Tech to Save Money for College Students

What are some of the ways that college students can save money?

Textbooks are easily one the largest expenses for a college students. There was a time when the campus bookstore had a monopoly on the textbook market, but they are increasingly giving way to web based options that not only make textbooks more affordable, but enhance learning.

Downloadable textbooks have been around for some time, but more textbook manufacturers are looking to downloadable as a way to not only save on production costs but offer books at a lower price. What helps this movement is the increase in ebook readers like the Nook from Barnes and Noble and the Kindle from Amazon. Both of these online book retailers not only offer devices to read, store, and easily transport books; they offer digital textbooks for sell directly from their sites.

Does it matter where a student downloads their textbook from?

Yes and No. the textbooks should all be the same, but sometimes the ancillary or supplemental resources may vary depending on the device that it is being downloaded to. CourseSmart.com is another avenue that many students use to download textbooks. They make their downloadable textbooks specifically for iPhones and iPod Touches.
Inkling is another company that produces textbooks for iPads, but the other unique thing about inkling is that instead of having to buy an entire text you purchase a chapter at a time. This not only spreads the total cost of the textbook throughout the semester, it also insures that you only pay for the chapters that you cover in the class.

Are there any other considerations?

As I stated earlier, some downloads were designed specifically for devices like the iPad, Nook, Kindle, or iPhone. However, many of these same publishers have apps for different devices that allow you access your library of books or textbooks regardless of the device. For instance both Android and Apple tablets have apps for Kindle, Nook, and some of the other textbook publishers. For those that need to have a paper textbook for their backpack, mybooksforcheap.com is a good place to look for used textbooks at a discount.

Websites

Mybooksforcheap.com
Barnesandnoble.com/Textbooks
Amazon.com/Textbooks
Inkling.com
CourseSmart.com