesting. could you give us the title of that book so we can verify?

@cshearer
adobe acrobat pro (student discount makes this a good deal) will enable you to really make the most out of your pdf files. don't buy it if you only have a few books to digitize, though. just use the computers at university in the computer labs for it. anyhow, you take pictures, combine the pictures into a pdf file, do optical character recognition (to make text searchable), and then you go through yourself organizing bookmarks. this really helps when using the ipad, because you can move about very quickly through a text. this does take time, but not so much if you keep the physical book open to the table of contents.
 
Last edited:
Trinatek said:
u mad bro?
Click to expand...
No? I just enjoy demonstrating to people how silly they sound. Besides, this forum is for iPad discussion, not credit rating discussion. I see an Internet meme is the most constructive response you yourself can come up with.

----------
ob81 said:
Off topic with your original post:

You don't need to purchase anything with your credit card to build credit. Your credit history relies solely on having the credit card and that credit card being in good standing.

People get how to build credit up confused. When people say "start building your credit early", that doesn't mean start buying stuff with a credit card. It simply means to start a credit card and that is it.

Part of your credit score is the age of your different types of credit. In your situation, a better move that would have made a lot more sense would have been to take out a loan for the iPad and have the payments paid automatically every month.

Your justification for buying the iPad should not be advertised any further.
Of course the bank is going to agree with you. Your credit card and thousands more make them money.

This knowledge is something that you will need in life.

I'm here all week when it comes to anything financial.

ob81
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. I just think some people here get way too intense about this sort of thing. At the end of the day it's my business, but the difference in this post is there's good information. I don't think the financial end of this should be the focus here, but the usefulness of it in an academic setting and any apps or methods of converting print materials.
 
palpatine said:
... I sure wish I would have had this kind of device when I was an undergraduate!
Click to expand...

Don't we all. In fact, I would have loved to use something other than an IBM Selectric to write my dissertation. In those days cutting and pasting meant...cutting and pasting with scissors and scotch tape. :D
 
jsh1120 said:
Don't we all. In fact, I would have loved to use something other than an IBM Selectric to write my dissertation. In those days cutting and pasting meant...cutting and pasting with scissors and scotch tape. :D
Click to expand...

so did yours have the ribbon cartridges that you had to change out when you had corrections to make or was is like my second on which had the little ball type head? brings back memories...lol :eek:
 
taipan61 said:
so did yours have the ribbon cartridges that you had to change out when you had corrections to make or was is like my second on which had the little ball type head? brings back memories...lol :eek:
Click to expand...

Hey, man, I was at the cutting edge of technology. Had a little ball covered in letters and symbols and when I hit a key it magically jumped up, turned around and smashed itself against a mylar ribbon. I marveled at its abilities. And I even had a couple of extra balls with different fonts. To switch from Times New Roman to Verdana (if Verdana existed back then) all you had to do was open the top of the case, unsnap the connector, lift out the ball, set it aside, insert the new ball, snap down the connector, close the case, and you were ready to go.

And when I was finished typing a page (with additions and corrections) taped on top of previous text, I simply took it to the nice lady who retyped the entire dissertation (900 pages) in the format required by the university...at $2 a page.

Then another lady read each page and if there was a single typo or margin found to be more than 1/32" off the standard, she took a red marker and X'ed the entire page to be redone.

Youngsters these days don't know what they're missin'
 
first i would like to apologize for jumping off subject...
second, who remembers mimeograph machines and carbon paper...

just a quick look back at "our" school days

in the scheme of things books were a lot cheaper then and generally lasted more than one year so you could always use a friends/family members who took the class before you

for me law school was the killer in numbers of books needed and the weight of the darn things

now back to our scheduled thread
 
cshearer said:
No? I just enjoy demonstrating to people how silly they sound. Besides, this forum is for iPad discussion, not credit rating discussion. I see an Internet meme is the most constructive response you yourself can come up with.

----------

Thanks for the information. I just think some people here get way too intense about this sort of thing. At the end of the day it's my business, but the difference in this post is there's good information. I don't think the financial end of this should be the focus here, but the usefulness of it in an academic setting and any apps or methods of converting print materials.
Click to expand...

You are right, and I agree. I take college classes and my iPad is where I do most of my projects, except for my programming classes. I get some of the cheaper books on digital and I rent and buy used the others. Your use of the ipad is excellent.

I only hoped to clear up the misconception about building credit. There are people that buy cars and rent when they don't even need to, all in the name of building credit.

The person that replied to my post about keeping the card active shared some sound advice as well.
 
cshearer said:
The most remarkable thing is how much I saved on textbooks.
Click to expand...

Congrats, but gotta say I'm pretty skeptical about savings. I mean I got an iPad with the same intent, but it was waaaaaay cheaper to just buy the previous hardback edition for pennies on Amazon used. And before you say "what about the weight" I just picked them up from the library reserve to study when on campus. The only thing I could see an iPad making sense for was philosophy books or classical lit, and only because there are so many PDFs floating around.

In a related note, I found .chm versions of textbooks to be far easier to study from, and would gladly pay for such 'digital versions' of Textbooks if they used the format to improve accessibility and add iOS native study tools. As it is, it seems Text companies are stuck in the RIAA model of charging for less flexibility/functionality.
 
Last edited:
tjb1 said:
International Edition, different. Yes I checked.
Click to expand...

whoops. you are correct. it looks like this textbook is going to cost an arm and a leg. ouch. rental does look like the best option. i wouldn't say that for all books, though.
 
palpatine said:
usually a bad idea to purchase a different version. even a seemingly minor difference (like additional sections in a chapter) could have an impact.
Click to expand...

Possibly, but before purchasing a previous version I always ask the professor.

College textbooks is a lucrative business if they can get students to upgrade to the latest version each year/semester they can make big money. But often time the info doesn't change much in a semester or a year. I got a previous version of a $200 Biology book for about $50 and compared it to the current, the info and the graphics were the same with the exception of very minor details. The page numbers and chapters may be different but as long as you know what lessons you're learning all you have to do is look at the table of contents.
 
tjb1 said:
Save a lot more money by renting a physical copy...
Click to expand...

my sisters would rent, I'd actually save more money buy buying the book used and selling it back to the school. If I would have sold it myself I could have saved even more. One time I sold back a book to the school and they gave me more money then I had bought it used :confused:

EDIT: I never bought the books used from my school but from online stores.
 
palpatine said:
The iPad can be truly revolutionary for academics as a content creation and consumption device. Your mileage will vary based on how you use it, but speaking for myself, it accomplishes about 90 percent of what I need and has pretty much replaced my laptop for campus. I went from a backpack literally packed full of books and equipment (computer, charger, etc.) to a small man purse with my iPad, a bluetooth keyboard, and a pen + notebook. Amazingly, because I have digitized everything, I am now more productive with less stuff. I sure wish I would have had this kind of device when I was an undergraduate!
Click to expand...

I agree however I decided to get rid of pen + paper as well. I bought a stylus which allows me to take notes on the pad (Notes Plus works wonders for me). At meetings, I leave my iPad on (10 hr batt life is amazing) and jot down my notes as needed (just like pen+paper).
 
I don't know about everyone else but...from my experience buying the book new/used is a lot cheaper than renting or buying eBooks.

Why?

Example: I have an Ecology book I need for one of my classes. It costs $100 to buy new; $80 used.

If I were to rent it, it would cost $40 for the semester. The eBook costs $40 as well.

Thing is, at the end of the semester, I can sell my book back to the school or Amazon. Trade-in value is $60 for the book. So look at the math...

Buy New: Lost $100 but get $60 back = $40 total spent
Buy Used: Lost $80 but get $60 back = $20 total spent
Rent: Spent $40 total
eBook: Spent $40 total
 
chris2k5 said:
I don't know about everyone else but...from my experience buying the book new/used is a lot cheaper than renting or buying eBooks.

Why?

Example: I have an Ecology book I need for one of my classes. It costs $100 to buy new; $80 used.

If I were to rent it, it would cost $40 for the semester. The eBook costs $40 as well.

Thing is, at the end of the semester, I can sell my book back to the school or Amazon. Trade-in value is $60 for the book. So look at the math...

Buy New: Lost $100 but get $60 back = $40 total spent
Buy Used: Lost $80 but get $60 back = $20 total spent
Rent: Spent $40 total
eBook: Spent $40 total
Click to expand...

Do remember that trade-in value is today's rate, not 6 months from now. I got burned last semester. Bought book for 120, trade in was 60. Semester goes by trade in went down to 15 or 20 don't remember exactly. I got all my books as ebooks this semester, saved over $300 from purchase price and at least $100 if I resold those books.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back