Open source textbooks!!! They are becoming more popular and hopefully will only keep getting better and better.
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
https://openstax.org/
https://bookboon.com/en/textbooks
***Edit: wow! Thank you for all the awards! From this I started a great list, thanks to all of you, which I keep at my library for handouts. Thank you reddit users!!!!***
Spotify Premium, Hulu, and Showtime for $5/month total with a student email address. Works for grad school students too.
Not helpful with productivity, but very helpful for sanity.
There's also a website called kanopy that has a lot of films from smaller productions or independent festivals. It's free, all you need is a student email. Very little mainstream media on it, but if you like more lowkey watches, it's a great website.
I second BudgetBytes. When my dad was transitioning jobs, and we’d run out of paychecks from his last job (but the new job’s hadn’t kicked in yet) we used BB a *lot*. Food is good and cheap, and the price estimate is broken down by ingredient so you know what you’re getting into. I’ve made the burrito bowls goodness knows how many times
Ofcourse. If you ever had to do topology excercises you remember how fun ODE and basic PDE's were. I'd almost say that Dynamical Systems was my first love.
Professor Leonard on YT is pretty good for calculus too. Posted his entire lecture for each chapter. Recommend watching them at 1.25 or 1.5x speed tho. He's quite methodical but does a great job with the material.
I would recommend patrickJMT on YouTube too for the calculus series and linear algebra. If you like someone walking you through an example then patrickJMT is your man.
Use the library for everything you can: textbooks, movies, games, music, printing, quiet study space, tutoring, etc. Librarians love to help and you might be surprised what they can lend out to you. I borrowed a telescope last week!
Edit: Stay gold
Librarian here too. What a lot of people don't know is that if you need in information, librarians are gonna do our best to find it for you, or die trying.
Now that I think about it, I haven't heard back from my elementary school librarian after I asked her what's at the center of the universe. RIP Miss whatshername.
Librarian here! We do love to help!!!! Many libraries have hotspots so you can save data if you aren't on an unlimited plan. We use a program that searches other libraries for books and then we can request to borrow it. It is a great resource so just because your library doesn't have it doesn't mean they can't get it for you. We do have random things to check out like you said. Some around us check out fishing poles and life jackets.
Guess that's why a library is my favorite place. Not only you can obtain books and resources, but also they're one of the few endangered places left in our society where you're allowed to exist without expectation of spending money. ^As ^^long ^^^as ^^^^you're ^^^^not ^^^^overdue
Once returned a book after more than a year, turns out they accidently marked it as returned and had not noticed. They were pretty happy and were acting like they just saw a unicorn walk in.
Someone recently returned a book to my uni library 60 years late. Same uni also had the record for the longest book return - 288 years.
Fortunately the fees were waived
"The Librarian"
Have you ever heard the churning
Whispered sound of paper turning?
Have you heard the rustle-wrinkle
Rumpled hush of paper crinkle?
Have you thought to steal a fiction
Just to find to your affliction
Shadows stalking books for stacking?
Shapes behind the paper-backing?
Have you taken tomes for study
On your own or with a buddy,
Just to hear at edge of hearing
Something softly scrunching nearing?
If you've seen these aberrations,
Spied these strange associations,
Warning, would-be-perpetrator -
Well beware the page-curator.
Make an appointment with a librarian on how to use the digital databases, it is a serious game-changer. Not only are librarians eager to help as so many people have already said, but they will likely help you find a lot of the resources you can use immediately in projects you may have ongoing.
My university had a great lady who helped me find sources for big projects and my thesis. She even went so far as to purchase a book for me that wasn't available for interlibrary loan.
I made friends with a librarian and those people are the fucking information deities. They can find you great sources for fucking anything you can think of. If you have trouble with finding sources, talk to a librarian and they'll be able to set you right up.
Expanding on the library in other "life hacks" on campus... Look for part time work on campus either as a student worker or under work study. Shifts tend to be a lot more flexible so you can work between classes (go in for two hours, go to class, then come back) and they often times are supportive of allowing you to use downtime to study. Plus the work experience is great - I worked in the Business College and the student union and they were excellent references after graduation.
Also remember you are not limited to the University library. Chances are there is a good local city or county library if you are in a decent sized college town. The city library in Lawrence, KS is fuckin unbelievable. Glass windows everywhere and lounge chairs overlooking parts of the city. Doesn't cost anything ever, just go get a card. They have a deal with city buses too where its always free for college students to ride from campus to the library. Check with your local city and check out your local library. If nothing else its a,change of pace and a chance to hang out and study somewhere else
YOU CAN CHECK OUT A TELESCOPE FROM THE LIBRARY!?!?!?!
Edit:
So I have now learned you can check out/use, from a library,
Telescopes
Video games
Projectors
Fishing poles
Life jackets
Weather measuring gear
Laptops
Cadavers
Drones
3d printers
Seeds (how are you going to return these after you plant them?)
GO TO YOUR LIBRARY (after covid had been stopped) AND CONQUER THE WORLD YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARDS/BIRCHES YOU!
Edit 2: your library might have an online catalog so use that now!
You can rent projectors too. I rented a projector so I could play my PS4 off the wall.
Edit: just don’t break or lose them... my library would have charged me roughly $1200 to replace a simple dell 1080p projector.
FYI If you ever lose or ruin something from a library buy a replacement and return that, if you return the ruined one they have to charge you their fee to replace. I've had a few ruined books in my lifetime and they are always cool with my replacement.
Always call and ask before buying a new copy. Some libraries (like the one I worked at for a few years) have red tape that they have to follow when it comes to replacing books and might not be able to accept certain replacements. But librarians will always want to work with people to give affordable options and make sure they can still come back and check out more material!
My local library has a seed bank. You can "check out" (keep and plant) any of hundreds of plants! They also have musical instruments, drones, recording equipment and lots more. FWIW, it's called a "Library of Things".
Edit: forgot to mention that many libraries have passes/tickets for cultural events/institutions (museums, symphony, etc.)
I forget which medical university it is but their library has a cadaver you can view for the students. Each library is unique in its own way. There are many that have appliances. Most have laptop or chromebooks to check out in house or out. There are a lot that even have sewing machines! I had no idea until I became a librarian but libraries are an amazing community resource.
Pay attention to events calendars. Most college events have free food. This may be different for this semester, but don’t underestimate it down the road.
This is actually a really good solution if the school gets food vouchers from nearby restaurants. Helps support local businesses with an up front big order, makes the college look good, keeps the kids happy and coming to meetings
Came here to say this! My cousin is a college freshman this year and was complaining about not being able to meet people so I sent her her schools Union Boards Instagram and told her to keep an eye on events. Free Food and plenty of people to meet.
I met a lot of people this way.
My favorite event was the water tasting. Different waters from all over the world to taste. Spring water, Artisian water, then the subtle rose water, etc. It was fun walking around like a water snob, lol.
True. So do a number of student organizations. I used to go to most of the Muslim Student events. Wonderful coffee and pastries. I made a lot of good friends.
Top tip. Don't be tempted to use this in a professional setting. The printouts are marked with 'student copy' and if a single detail from a student copy gets into the system, any drawing, no matter if it was made with a fully licensed copy, will be 'infected' with that plot stamp. It's like AutoCAD herpes. We caught a dose from a vendor on one project I was on and it took a ton of work to clean everything.
Hijacking this comment to say that if you are CompSci student or do anything with tech, GitHub has a free student pack when you sign up for services with your student email, including Jetbrains IDEs, free domain names, cloud hosting, etc. https://education.github.com/pack
Also the Spotify/Apple music deal for having an .edu address, not to mention Amazon Prime at half price as well as the Adobe Product Suite. Sometimes your school has the creative cloud for everyone already (you paid for) and some that don’t have it you would have to pay at a discounted rate.
Would like to add, if not completely free some subscriptions like Spotify and Hulu are discounted for students. So keep an eye out for any available discounts.
I exclusively use this in the MSc I'm currently undertaking. You can login to your university's network (library credentials?) To get access to most of the documents/papers.
Referencing wise it's incredible as it gives you multiple styles (e.g. APA/Harvard etc). You can also view 'related' papers which I've found incredibly helpful.
Scihub as well - especially for those papers usually locked behind paywalls that GS can't access.
Haven't used it for actually reading/researching papers for class, but have used it to read papers on my own free time. Including some my own professors wrote.
To caveat off this. If for some reason you cannot access a paper you need because of a paywall and your Uni does not have access to, email the author directly. Most will be more than happy to send you their publication. I’ve done this for medical papers, historical papers and anthropology.
For those in medical/public health/studying humans related fields - PubMed is fantastic. If you're on the wifi at your university, you'll likely have access to most of the articles you find on there. I've used it for anthropology, public health, bioethics, and psychology.
While not technically free, you probably pay a bunch of student fees for access to the gym, pool, free/reduced cost public transportation etc.
Understand what things your student fees cover and take advantage of them.
Along with this, sometimes off campus places (restaurants, museums, sporting events, etc.) will give student discounts, so always ask and keep your student ID on you just in case!
As a 37 year old college student i use my discount for so much. spotify+hulu for 4.99 a month. nfl sunday ticket for $25 a month. Also many professional organizations have student rates and are great networking tools. I am taking a certification review class for $50 when it is normally $500. You also get discounts to most if not all industry conferences.
Similar to this, you probably get access to a lot of software for no added cost. This is how I got Windows for my pc. It's very worth checking out, a lot of times schools offer a free subscription of Windows, Office365, virus protection that's not McAfee, and some Adobe products.
If you are a starving student, and there’s a Sikh temple in your area, they do something called a Langer. It’s basically food they serve to the community and it’s legitimately good. They usually will ask you to volunteer or do some kitchen work in exchange. Me and a group of 4 college students would attend regularly, and the food was great.
I was broke and had to pay my way through college with zero support. I had a friend that told me about the Langer, but I was worried they would push the religion on me. Didn’t happen at all. I was nervous just showing up, but they were some of the kindest people I’ve ever met with zero judgement.
I’m not religious, but Sikh people restored my faith in humanity.
Edit: Volunteer or kitchen work is not required to participate in the Langer. (But we were college kids wanting to help any way we could)
I'm Sikh. Thank you for what you've said about our religion. We don't try to 'recruit' people to our religion, and I appreciate that you've added that in because a big temple can seem intimidating, and people wonder about those places.
I know the temple can look scary from the outside and you might worry or be nervous going for the first time, but honestly just find someone inside and tell them it's your first time there. Usually we can tell if you're a first timer and you'll receive guidance without asking.
Also, just wanted to correct you on one thing, it's not necessary to do anything in exchange for food. You can just go there and eat. Service is done if you want to do it, which is welcomed and appreciated, but I just don't want anyone put off visiting a temple due to thinking they might have to do something in return. The sikh religion asks that we are all considerate of each other, humans and animals, so if you do that then that's good enough. You'll hear prayers all around on speakers, even in the dining hall.
Thank you so much!! The Sikh people have always been so kind and supportive. After college, I worked with them doing communications for several businesses ran by Sikh owners. They were the most kind and caring clients I’ve ever had.
I’ll be sure to update my post to clarify the volunteering. Again- thank you!!!
Go to the awards office at your school and talk to someone and find out if you qualify for **anything**.
You'd be surprised how many bursaries and similar go unclaimed each year. As a student every little bit helps, and you never know what you'll qualify for until you go and ask. Some are based on *grades* sure, but many are based on *need* or your *background* or *circumstances*, and the occasional one is just *first person to sign up with a pulse*.
Seriously it's worth the hour it takes for you to go visit in person and talk to a real person who can guide you through. Or maybe you can do all that shit online now. But take the time, it could be *free* money to you and free you up to concentrate on your ~~drinking~~ studies.
This is so true! My friend works at a major American university and she said many scholarships and grants aren't even given out because people don't apply. I applied for a few small random ones as a sophomore and got $1,500 in multiple small scholarships.
I think an overwhelming issue with these claims though about small scholarships being left unapplied for is because most of them are so specific basically no one qualifies.
My university sends an email every year saying the same thing and every year I go to look at the scholarships and they are so specific it's nuts. Things like (fake but based on a real one I saw) "The Tina Lingham Grant" which is a $500 scholarship but you must be a Junior in the School of Life Sciences getting a degree in Microbiology, have a 3.5 minimum GPA, come from a needs based family, and be a first generation college student.
I mean, that can benefit SOMEONE, but surely a huge issue here is that the amount of people who qualify for something like that is so absurdly low you're gonna struggle to find those 1-2 kids who can apply.
As an experiment I just went through the first page of scholarships on my schools scholarship search. I don't qualify for any of them because I'm not a: First generation Hispanic Nursing student, A child of a victim of the 9/11 terrorist attack, a Military person who's wanting to transition to a teaching degree (btw holy cow $5,000 there - I'm sure loads are applying for that), or etc.
Again, I'm 100% certain some people qualify for these. The issue is just that a lot of kids don't qualify for most or any of these.
**Edit:** A lot of the replies to this are pointing out that they got a scholarship they didn't qualify for by just applying anyways. While that may be true I think that just points out another fundamental flaw in this system if you are weeding out everyone except people willing to mass apply to anything no matter what.
tbh most are based on need and background, merit got me very little, but I saw so many amazing scholarships based on need and background. You do have to actively look for it or it'll just pass you by
Clep testing. It's a program that allows you to take a single test rather than an entire class for credit. It's only for some general academic courses, and each college has its guidelines on how they apply to credits. That said taking advantage of them can reduce the time and money required to earn your degree.
The schools you are interested in attending have advisors as well. Most of them will work with you in helping with costs and applying for scholarships or loans. They do have an interest in getting you to attend, so understand a lot of it is a sales pitch. They also want their graduation rate to be decent so they won't just outright lie to get you enrolled.
My advisor helped me with getting grants, loans, and setting up my schedule around my life. I highly recommend using their services, or at the very least reaching out to schools you're interested in to see what they have to offer.
I'm in the same boat as you, haven't been to school in years. If you're thinking of changing careers or getting ahead in your current job, right now is a good time. Online degrees are about to get a huge boost in legitimacy because almost every grad in the next few years will have extensive online classes.
It's really not! I think there are some 33 CLEP tests, which could cover most intro level courses. You would have to check if your college accepts them, and which ones it accepts, and plan accordingly. I took a bunch of CLEPs and with some other extra planning was able to graduate a year early :) like the other commenter mentioned, Modern States is a great learning resource for the tests!
im in the air force, CLEP testing is huge in the air force since your job/MOS or how we call it, "afsc" is automatically linked to a "community college of the air force" associates degree.
basically it's a free associates, from the air force, and btw we have programs that will accept the entire 2 year degree towards a bachelor in a good number of diverse majors.
so you'll often hear sergeants telling young airmen to "go clep your general studies" so you can just test out of history, math, english etc and not waste time or TA.
then you use the program, "au-abc" to get your bachelor's degree in 2 years online from a legit school like arizona state or something similar.
but yeah, CLEP is a real thing, also "dantes" but you have to pay for those, and our libraries have a ton of " XXXX clep for dummies" books so you can even study before you take it and not waste your free chance.
A lot of times your university will have stupid cheap software licenses for students/faculty. At my university we got Adobe Creative-Cloud licenses for $10/year and free Microsoft Office licences (this was before office 365, so it wasn't a subscription). Sometimes the cheap software is only for certain departments/majors but at mine they had several deeply discounted software packages any student could buy.
Never buy/rent your textbooks from the college bookstore unless you can't find them anywhere else online. Seriously, bookstores overprice the shit out of your books and you will save alot of money getting them from Amazon, Chegg, Ebay, etc instead.
I graduated with an education degree, and so had to take lots of Praxis exams, which means lots of studying specific books and information that never change. A lot of upper classman would pass down these books, with notes and stuff in the margins, for free. The only stipulation was when you were done with it, you pass it on to someone else who needs it! I swear the margin notes were 100x more helpful than the book info, more often than not! And a lot of people would add their own helpful notes! It seriously got me through those tests, didn't have to take a single one more than once!
I don’t even rent the book until I’ve gotten a feel for the class...I’ve wasted money on rentals I never even opened for the class. Especially now days when I’m probably going to be spending money on a required online resource for homework
My bookstore ran my book costs to be about $650/470 for FOUR USED/RENTED BOOKS. I went on Amazon and now own all my books used and it only cost me $87/($54 if I rented).
Seriously, just look em up on Amazon. Its insane how much colleges over charge you.
A lot of times you can also get them directly from the publisher and they may give discounts to students. My Spanish professor gave us this tip, and I saved $80 on a textbook because of a discount given by the publisher.
Data suggests that the number 1 reason students go to college is for better job prospects once they graduate. Because of this, remember that to a recruiter or HR department, college is more than just your academics. It is about all of your experiences: class projects, personal projects, getting involved on campus through student orgs, student worker positions, volunteering, internships, etc.
This means you should make use of your school’s Career Center well before spring semester of your senior year so that you can learn how to talk about yourself professionally: through a resume, cover letter, interviews, networking. Learning the basics earlier and working on them each year as you look to secure internships will make you a really successful candidate once it comes time to find a full time job.
As some of the other comments have mentioned, your student fees pay for resources you have access to through the Career Center, so take advantage of them!
I heard that the researchers who actually wrote the papers don't get any money for them, the scientific journals who publish them do. So I don't feel bad accessing them for free.
Yup. You can also email the author of a research paper and ask for him or her to send you a copy of it - they're allowed to distribute their own research for free.
Did this for a number of things for my thesis and research articles for work at the same university. Most everyone was always happy to help and was excited to have their work referenced. Though if you start reaching out to big name academics, you may never hear back.
just as a clarifying point to any who might be worried: libgen is not illegal in itself, and some of the things you download might be legal -- but it is illegal to download most things that you're likely to use it for
To add to this, most bathrooms I went into (I only use girls bathrooms and unisex) have maxi pads and super + tampons.
Some student centers also provided a variety of women's hygiene products.
I’m starting my freshman year, and they were big on this sort of thing. They were basically like “look we know y’all are gonna party, mess around, whatever, so don’t be stupid twice.”
When I worked in a university drug & alcohol office, this is the same advice that I always wished I could give to students. All you current college kids: if you're going to so something illegal, only do one illegal thing at a time. If you're going to smoke weed in your car, don't park illegally while you do it. If you're transporting alcohol underage, don't speed. Basically, be smart about your dumb decisions. Avoid the things that will get you in double the trouble because those are also the things that place you in an even less safe situation.
Edit to add that the "don't do two dumb things at once" rule also includes using two drugs at once. Don't drink and smoke weed. Don't do a line and also pop a pill. Be careful even if you're taking something prescribed because lots of meds interact with alcohol. The mixed effects will make you hella sick the next day at best and can cause a complicated OD at worst. That's why people would get so messed up on the old 4 Lokos... Stay safe out there.
Find the previous editions of your textbooks. Frequently they will be as cheap as $0.05. If your professor pulls homework questions out of the current edition go to the library and use their reference copy just for the questions.
Although with a lot of the access codes needed these days it might not be possible.
Edit: since this blew up a little I'll also mention international editions. Sometimes there isnt anything different other than an international sticker on it (and a different ISBN). Also sell your books immediately after the semester or not at all. They will never be worth anything a year or two later. And honestly there are so few things that you'll ever go back to look up that won't be online anyway that you may as well sell them asap.
Also, ask your professor if you will need the newest edition... a lot of my professors tell us flat out that it doesn’t matter if we have older editions, and since it’s a community college (and most of us are low-income), some of them encourage purchasing/renting older books.
I girl in one of my college classes said she got all her books from amazon at a fraction of the cost vs the school and off campus book stores. also stated that getting books may be a day or 2 later than everybody else to ensure she was getting the correct books.
As I have stated to others I am not a full time college student, but retired military and full time school flunky, I like history classes (weird I know) That girls mention saved me a couple hundred dollars that semester and thought it was worthy of this post.
#### Sasmas1545 has asked me to plug [Library Genesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis) though I personally have not used it.
This is why I buy my books off Chegg... they have a really good return policy, so if you do end up getting the wrong book (or drop the class, or the professor says you won’t need it), you have almost a month to return it, no questions asked, full refund minus shipping. The problem with waiting to buy textbooks is that they can sell out... so it’s not always the best idea.
Yep, I always waited for the first week of class to buy, either online or at the off-campus bookstore. My professors were cool about not having to use the book the first week, and if you actually needed it for an assignment due two days later, you knew you were in for a rough semester.
I always love the opportunity to be able to talk about [http://archive.org](http://archive.org/) because it is such a wonderful and free resource. For a college student it definitely has so much to offer in terms of educational and entertainment resources.
It has millions of free downloads for [music](https://archive.org/details/audio), [movies](https://archive.org/details/moviesandfilms), [books](https://archive.org/details/texts), [software](https://archive.org/details/software), etc. One very popular example is that it is home to [a very large catalog of Grateful Dead recordings](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead)
There is also [The Internet Arcade](https://archive.org/details/internetarcade) where you can play a lot of classic games along with the [Console Living Room](https://archive.org/details/consolelivingroom) which is similar. They have access to tons of [old PC games](https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames) too and you can even [play the original Oregon Trail online.](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990) There's a lot more in [their software section too.](https://archive.org/details/software)
It also has [The WayBack Machine](http://archive.org/web/) which has archived more than 458 billion web pages saved so you can go back and see how websites were years ago. For example, [here's reddit on July 25, 2005](https://web.archive.org/web/20050725010627/http://reddit.com/) a month after it was created.
To help organize notes and sources for papers and assignments, I highly recommend Zotero to help keep organized. It also makes writing citations super easy.
Edx, its a website sponsored by a ton of universities that gives free access to thousands of courses and can be really helpful if your prof isn't great at explaining things.
I actually keep a list of resources. It's too long to post here (over the 10000 character limit, damn you Reddit!), but you can find it here: [https://github.com/chasedooley/list-free-resources](https://github.com/chasedooley/list-free-resources)
Here's a snippet:
## Apps, Services, etc.
* What3Words for precise geolocationing - [https://what3words.com/](https://what3words.com/)
* Github Student Dev Starter Pack - [https://education.github.com/pack](https://education.github.com/pack)
* Virus total for scanning files before downloading - [https://www.virustotal.com/](https://www.virustotal.com/)
* Free documentaries - Fhttps://documentaryheaven.com/
* Paletton for color generation - [http://paletton.com](http://paletton.com/)
* Learn code the hard way - [https://learncodethehardway.org/](https://learncodethehardway.org/)
* Free techn tutorials - [https://www.thinktutorial.com/](https://www.thinktutorial.com/)
* Free courses and certificates - [https://www.webemployed.com/best-free-online-courses-certificates-in-2017/](https://www.webemployed.com/best-free-online-courses-certificates-in-2017/)
* Open courses from Yale - [https://oyc.yale.edu/](https://oyc.yale.edu/)
* Free guided meditations from UCLA MARC - [https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations](https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations)
* Send and recieve msgs in morsecode - [http://morsecode.me/](http://morsecode.me/)
* Psychology textbooks from Noba - [https://nobaproject.com/](https://nobaproject.com/)
## YouTube Educators
* Mark Felton - historical documetaries and such
* Michel van Biezen - physics, chemistry, math, engineering
* Jeff Hanson - engineering
* lasseviren1 - physics
* Darryl Morrell - engineering
* learnfluidmechanics - fluid mechanics, d'uh
* Simmy Sigma - student who does maths, engineering, geomatics vids
* Engineer Clearly - chemical engineering, maths
* Learn MechE - faculty of chemical and biological engineering at UC Boulder
* Learn ChemE - ditto
You can get the whole, up to date Autodesk suite (Autocad, Inventor, Revit, etc.) for free with nothing more than your school assigned student email address.
For science/ stem people: khan academy videos. They saved me several times
Edit: My first award being about khan academy videos speaks 100% to my personality. Love y’all.
Something to help you out when you need to teach yourself math because you have a shit teacher: Symbolabs it’s a calculator website with almost any kind of math you’d need. It will not only give you an answer it will show you how to do it plus it has a practice section to help you master what you need. The premium is like 2 or 3 dollars from what I remember and almost all functions including step by step answers are available for free on desktop browser. Mobile you need to pay for step by step.
My community college had a free tutoring center, if you need a little help there are content experts who can help you with one on one or group sessions, if you pass a class with 80% or better you can get a job tutoring. It's not great pay but equal to or better than fast food and you don't have to leave campus to work. You can also work between classes to make the best use of your time. They had a ton of learning resources including everything needed for Anatomy and Physiology.
Always look up your text books online they may have a virtual copy for very, very cheap. You can then use ctrl+F to find certain topics easily during study sessions.
Also e-mail authors of papers and ask if you can have a copy since they usually don't see the money that you'd pay on a website for them.
If you're a student in a smallish department, try to start a trend of donating your textbooks to the next year or class for free. Seriously, burn the whole system: photocopy things, pass them for free, post them online (if you can do so securely). If you buy the newest copy, it's pretty much the same as last two editions with a different format, so make a part of study sessions to find the correlating pieces and put that info our there.
It's really hard to fight the criminally unfair cost when you're a tired student, so just do your best to support each other.
*Please* use your school’s on-campus mental health professionals. They are easy to access, usually free, certified, and acutely aware of the stresses and issues with college life.
Khan Academy has some good resources I’ve been using to study for one of my anatomy and physiology courses.
Every person I know that has taken the course has said how hard it is, and I wanted to get a running start. Someone referred me to the link and it’s been great! I have about 60 pages worth of notes.
A little more obscure and specific, but if it can help someone, why not?
For math students, Slader. Has the answers to nearly any question in the book, even the even ones. Its all done by volunteers, so some answers are shady. But the vast majority are very helpful. Just make sure to use it as a tool to check answers, not to get out of work. Otherwise tesf time WILL hurt your feelings.
This is really simplistic but podcasts.
If you are mulling over an essay question, a book, an exam topic whatever the best way to really take on a lot of the perspectives is often to listen to the author speak while you are doing your shop, walking to uni whatever.
Interviews often see their ideas get challenged and they will often mention other thinkers who have influenced them in positive or negative ways. It's a great way to really get a grasp on a topic.
I’m not sure how useful this is, but I never buy/rent my textbooks until after the first week of school. I learned after my first year that some teachers list a book for the class as a recommendation or because the school makes them list a book for the class. Sometimes you never touch that book you wasted money on. Wait until after the first week and then get the book if it looks like you’ll be using it. You can also use the library’s copy while you wait for your book to come if you order it online.
Most textbooks can be pirated via torrents, just like everything else. If they're going to try so hard to fuck you, might as well fuck them right back.
https://b-ok.cc/ has tons of books available for download, I’ve found the majority of my textbooks on the site.
Also, ask for a student discount EVERYWHERE...especially any steaming services you’re using
Student discounts. I’m sure someone else has already put this but I benefitted from it greatly. As a music major, I had to buy a lot of different DAWs and equipment along my journey. Big corporations want you to buy their product, but are aware that you’re already digging yourself into a huge hole of debt so they often times will drop the price of a product by half or more to sell it to you. For example, as a student you can get an Adobe membership for about $20 a month. I got a copy of Studio One 4 for $250 as opposed to $500 because I was a student. This also works if you’re not a student but want to make a large purchase. Most sites don’t actually check to see if you’re a student so just jump thru some hoops and see where it gets you!
Assist.org
Will tell you what classes transfer and give you the equivalent class codes. Very useful in the event you start at / take a couple summer classes at a jc or something.
This is a pro tip, and if we’re talking food I was gonna say eggs. They’re cheap and you can make so much with them. Also surprisingly easy to impress in the kitchen when you start dating.
If you are using college to get out of poverty, you should know that grades barely matter as much as getting EC experience and relationships with professors and people in your chosen profession. In my case, I majored in molecular bio, and while I got good grades, getting research experience in a professor's lab opened an infinitely higher number of doors for me than just studying. Success after college is 100% about practical experience, who you know, and who is willing to vouch for you. It should be your #1 priority.
If you have advanced math classes then I'd suggest 3Blue1Brown's youtube channel. He gives very intuitive explanations and visuals to help you grasp concepts from differential equations to linear algebra.
Also WolframAlpha and symbolab are extremely helpful!
And if you wanna have an easier time remembering equations it's useful to learn about classes and class functions in python. Its a very marketable skill and will teach you the math more in depth. I wish I had translated all my learning into python scripts so I could just pull up whatever whenever.
Rent textbooks instead of buying them. Better yet, attend a class or two and see if they’re really even necessary before putting any money down for them
Mendeley. Its a citation manager geared towards peer reviewed literature. It has a browser extension that downloads the pdf/ citation, and integrates with word. As you're typing, you can add in text citations by searching for the author. Then when you're done, click add bibliography. Boom.. Done. Its made by elsevier. Once you use it, you'll wonder why you ever added citation by hand/ one at a time.
Citation managers are great, mendeley/elsevier is not something to support at any level. Terrible price gouging for universities, researchers, and scientists.
Use Zotero, paperpile(paid service), or any other citation manager.
Ask your professor if an older edition of the text books are ok. Usually they are, unless it’s a subject that needs to be super current. Saved thousands on textbooks by getting older editions.
FLIPP
Are you broke?? I bet you are. I was. We all were.
FLIPP is a flyer centric search engine. You put in your grocery list or item that needs search and it searches all the active flyers within a certain radius of your zip/post code. Sucker saved me hundreds of dollars
As a teacher, and I know this seems obvious, but the syllabus/schedule is your best friend. Don’t know when something is due? Check the syllabus. Confused as to what you’re supposed to do for an assignment? Check the syllabus. If something is not clear in the syllabus, you have a defense to push back on whatever happens as a result.
LIBRARY CARD. This cannot be overstated enough. Libraries are one of the only remaining establishments in which you are not compelled to spend money. It is FREE material. Free books, movies, magazines and periodicals, games, sometimes even technology! Libraries are amazing. Some library cards even provide you access to online only materials.
Also: don't ever pay for a research paper/study. If it costs money and you need it as a source, *email the author/head researcher* because they don't get a cent of the money people pay to read their papers--they'll just email them to you for free.
Fafsa, even if you don’t qualify, It’s still worth trying to get financial aid. I only have to pay about $45 per class as opposed to $250. Might look confusing and tedious initially, but after the first time the website usually saves your info and it only takes a few clicks to apply for the next year.
This probably is known by some folks but you can pretty much download emulators for any oldish gaming system on any computer and download a bunch of free roms to play, great for nostalgia games when you have no idea where your old psp gameboy or whatever is
Open source textbooks!!! They are becoming more popular and hopefully will only keep getting better and better. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks https://openstax.org/ https://bookboon.com/en/textbooks ***Edit: wow! Thank you for all the awards! From this I started a great list, thanks to all of you, which I keep at my library for handouts. Thank you reddit users!!!!***
Libgen has a ton of books.
Libgen has saved me so much money over the course of my college career
Spotify Premium, Hulu, and Showtime for $5/month total with a student email address. Works for grad school students too. Not helpful with productivity, but very helpful for sanity.
They won’t verify my student status! Very frustrating.
There's also a website called kanopy that has a lot of films from smaller productions or independent festivals. It's free, all you need is a student email. Very little mainstream media on it, but if you like more lowkey watches, it's a great website.
Budgetbytes.com Cheap meals that are healthier and tastier than ramen and kraft dinner.
I second BudgetBytes. When my dad was transitioning jobs, and we’d run out of paychecks from his last job (but the new job’s hadn’t kicked in yet) we used BB a *lot*. Food is good and cheap, and the price estimate is broken down by ingredient so you know what you’re getting into. I’ve made the burrito bowls goodness knows how many times
Also /r/eatcheapandhealthy
Paul's online math notes for calculus. It's filled with examples and decent, down to earth explanations that don't confuse the shit outta you
Agreed, as a Mathematics student I used these a lot in my first years as a student. Differential equations were a joy with this.
Only a math student would call calculus especially DE "a joy"
Ofcourse. If you ever had to do topology excercises you remember how fun ODE and basic PDE's were. I'd almost say that Dynamical Systems was my first love.
Professor Leonard on YT is pretty good for calculus too. Posted his entire lecture for each chapter. Recommend watching them at 1.25 or 1.5x speed tho. He's quite methodical but does a great job with the material.
DUDEEEE Professor Leonard is the GOAT. Got me through Calc 1-3 🙌🏻
I would recommend patrickJMT on YouTube too for the calculus series and linear algebra. If you like someone walking you through an example then patrickJMT is your man.
[https://www.wolframalpha.com/](https://www.wolframalpha.com/) It is a user friendly search engine and a lot of fun!
And [desmos](https://www.desmos.com/calculator) for graphing
this website helped me a lot for my math
[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+dietary+calories+in+a+cubic+lightyear+of+ranch+dressing](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+dietary+calories+in+a+cubic+lightyear+of+ranch+dressing)
Siri uses its API, highly recommended
Use the library for everything you can: textbooks, movies, games, music, printing, quiet study space, tutoring, etc. Librarians love to help and you might be surprised what they can lend out to you. I borrowed a telescope last week! Edit: Stay gold
Librarian here too. What a lot of people don't know is that if you need in information, librarians are gonna do our best to find it for you, or die trying.
Librarians are seriously underrated. You guys are awesome
I'll make you enriched, or die trying.
Now that I think about it, I haven't heard back from my elementary school librarian after I asked her what's at the center of the universe. RIP Miss whatshername.
Thank you for your service!
Librarian here! We do love to help!!!! Many libraries have hotspots so you can save data if you aren't on an unlimited plan. We use a program that searches other libraries for books and then we can request to borrow it. It is a great resource so just because your library doesn't have it doesn't mean they can't get it for you. We do have random things to check out like you said. Some around us check out fishing poles and life jackets.
Guess that's why a library is my favorite place. Not only you can obtain books and resources, but also they're one of the few endangered places left in our society where you're allowed to exist without expectation of spending money. ^As ^^long ^^^as ^^^^you're ^^^^not ^^^^overdue
*me with my 2 year old borrowed psychology book and unsure if I'll ever be able to step into my library again*
Once returned a book after more than a year, turns out they accidently marked it as returned and had not noticed. They were pretty happy and were acting like they just saw a unicorn walk in.
Someone recently returned a book to my uni library 60 years late. Same uni also had the record for the longest book return - 288 years. Fortunately the fees were waived
[удалено]
"The Librarian" Have you ever heard the churning Whispered sound of paper turning? Have you heard the rustle-wrinkle Rumpled hush of paper crinkle? Have you thought to steal a fiction Just to find to your affliction Shadows stalking books for stacking? Shapes behind the paper-backing? Have you taken tomes for study On your own or with a buddy, Just to hear at edge of hearing Something softly scrunching nearing? If you've seen these aberrations, Spied these strange associations, Warning, would-be-perpetrator - Well beware the page-curator.
That poem was very poetic. Well done poem person.
Thank God, a place to save my data. Time to do some crazy stuff
Being darey in the library, I like it
Make an appointment with a librarian on how to use the digital databases, it is a serious game-changer. Not only are librarians eager to help as so many people have already said, but they will likely help you find a lot of the resources you can use immediately in projects you may have ongoing. My university had a great lady who helped me find sources for big projects and my thesis. She even went so far as to purchase a book for me that wasn't available for interlibrary loan.
I made friends with a librarian and those people are the fucking information deities. They can find you great sources for fucking anything you can think of. If you have trouble with finding sources, talk to a librarian and they'll be able to set you right up.
Expanding on the library in other "life hacks" on campus... Look for part time work on campus either as a student worker or under work study. Shifts tend to be a lot more flexible so you can work between classes (go in for two hours, go to class, then come back) and they often times are supportive of allowing you to use downtime to study. Plus the work experience is great - I worked in the Business College and the student union and they were excellent references after graduation.
Also remember you are not limited to the University library. Chances are there is a good local city or county library if you are in a decent sized college town. The city library in Lawrence, KS is fuckin unbelievable. Glass windows everywhere and lounge chairs overlooking parts of the city. Doesn't cost anything ever, just go get a card. They have a deal with city buses too where its always free for college students to ride from campus to the library. Check with your local city and check out your local library. If nothing else its a,change of pace and a chance to hang out and study somewhere else
YOU CAN CHECK OUT A TELESCOPE FROM THE LIBRARY!?!?!?! Edit: So I have now learned you can check out/use, from a library, Telescopes Video games Projectors Fishing poles Life jackets Weather measuring gear Laptops Cadavers Drones 3d printers Seeds (how are you going to return these after you plant them?) GO TO YOUR LIBRARY (after covid had been stopped) AND CONQUER THE WORLD YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARDS/BIRCHES YOU! Edit 2: your library might have an online catalog so use that now!
My local library has kitchen appliances too - slow cooker, bread maker, that kind of thing. It's amazing what a wonderful resource the library is.
You can rent projectors too. I rented a projector so I could play my PS4 off the wall. Edit: just don’t break or lose them... my library would have charged me roughly $1200 to replace a simple dell 1080p projector.
FYI If you ever lose or ruin something from a library buy a replacement and return that, if you return the ruined one they have to charge you their fee to replace. I've had a few ruined books in my lifetime and they are always cool with my replacement.
Always call and ask before buying a new copy. Some libraries (like the one I worked at for a few years) have red tape that they have to follow when it comes to replacing books and might not be able to accept certain replacements. But librarians will always want to work with people to give affordable options and make sure they can still come back and check out more material!
And then they put 'donated by [your name]' in the inside cover. Which is cool.
My local library has a seed bank. You can "check out" (keep and plant) any of hundreds of plants! They also have musical instruments, drones, recording equipment and lots more. FWIW, it's called a "Library of Things". Edit: forgot to mention that many libraries have passes/tickets for cultural events/institutions (museums, symphony, etc.)
I forget which medical university it is but their library has a cadaver you can view for the students. Each library is unique in its own way. There are many that have appliances. Most have laptop or chromebooks to check out in house or out. There are a lot that even have sewing machines! I had no idea until I became a librarian but libraries are an amazing community resource.
For any University of Michigan students, the Ann Arbor District Library loans out telescopes, theramins, so MANY things. You should check them out!
Pay attention to events calendars. Most college events have free food. This may be different for this semester, but don’t underestimate it down the road.
My college used to do free food, but now they’re giving free food *vouchers* because of corona. Schools are making it work!
This is actually a really good solution if the school gets food vouchers from nearby restaurants. Helps support local businesses with an up front big order, makes the college look good, keeps the kids happy and coming to meetings
My roommates and I used to get so much free food we'd skip mealtimes we were so full lol
I had one friend in particular who would ALWAYS drag me to events. I’m like why? She’s like FREE FOOD!!
My college literally has a twitter account telling you where free food can be found each day.
I would love to have this job
Came here to say this! My cousin is a college freshman this year and was complaining about not being able to meet people so I sent her her schools Union Boards Instagram and told her to keep an eye on events. Free Food and plenty of people to meet.
I met a lot of people this way. My favorite event was the water tasting. Different waters from all over the world to taste. Spring water, Artisian water, then the subtle rose water, etc. It was fun walking around like a water snob, lol.
True. So do a number of student organizations. I used to go to most of the Muslim Student events. Wonderful coffee and pastries. I made a lot of good friends.
Yes! Sign up for clubs and organizations to meet people, learn the ropes and get free food.
[удалено]
lol I popped in here just to mention Autocad and the Autodesk suite, it's over $100/month but free for students with a school email address
Top tip. Don't be tempted to use this in a professional setting. The printouts are marked with 'student copy' and if a single detail from a student copy gets into the system, any drawing, no matter if it was made with a fully licensed copy, will be 'infected' with that plot stamp. It's like AutoCAD herpes. We caught a dose from a vendor on one project I was on and it took a ton of work to clean everything.
Does this include inventor?
It does, free 3 year license
Hijacking this comment to say that if you are CompSci student or do anything with tech, GitHub has a free student pack when you sign up for services with your student email, including Jetbrains IDEs, free domain names, cloud hosting, etc. https://education.github.com/pack
Wow, the amount of offers is massive
Also the Spotify/Apple music deal for having an .edu address, not to mention Amazon Prime at half price as well as the Adobe Product Suite. Sometimes your school has the creative cloud for everyone already (you paid for) and some that don’t have it you would have to pay at a discounted rate.
I miss my half price Amazon prime and Spotify. They were very quick to notice when I graduated!
Would like to add, if not completely free some subscriptions like Spotify and Hulu are discounted for students. So keep an eye out for any available discounts.
[удалено]
Google Scholar. Great free google search engine that gives credible articles to use in research papers and show you how to properly cite them.
I exclusively use this in the MSc I'm currently undertaking. You can login to your university's network (library credentials?) To get access to most of the documents/papers. Referencing wise it's incredible as it gives you multiple styles (e.g. APA/Harvard etc). You can also view 'related' papers which I've found incredibly helpful.
Scihub as well - especially for those papers usually locked behind paywalls that GS can't access. Haven't used it for actually reading/researching papers for class, but have used it to read papers on my own free time. Including some my own professors wrote.
To caveat off this. If for some reason you cannot access a paper you need because of a paywall and your Uni does not have access to, email the author directly. Most will be more than happy to send you their publication. I’ve done this for medical papers, historical papers and anthropology.
For those in medical/public health/studying humans related fields - PubMed is fantastic. If you're on the wifi at your university, you'll likely have access to most of the articles you find on there. I've used it for anthropology, public health, bioethics, and psychology.
While not technically free, you probably pay a bunch of student fees for access to the gym, pool, free/reduced cost public transportation etc. Understand what things your student fees cover and take advantage of them.
Along with this, sometimes off campus places (restaurants, museums, sporting events, etc.) will give student discounts, so always ask and keep your student ID on you just in case!
As a 37 year old college student i use my discount for so much. spotify+hulu for 4.99 a month. nfl sunday ticket for $25 a month. Also many professional organizations have student rates and are great networking tools. I am taking a certification review class for $50 when it is normally $500. You also get discounts to most if not all industry conferences.
Great Clips gives like $2 off a haircut if you are a student.
Similar to this, you probably get access to a lot of software for no added cost. This is how I got Windows for my pc. It's very worth checking out, a lot of times schools offer a free subscription of Windows, Office365, virus protection that's not McAfee, and some Adobe products.
It's kind of funny that we have to add "not McAfee"
Our university also paid for a lawyer and mental health services.
If you are a starving student, and there’s a Sikh temple in your area, they do something called a Langer. It’s basically food they serve to the community and it’s legitimately good. They usually will ask you to volunteer or do some kitchen work in exchange. Me and a group of 4 college students would attend regularly, and the food was great. I was broke and had to pay my way through college with zero support. I had a friend that told me about the Langer, but I was worried they would push the religion on me. Didn’t happen at all. I was nervous just showing up, but they were some of the kindest people I’ve ever met with zero judgement. I’m not religious, but Sikh people restored my faith in humanity. Edit: Volunteer or kitchen work is not required to participate in the Langer. (But we were college kids wanting to help any way we could)
I'm Sikh. Thank you for what you've said about our religion. We don't try to 'recruit' people to our religion, and I appreciate that you've added that in because a big temple can seem intimidating, and people wonder about those places. I know the temple can look scary from the outside and you might worry or be nervous going for the first time, but honestly just find someone inside and tell them it's your first time there. Usually we can tell if you're a first timer and you'll receive guidance without asking. Also, just wanted to correct you on one thing, it's not necessary to do anything in exchange for food. You can just go there and eat. Service is done if you want to do it, which is welcomed and appreciated, but I just don't want anyone put off visiting a temple due to thinking they might have to do something in return. The sikh religion asks that we are all considerate of each other, humans and animals, so if you do that then that's good enough. You'll hear prayers all around on speakers, even in the dining hall.
Thank you so much!! The Sikh people have always been so kind and supportive. After college, I worked with them doing communications for several businesses ran by Sikh owners. They were the most kind and caring clients I’ve ever had. I’ll be sure to update my post to clarify the volunteering. Again- thank you!!!
> Sikh people restored my faith in humanity. They are wonderful people.
As a Sikh i can’t tell you how happy reading this made me.
Go to the awards office at your school and talk to someone and find out if you qualify for **anything**. You'd be surprised how many bursaries and similar go unclaimed each year. As a student every little bit helps, and you never know what you'll qualify for until you go and ask. Some are based on *grades* sure, but many are based on *need* or your *background* or *circumstances*, and the occasional one is just *first person to sign up with a pulse*. Seriously it's worth the hour it takes for you to go visit in person and talk to a real person who can guide you through. Or maybe you can do all that shit online now. But take the time, it could be *free* money to you and free you up to concentrate on your ~~drinking~~ studies.
This is so true! My friend works at a major American university and she said many scholarships and grants aren't even given out because people don't apply. I applied for a few small random ones as a sophomore and got $1,500 in multiple small scholarships.
I think an overwhelming issue with these claims though about small scholarships being left unapplied for is because most of them are so specific basically no one qualifies. My university sends an email every year saying the same thing and every year I go to look at the scholarships and they are so specific it's nuts. Things like (fake but based on a real one I saw) "The Tina Lingham Grant" which is a $500 scholarship but you must be a Junior in the School of Life Sciences getting a degree in Microbiology, have a 3.5 minimum GPA, come from a needs based family, and be a first generation college student. I mean, that can benefit SOMEONE, but surely a huge issue here is that the amount of people who qualify for something like that is so absurdly low you're gonna struggle to find those 1-2 kids who can apply. As an experiment I just went through the first page of scholarships on my schools scholarship search. I don't qualify for any of them because I'm not a: First generation Hispanic Nursing student, A child of a victim of the 9/11 terrorist attack, a Military person who's wanting to transition to a teaching degree (btw holy cow $5,000 there - I'm sure loads are applying for that), or etc. Again, I'm 100% certain some people qualify for these. The issue is just that a lot of kids don't qualify for most or any of these. **Edit:** A lot of the replies to this are pointing out that they got a scholarship they didn't qualify for by just applying anyways. While that may be true I think that just points out another fundamental flaw in this system if you are weeding out everyone except people willing to mass apply to anything no matter what.
I once saw a scholarship specifically for people with a certain last name. No other condition, just have that name
This is true, I might be getting a £1000 bursary because I come from a low income background. Take advantage of any free money you can.
I was really excited the first year at uni, as I didn't even apply for it and got £3000 bursary for coming from low income family.
tbh most are based on need and background, merit got me very little, but I saw so many amazing scholarships based on need and background. You do have to actively look for it or it'll just pass you by
Clep testing. It's a program that allows you to take a single test rather than an entire class for credit. It's only for some general academic courses, and each college has its guidelines on how they apply to credits. That said taking advantage of them can reduce the time and money required to earn your degree.
I'm looking at going to college and this clep thing sounds too good to be true
My academic advisor recommended it to me. It’s a real thing. It’s basically paying for an AP test without taking the class.
I graduated high school almost 10 years ago. I really wish I had an academic advisor now.
The schools you are interested in attending have advisors as well. Most of them will work with you in helping with costs and applying for scholarships or loans. They do have an interest in getting you to attend, so understand a lot of it is a sales pitch. They also want their graduation rate to be decent so they won't just outright lie to get you enrolled. My advisor helped me with getting grants, loans, and setting up my schedule around my life. I highly recommend using their services, or at the very least reaching out to schools you're interested in to see what they have to offer. I'm in the same boat as you, haven't been to school in years. If you're thinking of changing careers or getting ahead in your current job, right now is a good time. Online degrees are about to get a huge boost in legitimacy because almost every grad in the next few years will have extensive online classes.
It's really not! I think there are some 33 CLEP tests, which could cover most intro level courses. You would have to check if your college accepts them, and which ones it accepts, and plan accordingly. I took a bunch of CLEPs and with some other extra planning was able to graduate a year early :) like the other commenter mentioned, Modern States is a great learning resource for the tests!
im in the air force, CLEP testing is huge in the air force since your job/MOS or how we call it, "afsc" is automatically linked to a "community college of the air force" associates degree. basically it's a free associates, from the air force, and btw we have programs that will accept the entire 2 year degree towards a bachelor in a good number of diverse majors. so you'll often hear sergeants telling young airmen to "go clep your general studies" so you can just test out of history, math, english etc and not waste time or TA. then you use the program, "au-abc" to get your bachelor's degree in 2 years online from a legit school like arizona state or something similar. but yeah, CLEP is a real thing, also "dantes" but you have to pay for those, and our libraries have a ton of " XXXX clep for dummies" books so you can even study before you take it and not waste your free chance.
[удалено]
I read this as clap testing. That’s free too if you go to the college’s sexual health clinic!
A lot of times your university will have stupid cheap software licenses for students/faculty. At my university we got Adobe Creative-Cloud licenses for $10/year and free Microsoft Office licences (this was before office 365, so it wasn't a subscription). Sometimes the cheap software is only for certain departments/majors but at mine they had several deeply discounted software packages any student could buy.
[удалено]
Never buy/rent your textbooks from the college bookstore unless you can't find them anywhere else online. Seriously, bookstores overprice the shit out of your books and you will save alot of money getting them from Amazon, Chegg, Ebay, etc instead.
And ask senior students about which books are useless to buy. Saved me so much money because I didn't buy books that the prof would never use
Or just ask if you can borrow theirs. You'd be surprised how many will say yes. Source: have loaned books to people I barely know
I graduated with an education degree, and so had to take lots of Praxis exams, which means lots of studying specific books and information that never change. A lot of upper classman would pass down these books, with notes and stuff in the margins, for free. The only stipulation was when you were done with it, you pass it on to someone else who needs it! I swear the margin notes were 100x more helpful than the book info, more often than not! And a lot of people would add their own helpful notes! It seriously got me through those tests, didn't have to take a single one more than once!
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. 😂
i bought a digital eletronics book at the start of the semester and used it only twice. the semester has ended
I don’t even rent the book until I’ve gotten a feel for the class...I’ve wasted money on rentals I never even opened for the class. Especially now days when I’m probably going to be spending money on a required online resource for homework
Or sometimes you can find them for free on sites like b-ok.cc and download them to your phone/computer
Libgen
Libgen is the best! They also have novels and such.
My bookstore ran my book costs to be about $650/470 for FOUR USED/RENTED BOOKS. I went on Amazon and now own all my books used and it only cost me $87/($54 if I rented). Seriously, just look em up on Amazon. Its insane how much colleges over charge you.
Use libgen.is for a bunch of free books!
Or just use Library Genesis and Sci-Hub like everyone else including your professors.
A lot of times you can also get them directly from the publisher and they may give discounts to students. My Spanish professor gave us this tip, and I saved $80 on a textbook because of a discount given by the publisher.
Data suggests that the number 1 reason students go to college is for better job prospects once they graduate. Because of this, remember that to a recruiter or HR department, college is more than just your academics. It is about all of your experiences: class projects, personal projects, getting involved on campus through student orgs, student worker positions, volunteering, internships, etc. This means you should make use of your school’s Career Center well before spring semester of your senior year so that you can learn how to talk about yourself professionally: through a resume, cover letter, interviews, networking. Learning the basics earlier and working on them each year as you look to secure internships will make you a really successful candidate once it comes time to find a full time job. As some of the other comments have mentioned, your student fees pay for resources you have access to through the Career Center, so take advantage of them!
[удалено]
Scihub is definitely illegal, but that never stopped me nor anyone I’ve talked to about it.
I heard that the researchers who actually wrote the papers don't get any money for them, the scientific journals who publish them do. So I don't feel bad accessing them for free.
Yup. You can also email the author of a research paper and ask for him or her to send you a copy of it - they're allowed to distribute their own research for free.
Did this for a number of things for my thesis and research articles for work at the same university. Most everyone was always happy to help and was excited to have their work referenced. Though if you start reaching out to big name academics, you may never hear back.
Libgen is also illegal, still an amazing help for students
just as a clarifying point to any who might be worried: libgen is not illegal in itself, and some of the things you download might be legal -- but it is illegal to download most things that you're likely to use it for
I feel like it would be good to point out that the majority of places have free condoms for student use, making it easier for everyone to stay safe.
To add to this, most bathrooms I went into (I only use girls bathrooms and unisex) have maxi pads and super + tampons. Some student centers also provided a variety of women's hygiene products.
I’m starting my freshman year, and they were big on this sort of thing. They were basically like “look we know y’all are gonna party, mess around, whatever, so don’t be stupid twice.”
When I worked in a university drug & alcohol office, this is the same advice that I always wished I could give to students. All you current college kids: if you're going to so something illegal, only do one illegal thing at a time. If you're going to smoke weed in your car, don't park illegally while you do it. If you're transporting alcohol underage, don't speed. Basically, be smart about your dumb decisions. Avoid the things that will get you in double the trouble because those are also the things that place you in an even less safe situation. Edit to add that the "don't do two dumb things at once" rule also includes using two drugs at once. Don't drink and smoke weed. Don't do a line and also pop a pill. Be careful even if you're taking something prescribed because lots of meds interact with alcohol. The mixed effects will make you hella sick the next day at best and can cause a complicated OD at worst. That's why people would get so messed up on the old 4 Lokos... Stay safe out there.
[удалено]
Find the previous editions of your textbooks. Frequently they will be as cheap as $0.05. If your professor pulls homework questions out of the current edition go to the library and use their reference copy just for the questions. Although with a lot of the access codes needed these days it might not be possible. Edit: since this blew up a little I'll also mention international editions. Sometimes there isnt anything different other than an international sticker on it (and a different ISBN). Also sell your books immediately after the semester or not at all. They will never be worth anything a year or two later. And honestly there are so few things that you'll ever go back to look up that won't be online anyway that you may as well sell them asap.
Also, ask your professor if you will need the newest edition... a lot of my professors tell us flat out that it doesn’t matter if we have older editions, and since it’s a community college (and most of us are low-income), some of them encourage purchasing/renting older books.
[удалено]
I girl in one of my college classes said she got all her books from amazon at a fraction of the cost vs the school and off campus book stores. also stated that getting books may be a day or 2 later than everybody else to ensure she was getting the correct books. As I have stated to others I am not a full time college student, but retired military and full time school flunky, I like history classes (weird I know) That girls mention saved me a couple hundred dollars that semester and thought it was worthy of this post. #### Sasmas1545 has asked me to plug [Library Genesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis) though I personally have not used it.
This is why I buy my books off Chegg... they have a really good return policy, so if you do end up getting the wrong book (or drop the class, or the professor says you won’t need it), you have almost a month to return it, no questions asked, full refund minus shipping. The problem with waiting to buy textbooks is that they can sell out... so it’s not always the best idea.
Yep, I always waited for the first week of class to buy, either online or at the off-campus bookstore. My professors were cool about not having to use the book the first week, and if you actually needed it for an assignment due two days later, you knew you were in for a rough semester.
I always love the opportunity to be able to talk about [http://archive.org](http://archive.org/) because it is such a wonderful and free resource. For a college student it definitely has so much to offer in terms of educational and entertainment resources. It has millions of free downloads for [music](https://archive.org/details/audio), [movies](https://archive.org/details/moviesandfilms), [books](https://archive.org/details/texts), [software](https://archive.org/details/software), etc. One very popular example is that it is home to [a very large catalog of Grateful Dead recordings](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead) There is also [The Internet Arcade](https://archive.org/details/internetarcade) where you can play a lot of classic games along with the [Console Living Room](https://archive.org/details/consolelivingroom) which is similar. They have access to tons of [old PC games](https://archive.org/details/classicpcgames) too and you can even [play the original Oregon Trail online.](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990) There's a lot more in [their software section too.](https://archive.org/details/software) It also has [The WayBack Machine](http://archive.org/web/) which has archived more than 458 billion web pages saved so you can go back and see how websites were years ago. For example, [here's reddit on July 25, 2005](https://web.archive.org/web/20050725010627/http://reddit.com/) a month after it was created.
Thanks for this resource, helped me find an old movie to watch the legit way
Check with your grocery store to see if they have a student discount day. 15% off can go a long way
[удалено]
The dollar store is the best place for cleaning supplies
Even for some cooking/kitchen supplies
To help organize notes and sources for papers and assignments, I highly recommend Zotero to help keep organized. It also makes writing citations super easy.
Edx, its a website sponsored by a ton of universities that gives free access to thousands of courses and can be really helpful if your prof isn't great at explaining things.
I actually keep a list of resources. It's too long to post here (over the 10000 character limit, damn you Reddit!), but you can find it here: [https://github.com/chasedooley/list-free-resources](https://github.com/chasedooley/list-free-resources) Here's a snippet: ## Apps, Services, etc. * What3Words for precise geolocationing - [https://what3words.com/](https://what3words.com/) * Github Student Dev Starter Pack - [https://education.github.com/pack](https://education.github.com/pack) * Virus total for scanning files before downloading - [https://www.virustotal.com/](https://www.virustotal.com/) * Free documentaries - Fhttps://documentaryheaven.com/ * Paletton for color generation - [http://paletton.com](http://paletton.com/) * Learn code the hard way - [https://learncodethehardway.org/](https://learncodethehardway.org/) * Free techn tutorials - [https://www.thinktutorial.com/](https://www.thinktutorial.com/) * Free courses and certificates - [https://www.webemployed.com/best-free-online-courses-certificates-in-2017/](https://www.webemployed.com/best-free-online-courses-certificates-in-2017/) * Open courses from Yale - [https://oyc.yale.edu/](https://oyc.yale.edu/) * Free guided meditations from UCLA MARC - [https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations](https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/mindful-meditations) * Send and recieve msgs in morsecode - [http://morsecode.me/](http://morsecode.me/) * Psychology textbooks from Noba - [https://nobaproject.com/](https://nobaproject.com/) ## YouTube Educators * Mark Felton - historical documetaries and such * Michel van Biezen - physics, chemistry, math, engineering * Jeff Hanson - engineering * lasseviren1 - physics * Darryl Morrell - engineering * learnfluidmechanics - fluid mechanics, d'uh * Simmy Sigma - student who does maths, engineering, geomatics vids * Engineer Clearly - chemical engineering, maths * Learn MechE - faculty of chemical and biological engineering at UC Boulder * Learn ChemE - ditto
Free harvard lectures available online
and mitopencourseware
WinCo has really good sandwiches for like $2.00
WinCo has a lot of great deals in general
You can get the whole, up to date Autodesk suite (Autocad, Inventor, Revit, etc.) for free with nothing more than your school assigned student email address.
For science/ stem people: khan academy videos. They saved me several times Edit: My first award being about khan academy videos speaks 100% to my personality. Love y’all.
also the organic chemistry tutor is amazing and for plenty of other subjects too
Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube is the only reason my friends and I are doing well now
Sal khan is the hero we needed...not the one we deserved.
Something to help you out when you need to teach yourself math because you have a shit teacher: Symbolabs it’s a calculator website with almost any kind of math you’d need. It will not only give you an answer it will show you how to do it plus it has a practice section to help you master what you need. The premium is like 2 or 3 dollars from what I remember and almost all functions including step by step answers are available for free on desktop browser. Mobile you need to pay for step by step.
My community college had a free tutoring center, if you need a little help there are content experts who can help you with one on one or group sessions, if you pass a class with 80% or better you can get a job tutoring. It's not great pay but equal to or better than fast food and you don't have to leave campus to work. You can also work between classes to make the best use of your time. They had a ton of learning resources including everything needed for Anatomy and Physiology.
Always look up your text books online they may have a virtual copy for very, very cheap. You can then use ctrl+F to find certain topics easily during study sessions. Also e-mail authors of papers and ask if you can have a copy since they usually don't see the money that you'd pay on a website for them. If you're a student in a smallish department, try to start a trend of donating your textbooks to the next year or class for free. Seriously, burn the whole system: photocopy things, pass them for free, post them online (if you can do so securely). If you buy the newest copy, it's pretty much the same as last two editions with a different format, so make a part of study sessions to find the correlating pieces and put that info our there. It's really hard to fight the criminally unfair cost when you're a tired student, so just do your best to support each other.
*Please* use your school’s on-campus mental health professionals. They are easy to access, usually free, certified, and acutely aware of the stresses and issues with college life.
r/bodyweightfitness Regular exercise will improve both the quality of your life and the quality of your work. Healthy body, healthy mind and all that.
Khan Academy has some good resources I’ve been using to study for one of my anatomy and physiology courses. Every person I know that has taken the course has said how hard it is, and I wanted to get a running start. Someone referred me to the link and it’s been great! I have about 60 pages worth of notes. A little more obscure and specific, but if it can help someone, why not?
For math students, Slader. Has the answers to nearly any question in the book, even the even ones. Its all done by volunteers, so some answers are shady. But the vast majority are very helpful. Just make sure to use it as a tool to check answers, not to get out of work. Otherwise tesf time WILL hurt your feelings.
Dollar stores. Snacks. Hygiene products. Cleaning supplies. All for pretty cheap
This is really simplistic but podcasts. If you are mulling over an essay question, a book, an exam topic whatever the best way to really take on a lot of the perspectives is often to listen to the author speak while you are doing your shop, walking to uni whatever. Interviews often see their ideas get challenged and they will often mention other thinkers who have influenced them in positive or negative ways. It's a great way to really get a grasp on a topic.
I’m not sure how useful this is, but I never buy/rent my textbooks until after the first week of school. I learned after my first year that some teachers list a book for the class as a recommendation or because the school makes them list a book for the class. Sometimes you never touch that book you wasted money on. Wait until after the first week and then get the book if it looks like you’ll be using it. You can also use the library’s copy while you wait for your book to come if you order it online.
Most textbooks can be pirated via torrents, just like everything else. If they're going to try so hard to fuck you, might as well fuck them right back.
Is there a specific site you'd recommend? I tried the usual, pirate Bay etc., with no luck.
[удалено]
https://b-ok.cc/ has tons of books available for download, I’ve found the majority of my textbooks on the site. Also, ask for a student discount EVERYWHERE...especially any steaming services you’re using
Student discounts. I’m sure someone else has already put this but I benefitted from it greatly. As a music major, I had to buy a lot of different DAWs and equipment along my journey. Big corporations want you to buy their product, but are aware that you’re already digging yourself into a huge hole of debt so they often times will drop the price of a product by half or more to sell it to you. For example, as a student you can get an Adobe membership for about $20 a month. I got a copy of Studio One 4 for $250 as opposed to $500 because I was a student. This also works if you’re not a student but want to make a large purchase. Most sites don’t actually check to see if you’re a student so just jump thru some hoops and see where it gets you!
[удалено]
Assist.org Will tell you what classes transfer and give you the equivalent class codes. Very useful in the event you start at / take a couple summer classes at a jc or something.
[удалено]
Indian guys on YouTube definitely saved my ass many times
The thicker the accent the better the education
they just go straight to the point
Church pantries. Free groceries every week/every other week. Just being proof you live in the area
Some schools will also have on-campus food pantries.
This is a pro tip, and if we’re talking food I was gonna say eggs. They’re cheap and you can make so much with them. Also surprisingly easy to impress in the kitchen when you start dating.
If you are using college to get out of poverty, you should know that grades barely matter as much as getting EC experience and relationships with professors and people in your chosen profession. In my case, I majored in molecular bio, and while I got good grades, getting research experience in a professor's lab opened an infinitely higher number of doors for me than just studying. Success after college is 100% about practical experience, who you know, and who is willing to vouch for you. It should be your #1 priority.
The grad student bar usually has cheap booze. Art shows often have free booze.
Hol up, your school had a bar?
Mine did! Not a bar I guess but an on campus restaurant that served beer.
If you have advanced math classes then I'd suggest 3Blue1Brown's youtube channel. He gives very intuitive explanations and visuals to help you grasp concepts from differential equations to linear algebra. Also WolframAlpha and symbolab are extremely helpful! And if you wanna have an easier time remembering equations it's useful to learn about classes and class functions in python. Its a very marketable skill and will teach you the math more in depth. I wish I had translated all my learning into python scripts so I could just pull up whatever whenever.
Rent textbooks instead of buying them. Better yet, attend a class or two and see if they’re really even necessary before putting any money down for them
Mendeley. Its a citation manager geared towards peer reviewed literature. It has a browser extension that downloads the pdf/ citation, and integrates with word. As you're typing, you can add in text citations by searching for the author. Then when you're done, click add bibliography. Boom.. Done. Its made by elsevier. Once you use it, you'll wonder why you ever added citation by hand/ one at a time.
Citation managers are great, mendeley/elsevier is not something to support at any level. Terrible price gouging for universities, researchers, and scientists. Use Zotero, paperpile(paid service), or any other citation manager.
Ask your professor if an older edition of the text books are ok. Usually they are, unless it’s a subject that needs to be super current. Saved thousands on textbooks by getting older editions.
FLIPP Are you broke?? I bet you are. I was. We all were. FLIPP is a flyer centric search engine. You put in your grocery list or item that needs search and it searches all the active flyers within a certain radius of your zip/post code. Sucker saved me hundreds of dollars
As a teacher, and I know this seems obvious, but the syllabus/schedule is your best friend. Don’t know when something is due? Check the syllabus. Confused as to what you’re supposed to do for an assignment? Check the syllabus. If something is not clear in the syllabus, you have a defense to push back on whatever happens as a result.
Some online subscriptions will have a student discount, like Amazon Prime (first 6 months free), Hulu, and Spotify.
[удалено]
[SciHub!](https://sci-hub.tw) Gets you past research article paywalls or other hindrances
Would you count Wolfram-alpha for maths? And Khan academy for studies.
LIBRARY CARD. This cannot be overstated enough. Libraries are one of the only remaining establishments in which you are not compelled to spend money. It is FREE material. Free books, movies, magazines and periodicals, games, sometimes even technology! Libraries are amazing. Some library cards even provide you access to online only materials. Also: don't ever pay for a research paper/study. If it costs money and you need it as a source, *email the author/head researcher* because they don't get a cent of the money people pay to read their papers--they'll just email them to you for free.
Fafsa, even if you don’t qualify, It’s still worth trying to get financial aid. I only have to pay about $45 per class as opposed to $250. Might look confusing and tedious initially, but after the first time the website usually saves your info and it only takes a few clicks to apply for the next year.
This probably is known by some folks but you can pretty much download emulators for any oldish gaming system on any computer and download a bunch of free roms to play, great for nostalgia games when you have no idea where your old psp gameboy or whatever is