Renting vs. Buying Textbooks

[Gr8fu11]

Hello everyone,

I am class of 2019. We start school in a month and every second year is telling me not to buy books for my first year of school. It freaks me out to not have an actual textbook to reference. Would you recommend renting the first semester textbooks?

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[Caia]

Everyone has different textbook preferences. If you learn well from a textbook and would prefer to have them then I think renting or purchasing are fine options. Usually purchased ones are later sold if you don't feel you need them later.

I personally always get the textbooks because I learn well having an additional source, but I didn't find renting worth it in undergrad when the resale would leave more money in my pocket at the end. Whichever you feel more comfortable with is what you should try out and make changes the next semester if needed.

I haven't come across any options to rent myself, but if you're able to that's fine.

 

[Lab Vet]

I bought and used all of my recommended textbooks for the first year. I'm glad I did that. I didn't 'read' textbooks page by page, cover to cover- as I did in undergrad. There's just not sufficient time for that. I did, however, rely heavily on figures and their legends. If I wasn't getting the gist of a concept from the figure and legend, I'd read the accompanying text. This strategy worked well for me, and I'll continue to use it as I move forward. I'm keeping all of my first year texts, with the exception of Little Miller's (your dog dissection guide) and Smallwood (NCSU's second-semester large animal dissection guide- most schools use Dyce). I'll keep Big Miller's as a reference volume (yes, I bought it- yes, I used it), and pass Little Miller's off to the incoming class.

As for what you should do regarding textbooks, think about how you learn. The pace of vet school is very different than undergrad. Although I know a few students who read textbooks in the traditional sense, these are few and far between. I certainly didn't have time for that, nor did I need to, given the ppt support and extra guidance I received from studying figures/legends. I like having textbooks as a backup- a different presentation of material than what you'd hear from a prof.

I have a friend who didn't purchase one textbook (with the exception of anatomy) for first year. She did absolutely awesome, and didn't need texts at all.

If you're unsure of your learning style (and are not sure how much you'd prefer to rely on texts), it may be more prudent to rent. That way, you can try out your methods and wouldn't have lost much investment. I'm definitely in the 'pro-text' category, but this certainly isn't necessary for stellar performance in a school's curriculum.

 

[jmo1012]

i wouldnt rent books, that seems like a waste of money. either buy or dont buy, based on your preferences. your school library probably has all of the recommended books that you can reference throughout your time. might be a good way to determine which books you like before you buy them, since selling books is usually a money losing endeavor. i personally only use an anatomy book from all of my pre-clinical studies, and then reference clinical books for internal med, surgery, etc. a ton.

 

[BIOMMMM]

You can always try getting the e-books/PDFs for some textbooks that your unsure about. Most of the upper years don't recommend that we get textbooks for our first year at my school either, so I just found copies of most of them online. If I find I use them I'll probably end up buying them, as I just need to have a physical copy to learn from. I'm with most people, in I wouldn't rent textbooks, but that may be because I would like to get a nice veterinary library going

I'm not sure if it's the same for you at your school, but at mine it seems like a lot of textbooks in first year are used over all years, so it's not like you have to pay for something your only going to use for one year. As well check to see if your school has a classified page for upper years to sell their old textbooks. My school also has a specific day for everyone to sell their old textbooks. Plus side to buying used textbooks from your classmates, baring a new edition you can resell it the next year for roughly the same price you bought it for.

So far the best prices for new textbooks I've found is on the VIN website though shipping takes a while (3-5 weeks for Canadian orders) I'm not sure if it's the same in the US.