Hi,
I am entering my first year at U of T in September and I wanted to ask a couple of questions about buying textbooks for courses.
Is there a website that lets students know all of the books and any other materials that they will need to buy for each course?
Also, can we buy all of our necessary textbooks from the U of T bookstore, or would we need to order it beforehand from somewhere else?
Lastly, I saw on one of the U of T websites that someone suggested waiting until the second day of classes to purchase the textbooks needed for courses. They said this is because sometimes out of date books are not replaced right away and you can be stuck with paying for two. However, I also noticed in different U of T facebook groups that people have already started buying their books. I just wanted to ask what your advice would be?
On a separate note, when are we told the actual locations of our courses (building & room)? Will that be added to our timetables on ROSI or something?
Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.
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Bonjour le first year,
The U of T bookstore offers a list of course material for some courses. Check it.
All of your required course material will be ordered for you. Saying that though, depending on the course and the material required it might be ordered at a location that is not the U of T Bookstore. I personally have had to get books from Bob Millers bookstore and the printing house. All material locations are either on campus or close by.
I have never heard of the bookstore having out of date books in stock at the start of school. The person who posted that may have just gotten their books too early and picked up the material for the summer course instead of the fall one. The same course course can have different material based on the professor.
I would agree with attending at least one class before purchasing your books.
Side Bar Ted – 5 Reason for not buying your books before class starts
1) You might go to one class, hate it and thank the textbook gods (aska) that you didn’t waste the money on books
2) Some professors have “recommended” books, meaning only the keeners and rich kids buy this shiz
3) If the edition hasn’t changed you can buy the book used. Either in the U of T bookstore or here?
4) During the second class, you can just steal the book from another student when they go to the washroom
5) You can make a buddy in class and go halfsy on the book and just share it.
If the location of your classes and rooms are not already posted on ROSI, they will be very shortly. Look on the timetable and there will be a couple letters below the course codes and a number. The letters are the building and the numbers are referring to the room. There is a link that says “map of your classes” or something of the sort by your timetable an it will give you a googlemaps image with all your classes flagged on it (this is the kindest part of ROSI)
Check it out:
BA is Bahen Centre for Information Technology (BA) and 1240 is the room number.
with love and a compass,
aska