As students set out this week to find the best deals on their textbooks they’ll have a new way to save.
Chegg, an Internet-based company, rents textbooks to students for a fraction of what it would cost to buy them, making it an option for students who know they will only be using their books for one semester. Chegg estimates that users save up to 70 percent on the price of each textbook.
Spring 2008 will be the first semester that the program will be open to students from any American university. During the fall 2007 semester Chegg initiated a trial program, and rented textbooks only to students who had received a special invitation.
‘We realized that people were combining orders so students who didn’t receive invitations could rent books. The response was tremendous,’ said Chegg Vice President Aayush Phumbhra.
Users are given the option to rent their books for either 125 days, a semester, or 85 days, a half-semester. When the rental period is over, students are given the option to extend their rental, buy the textbook or mail the books back to Chegg.
However, local bookstores have no plans to initiate any textbook rental programs.
Binghamton University’s bookstore has looked into the idea, but has decided against it because ‘the faculty has vehemently put down this idea,’ said Heather Prescott, manager of the bookstore.
According to Prescott, courses must use the same textbooks for at least six consecutive semesters in order to make such a program profitable, limiting the academic freedom of both professors and students.
‘Especially in courses like nursing, the information changes too often [to use the same textbook for many consecutive semesters],’ Prescott said.
She added that a rental program would probably have more success at a community college, where textbooks are often re-used every semester.
Mando Books doesn’t plan to create a textbook rental program either.
‘If it worked, everyone would have been doing it from the beginning,’ said Danny, a Mando employee.
Students who rent their books, however, should be cautious of minor mistakes that can lead to additional charges. If the rented books have not been returned within a certain time frame at the end of the semester, the renter will automatically be charged the book’s full price. Additionally, returning a textbook with any writing in it or too much highlighting can result in a hefty fee.
Despite these issues, interest in textbook renting has already spread to BU, and Chegg has a few renters from the University.
‘Renting was a lot cheaper than buying books at a bookstore. People have no idea how much they can save,’ said Walter Wagner, a geology graduate student at BU who used Chegg for the first time this semester.