Back to School at UCSB

Well its back to school time for UCSB students. Soon will begin the mad rush to get all of your things moved into dorms, getting classes, textbooks, writing papers, etc. This can be a very stressful time, especially for Freshman who have never lived the college experience. Side note: don't stress so much, Fall quarter is designed to ease Freshman into the college experience. The first week of school there will only be class on Thursday and Friday, so you will have plenty of time to get your books and other school supplies. There really is no point to go and stand in those long lines in the bookstore or at the two places where you get your readers (Grafikart and the Alternative Copy Shop; both located on Pardall street in Isla Vista), because after the first couple of days the lines with decrease significantly. However, if you really want to get your books asap i would suggest going early in the morning.

When selecting your classes it is always a good idea to sign up for an extra class; so that if you decide that one of your classes is not going to work out for you then you can drop that class without having to worry about not having enough units or having to find another class to take its place. If you do this I would not recommend buying the reader (if it is required) until you are sure that you are going to stay in the class, because they are non-refundable.

In this economy it is not fun to shell out a load of money that the University charges for its textbooks. The resell value on these books is a mere pittance compared to what you have to pay for them; so if possible buy your books from others students or try to find cheap textbooks online. If you are planning to buy used books, make sure that you look through the textbook carefully, because people have a tendency to highlight or make a lot of notes, which can be distracting for you.

It is often inconvenient to go to the bookstore when you have a busy schedule of classes, work, studying, and social activities. An alternative to buying your books at the UCEN is to buy them online. I have listed here books for various classes offered at UCSB this quarter; hopefully this will make your life a little less stressful and save you some money that could be better spent. Please click on the following like to my amazon.com store to find a list of textbooks for your classes.