Realistic 1st year books cost

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

Hola, so my quoted cost of attendance for this fall includes a lovely sum of $8,370 for books / supplies. Even if I assume that "supplies" includes a laptop purchase, will my books even come close to costing $6-$7k? Granted, I realize some people get the barebones books and others buy every book ever written, so I'm looking at what you think the middle ground should be. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Hashi

Hola, so my quoted cost of attendance for this fall includes a lovely sum of $8,370 for books / supplies. Even if I assume that "supplies" includes a laptop purchase, will my books even come close to costing $6-$7k? Granted, I realize some people get the barebones books and others buy every book ever written, so I'm looking at what you think the middle ground should be. Thanks!

From what I've been reading, a lot of people simply focus on the lecture notes and buy little to no textbooks.

The only book you need first year is an atlas for anatomy (most people get Netter's, check what your school recommends).

$8370?! Hell no!

I spent $160 total at the book sale we had at the beginning of the year and bought another review book for $30 during the school year. Total book cost for M1 year = approx. $200. That was more than enough and too much in some cases.

Originally Posted by Hashi

Hola, so my quoted cost of attendance for this fall includes a lovely sum of $8,370 for books / supplies. Even if I assume that "supplies" includes a laptop purchase, will my books even come close to costing $6-$7k? Granted, I realize some people get the barebones books and others buy every book ever written, so I'm looking at what you think the middle ground should be. Thanks!

Holy ****, what is your book list? Original 16th-century folios of De humani corporis fabrica?

I spent $50 this year.

Your book requirements will be highly school-specific, class specific, and learner-specific. So this is a tough question to answer.

Some schools publish really good sylabi, course notes, lecture presentations, and review materials.

Other schools give you absolutly nothing but a bunch of confusing powerpoints and/or low quality, poorly organized notes, lab manuals, on a web server that is so poorly configured you can't even download them.

Some schools give you nothing.

You might have a great background in cell bio, phys and biochem, so you could get away with fewer books. If you are an art major who only took the prereqs, you'll probably need more books.

I personally spent just short of $1000. Well worth the money.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to how much they budget you for certain stuff, based on the legal issues surronding student loans you aren't allowed to spend loan money on certain things, so I think many schools tend to be a little more ... generous... in other categories and then its up to you to decide how to spend it.

I think most people spend less than $150 on books as MS1- Netters, some random required book for your patient care class, and then at some point a lot of people start buying a review book or two like BRS physiology.

Of course there are always the people who buy every single "required" book the school lists and then has $500 worth of shrink wrapped books taking up space in their closest and then they sell them to new MS1's for half price next year. So if you absolutely need to have all those extra books to prove your a medstudent, just buy them from one of the MS2's who never opened them.

Thanks guys, that's just what I expected and wanted to hear!

Originally Posted by VisionaryTics

Holy ****, what is your book list? Original 16th-century folios of De humani corporis fabrica?

Echo other's sentiments, you will need an atlas for anatomy. Everything else is optional and in my opinion f-ing worthless.

Wow that's a lot... I actually am more of a bookworm, so I actually have my own 'library' of books. It probably cost around 1300$ or so. There's 3 books that I didn't really need, and those were the ones recommended by the profs.... I learned from that mistake and only bought books after reading through SDN reviews/amazon reviews for recommendations. I'd tell you the same thing as the above posters. Atlas for anatomy, and the rest is optional. You'll figure out which subjects you want to buy a book in (if any).

Oh one more thing - preview the books before you buy them. What a majority of people like, you may not like. Example - Netters for me. I dislike all the cartoon-y pictures in it and prefer alternate anatomy resources. So even if someone else is like this is awesome - you may not find it so. Do what works for you.

x

Learn how to use your broadband connection.

Do you have a microscope purchase? And a stethoscope?

I guess it could start to add up...

And if this is just for first year, they may have padded it to give you "move-in" costs for your apartment.

I've spent about 1,500 on books (sometimes having multiple resources is helpful) but that includes 3 anatomy atlases and many review books I plan to use for Step1 prep.

Originally Posted by Kaushik

$8370?! Hell no!

I spent $160 total at the book sale we had at the beginning of the year and bought another review book for $30 during the school year. Total book cost for M1 year = approx. $200. That was more than enough and too much in some cases.

Yes, you really should be going to the book sales, they saved me a ton of money!

Torre..... *COUGH* torrential sum for books there mate.

I bought all my MS1 and MS2 books from upperclassmen for about $200. You do not need all the books on the required list. Likely the required reading for each lecture will be, "Book A, pages 40-80, book B pages 60-70, book C pages 60-80" and from each lecture there will be 2 questions on the exam. Reading every page assigned is medical student suicide. Never worry about the assigned material, worry about understanding what will be tested on the exam. Mostly lectures notes and the accompanying review book suffice.

there are probably lots of MS4s at your school trying to get rid of books before moving to residency. i'm to the point of dropping off tons of books at goodwill cause i have no idea what to do with them and I don't want to move them.

It depends on your learning style. I like to have a board review book for each section, so thats about $20-$30 per block. I recommend a First Aid to help focus your studying and let you know what lecture stuff is high priority versus low priority. That's another $30 if you buy used. An anatomy atlas or two is useful. Apart from that, everything else I've used has been an electronic resource or lecture notes.

Supplies on the other hand add up. I think our suggested medical equipment runs well over $1000

Originally Posted by Hashi

Thanks guys, that's just what I expected and wanted to hear!

Find a current L1 (at your school) and ask them what you need.

Then ask them if you can have their old books.

0$

If you spend more than $200 on books for M1, you failed badly. More than $100 is unnecessary.

At our school that cost included required supplies like a BP cuff, stethoscope, ophthalmoscope/otoscope, etc.

Originally Posted by Kevin Baker

Supplies on the other hand add up. I think our suggested medical equipment runs well over $1000

the only thing you should buy is a decent steth. i got a harvey elite but i think the cardio III is better.

if you feel like blowing $700 get the pan-optic tank missile ophthal and otoscope w/ corresponding sphygmo however in my experience you will never take these to clinic or be required to use them beyond looking in your roommate's eye before your PDX exam.

everything you will ever use to exam a patient will be in the exam room except for a pen, paper, and maybe a penlight for pupils. Medical school orientations are a target for medical equipment manufacturers; they will try to sell you things you really don't need because you are in a vulnerable position.

Essentials:

Atlas (Theime / Netter or both)

Extra:

Either Moore's Clinical Anatomy or Gray's for Students

Everything else should really be review books. I actually enjoy texts though, and we have another thread with a list currently on the first page. There are very few textbooks worth getting just because they are typically too long. Yet, there are a FEW amazing texts out there and might be worth adding to your library.

Edit: The list on this thread is pretty solid: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=909470

Netter, FA, Robbins --> boom.

You shouldn't have to spend much money. Review books are thankfully not very expensive.

Netter's Atlas is the only book you should ever buy. I have spent a total of $50 for MS1 and MS2 on books.

While on the subject, also please don't spend $600 on an opthal/otoscope that some schools "require". Total scam.

BRS Physiology is the single most useful book I've had all year, & there aren't significant differences from the last edition that you can buy for 4 bucks on Amazon.

I think I bought a few extras because I wanted/liked them but thousands of dollars is asinine.

That is a retarded amount of money to budget for books. Here's what I used:

Costanzo Physiology - $30-40
BRS Anatomy - $30
Haines Atlas of Neuroanatomy - $10 old edition
Lippincott's Biochemistry - $30
Grey's Anatomy and Atlas of Anatomy - about $100 total
Blumenfield's Neuroanatomy - $20 old edition

I wouldn't buy NO books as suggested above, unless for some reason you have really stellar lecturers. Most lecturers in my experience are pretty crappy, so I still relied on books a lot.

Your school might be throwing in supplies such as otoscope and stethoscope. Those two things alone can easily run you 1500 depending on how fancy you want to go.

Originally Posted by TallScrubs

Netter, FA, Robbins --> boom.

I bought that book for $80...made it through the first chapter and quickly realized Golijan was far better. Waste of money for me....

Also dont buy the $200 BP cuff your school is likely trying to sell you...my $15 cuff off amazon has yet to not the get the same BP as those overpriced ones...plus I got free shipping and a carrying case, win.

Originally Posted by MilkmanAl

If you spend more than $200 on books for M1, you failed badly. More than $100 is unnecessary.

Agreed - I spent about $200, mostly on review books and question books. Most textbooks can be gotten at book sales or other sources...

Originally Posted by Cali2

At our school that cost included required supplies like a BP cuff, stethoscope, ophthalmoscope/otoscope, etc.

Same here - the school charged us $2k for all that crap, so that puts our supplies number up.

Netter's and BRS Physiology are the only ones I bought. I can access most books online through my school library.

Originally Posted by link2swim06

I bought that book for $80...made it through the first chapter and quickly realized Golijan was far better. Waste of money for me....

Also dont buy the $200 BP cuff your school is likely trying to sell you...my $15 cuff off amazon has yet to not the get the same BP as those overpriced ones...plus I got free shipping and a carrying case, win.

But I got the 7th ed Big Robbins for $15. Woot!

Always nice to have a reference.

I don't think you need an anatomy book. I've never used my Netter's except to prop up my bed. We had manuals in the lab and DVDs of the dissections to take home.

Originally Posted by GladifImakeit

I don't think you need an anatomy book. I've never used my Netter's except to prop up my bed. We had manuals in the lab and DVDs of the dissections to take home.

Ya but they're really gross usually. And I liked looking at atlases ahead of time/afterwards to see what I was supposed to learn.