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College of Cash - finding money for college

Sell Books Back or Keep Them?

December 12th 2007 14:13
I wrote at the beginning of this school semester that amazon.com was my best friend because I got most of my books there for cheap, as well as getting some for free.

But what happens at the end of the semester? Is it really worth it to sell the books back to the school bookstore? Yes and no.

In my opinion, it depends on what books you want to sell back, and how much you spent on them to begin with.


books
I'll use myself as an example. I'm an English major so I have lots of novels, but not a lot of textbooks. Most of the "textbook" style were of the norton anthology variety which are basically a bunch of short stories or novels packed into one. (I actually hadn't sold any books back at this school until this semester). I sold three back a few days ago. One was a book from a multicultural class meant mostly for teachers, one was The Scarlet Letter because I already had another version, and the other was this handbook guide to boring stuff like definitions of "plot" and "setting."

I have no intention of selling back the other books, because I'm an English major (soon-to-be- degree holder) and I may want to read some of the stories in those books. If I had had more books about science, or if I had bought the psychology book (from the amazon post) I would have sold those back because those weren't my major.


Basically my rules would be:
Sell it if...
1) it's not your major and you have no intention of taking another class in that subject.
2) you are graduating and have no use for the books anymore

If they are books from your major (esp. if you're an English major) keep them!! You may be able to use those books for another class. And if you sell it back and then have to buy it again you've just wasted a lot of money.

My other thought would be to ask around and swap books with other people in your major. I just gave a copy of The Norton Anthology of Women (which I used for two different classes) to a girl, who was taking one of the classes in which I had used it, for next semester.

I won't lie, campus bookstores are a rip-off. But if you know for sure you won't ever be using the book again, you might as well sell it back. That's just my thought.
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I don’t know how it usually works, but many of my friends graduated and then headed off to jobs they had lined up before they graduated. As of now, I won’t be doing this. So, what do I do?

If a full-time job at a library, or as a proofreader (the two jobs I’d like to do with an English degree) doesn’t appear by the time I’m done with school, I will be out of work completely. The on-campus jobs are done when I’m done with school. (I never actually found that third job I talked about).

Here are my options:

1) wait until a full-time job in a library or as a proofreader surfaces
2) take on a part-time job while looking for a full-time job I’d really want
3) take on any full-time job (hopefully with benefits)

I’m definitely not going with option one. That’s not at all practical because I have bills to pay (and I’ll have more to pay when I graduate). Surveys will not cover my cost of living.

If I did option two, it would be because after I found a full-time job I would like to do, it would be easier to work my part-time job around it (if I wanted to do the two job thing for a while) or easier to quit.

If I did option three, I’d most likely be there for a while. What if it was a job I didn’t really want to be doing? What if I found a job I liked better while already having a full-time job? Could I just quit right away, even if I had just started a month ago? Is that right? Maybe I just have too much sympathy for others because I feel like if I took just any old job I should stay there for a while. If I quit soon after they hired me they’d have to find someone else really quick. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about this? Do any of you?

My plan so far is to keep applying (I’ve applied to two library jobs in this area so far – and one job at a bookstore). When I graduate, I’ll go for the anything goes job. If it is part-time or full-time it won’t matter because I can only last about two months on my EF (I might actually be able to make it three months – but it would be close) so I'll need some kind of income.

The one thing I know I shouldn’t do? Panic. So I’m trying not to do that. Wish me luck.

Do any of you have experience with this situation? Any advice?
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College List (pt. 11)

November 6th 2007 15:32
It has been a very long time since I've done one of these. Hopefully soon I will have more time to create these posts. For today, I'm only going to be doing three colleges.

In an attempt to be the most helpful site in affording college, I will be doing a continuing piece on specific colleges and universities in the United States and their scholarships/websites. (I will try hitting ones outside of the US at a later time). My brief summary of each will include a link to their financial aid page as well as other information I think may be helpful.

I plan on going in alphabetical order by state, and then in alphabetical order by the colleges in the state. I will be covering Divisions I, II, and III because every student has different needs. Each piece will cover at least one college from each Division.


Division I:

Cal State Northridge: The financial aid mainpage can be found from the links on the left of the front page. Scholarships can be found on the left of that page under "types of aid." Both institutional and "off-campus" scholarships are on that page; just scroll down. That page makes it look as if there are only two campus scholarships. If you want to check out federal work study, click here. Tuition and fees can be found here.

Division II:

Humboldt State University: What I immediately like about this school - they put the WUE program directly on their front page for possible students to see. (I now have a separate post to explain this here). Their financial aid mainpage can be found using the quicklinks dropdown menu on the front page. From that page you need to click on the "apply for aid" tab at the top and then click on types of aid on the right. Scroll most of the way down for information on scholarships. It says most of them don't require a separate form - that you are entered for them by filling out your fafsa. For those that do, click here(PDF). They also have a database of scholarships that include institutional as well as local and national scholarships. Cost of attendance can be found here.

Division III:

Menlo College: To get to tuition, scholarships and financial aid, you need to click on the "prospective students" tab at the top and then you will see "tuition, scholarships and financial aid" under admissions to the left. It appears as if there is not an extra form for scholarships. All information they give about tuition and scholarships is found on that page. I could not find a federal work study link.



Check out the College List archives here.


Advice from my own personal experience:

** Schedule a campus visit!!

** Send an email to the school and see how quickly and efficiently they respond. This will be an indicator of how they will be once you're there.


If there is a college you don’t think I will get to soon enough that you really would like to know about, leave a comment (or send an email!) with the full name of the college/university along with the location of it and I will put it in the next edition of “College Lists;” (this can include universities outside of the US!) The lists I am following can be found at: wikipedia.

If there is anything else you think I should be including, please let me know!
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WUE program

November 6th 2007 15:00
Since this program has been in quite a few of the colleges I've covered in the College Lists series I decided it needed it's own post to link to just in case not everyone reads every single post in this series.

First off, WUE stands for Western Undergraduate Exchange.

Humboldt State has a page specifically for this program that I feel explains it very well.

From their page: "WUE is a state exchange program with participants from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Students are able to attend participating public colleges or universities in the se states at a significantly reduced cost."

That means if you live in one of those states and want to attend a public university in another of the states listed you can get a reduced tuition rate. Check the specific school's financial aid page for information on the reduced rate. (Not all schools have the same reduction since they don't all charge the same in tuition either). If you don't see it on a school's page, but believe they should have this program, your best bet is to call or email that school's financial aid office.

You should also check how you can be in the program. For instance, according to Humboldt's page (under "how do I apply?"), they say "You will automatically receive the WUE award upon admission to HSU." All schools may not be the same way, so be sure to ask.
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Notice anything different? Now you can Subscribe in a Reader there on the left! If you do that, you'll never miss anything on this blog. Because I know you would be devastated if you did.

Now for the links this week:

MonsterTrak has an article "Take Control: Financial Advice for Job Seekers" aimed at college students, or recent college graduates. It rehashes a lot of things you may already know, but also has some interesting links at the bottom.

Breaking the Shackles: How to Escape from Minimum Wage at Get Rich Slowly is quite an interesting topic. It's been going around the blogosphere a lot lately. I had to leave my own comment on this one. Too hard not to.

And one just for fun "Treating Marriage As A Business Relationship" at My Money Blog.

Have a good weekend! I know I will - all my midterms will finally be over!


Related Posts:
The Friday Links for Oct. 5th
The Friday Links for Sept. 28th
The Friday Links for Sept. 21st
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Seeing as I'm about to graduate in December, I thought I'd look back at some of the things I didn't know, and should have looked into, as well as things I just wish I would have done in college. In no particular order:

1) Actually research colleges. I didn't know what I wanted to major in, so I never looked at many colleges. I applied to two or three, but basically just "knew" I was going to the big, public, local university. Doing a little research may have helped me realize that was not the school for me. Things ended up turning out well for me, but I could have had a better plan


[ Click here to read more ]
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College List (pt. 10)

October 3rd 2007 15:46
It's been a while since I've posted one of these. Sorry about that.

In an attempt to be the most helpful site in affording college, I will be doing a continuing piece on specific colleges and universities in the United States and their scholarships/websites. (I will try hitting ones outside of the US at a later time). My brief summary of each will include a link to their financial aid page as well as other information I think may be helpful.
[ Click here to read more ]
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Yes, doing both school and work fulltime can be done. I would not recommend it by any stretch of the imagination, but it can definitely be done.

I have two friends here at school (same age as me) who are fulltime students, as well has carrying fulltime jobs


[ Click here to read more ]
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Free is Always in the Budget

September 25th 2007 18:38
"Free is always in the budget" is a quote from a professor I had at my first school. (It was for a stupid class that was a waste of time and money, but that's a whole other story). His point was, if they are giving out free food somewhere on campus, you should be there.

This is a good philosophy for college students, especially if you live on campus. If you live on campus, it doesn't cost you any money in gas to get to the free food. Plus, that's one less meal you'll have to buy for yourself that week


[ Click here to read more ]
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Living Off Student Loans

September 24th 2007 15:19
In the past week I’ve overheard two students with a similar story: they are living off of student loans. They took out more than was needed, paid tuition, and with the rest I assume they were just going to use it as “play money.”

The most recent one mentioned he had around $6,000 worth of student loan money left. (He had thought he would need it for student teaching, but then he didn’t student teach). What was he going to do with that $6,000? It sounded as if he was basically going to throw it away. He acted as if it was free money; you could tell he was thinking about what it would buy by the tone of his voice


[ Click here to read more ]
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