1L books.. Get them now or wait till classes start????

[Prizark]

I looked up on the school's website what books each professor requires. However, I don't know if I should get them now or wait till classes start. In undergrad I ALWAYS waited until classes started because many professors that stated to buy certain books never used them. I was just wondering if it MIGHT be the same in law school. Or if the professor ordered those books he will def. use them?

So, get the books now or wait till classes start? Thanks everyone!

[Strong]

Well you are going to have reading assignments for the first day so I don't suggest waiting until after the first day to buy them.

Go up to the bookstore a week or two before school and either purchase them there or get a list and browse so you know what to look for on the internet.

[LVP]

I'll second everything jrut said - what he said about 1 minute introduction... one of my classes had literally no introduction.  Not practically no introduction, not virtually no introduction, when the clock hit 9, it was "Miss X, give me the facts of Y v. Z."


I would also add that, although you can't wait until the first day of class to buy your books, if you do buy them now, don't start reading them yet.  Don't start reading until it's time to start reading - maybe a week or two before classes start.

[Prizark]

Thus far I only have an assignment from one book. However, according to the online website  I need to get 10 required books for all of my classes! So I don't know if I should just get that 1 book and buy the rest later??

Do you guys suppose that in order to save money I can get an earlier edition? For example, buy the 8th ed instead of the 9th.. or will that be too much of a hassle with reading/cases??

As for the locker, I think that my school is providing one free of charge

[jacy85]

As jrut already said, don't get older editions.

And if the book is listed as required, go ahead and get it. If its merely "recommended" I'd hold off.  I order all my books from half.com, and save a bunch.  If you do get them used, you should probably look for books that don't have a ton of writing/highlighting in them.  Then again, some people don't mind lots of highlighting, etc., so to each their own on that one.

[Eva Destruction]

If you're even thinking about ordering books online, you'll want to order them now.

I'm a 1L and I just got my orientation materials.  We're expected to read several chapters in our textbook and brief a bunch of cases.  I'm having trouble finding the text locally, and so I've looked on the internet.  Amazon says that it'll take 4-7 weeks for the book to ship. By then orientation will have long since passed.

Because of the rather hefty bit of work that I have to do before school even starts, I need my books right away so I can get started. Otherwise, I'll be off to a very rocky start.

The moral of the story is to get your books sooner rather than later.

Textbooks.com was awesome. They had most of my books and they were cheaper than the bookstore and they delivered it super fast, for free.

[juliemccoy]

At my school we don't even find out what section we're in until our orientation, thereby guaranteeing you have to buy your books on campus...

[Prizark]

If you're even thinking about ordering books online, you'll want to order them now.

I'm a 1L and I just got my orientation materials.  We're expected to read several chapters in our textbook and brief a bunch of cases.  I'm having trouble finding the text locally, and so I've looked on the internet.  Amazon says that it'll take 4-7 weeks for the book to ship. By then orientation will have long since passed.

Because of the rather hefty bit of work that I have to do before school even starts, I need my books right away so I can get started. Otherwise, I'll be off to a very rocky start.

The moral of the story is to get your books sooner rather than later.

Textbooks.com was awesome. They had most of my books and they were cheaper than the bookstore and they delivered it super fast, for free.

Thanks a bunch!! I'm gonna try to get them this week.

[jimmyjohn]

Thus far I only have an assignment from one book. However, according to the online website  I need to get 10 required books for all of my classes! So I don't know if I should just get that 1 book and buy the rest later??

Do you guys suppose that in order to save money I can get an earlier edition? For example, buy the 8th ed instead of the 9th.. or will that be too much of a hassle with reading/cases??

As for the locker, I think that my school is providing one free of charge

I'm all for buying the books as soon as you know what you need.  If you buy them now from amazon you can probably get some really good deals if you don't mind a used book.  I save at least $200 over the used price at the bookstore by purchasing the books online.

As far as the earlier editions go, do it at your own risk.  I did it one time for my income tax class successfully.  I tried doing it with some other classes, however, and it just wasn't going to work.  There are really too many variables.  With your first year courses, I would say go ahead and get the newer editions since the first year classes are all case based.  I think it might be easier to use an older edition with a class that is more code based where the code book is more of your primary textbook.  None of the first year classes are code based so your best bet is to just spend the extra money and get the newest edition out there.

[Prizark]

At my school we don't even find out what section we're in until our orientation, thereby guaranteeing you have to buy your books on campus...

It sucks and its good. Some of the books that you will need might not be cheaper online.