Every semester, college students like us, Pipers, wait for the email with all of their textbooks for the semester. When it comes to getting a textbook for class, there are two routes students can choose: renting the textbooks or buying a copy of them. While the choice is up to the student, like everything, renting or buying a book comes with pros and cons that students have to weigh.

When it comes to the choice of renting or buying a textbook for class, it is ultimately up to each individual because no college student uses their textbook in the same way. While for some, this choice is not coming until the fall of the 2026-2027 academic year — it is something to think about before the semester begins.

With renting textbooks, there are a few available options for students, such as renting from book stores like Barnes and Noble or through their university’s book store’s textbook rental program, which, for undergraduate students here at Hamline, is covered in your tuition.

Another pro of renting your textbook is that you’re not having to pay the retail price of your textbook since you are only using it for a semester at most, while compared to buying the book, you are paying the full retail price. This is great if you only need the textbook for a class you are taking for one single semester and are not planning on moving forward into the next level of the course.

Now, in comparison, with buying the textbook, you have the same options as with renting in terms of places like Barnes and Noble or your university’s bookstore. However, for us Pipers, it’s a little different. If you choose to, you can actually buy your textbook from the bookstore, which means you’ll get the rental price refunded and pay the retail price for the book. Again, this is at your choice, as some students will see no need to keep the textbook or have the ability to be able to buy the book.

When it comes to actually using the textbook, some students will choose to highlight or write in the margins of the books (I personally do not, but that’s my preference). If you rent your textbook, you are allowed to highlight and write in the book, but not an excessive amount that would make the book unusable for the next person who rents the same textbook after you.

However, if you buy the textbook, since it is your property, you may notate and highlight as much as you want. This all comes down to how the student uses their textbook, whether they write in the book or use it mostly as reading and take their notes in a notebook or digitally.

When it comes to textbooks, convenience is also something that might factor in for some students. For example, here at Hamline, the bookstore receives your class registration information and prepares your textbooks for you.

Since the Hamline bookstore receives your registration information and prepares the books for you, they also make the returning process easy as well. For example, towards the end of each semester, the Sorin Game room gets filled with boxes for students to return their textbooks in with easy to fill out slips.

This makes the process easier on students as the university bookstore does the work of finding the right books for you. Unlike going to Barnes & Noble, where you have to do the work of ensuring you have all of the required readings in their preferred editions for the course.

This option creates more work for you to do, as you need to have the name of the textbook ahead of time so you can see if the bookstore has that textbook in stock and available. Along with that, bookstores have different rental policies than Hamline, for example.

Personally, I see the benefits and drawbacks of both. While I like how our bookstore makes it convenient to receive and return our textbooks every semester, I also understand why people choose to buy them as well. For one class, I bought a digital copy of the two textbooks, which worked well for me when it came to how I was using the textbooks for class.

While this may not be the case for all students, when it comes to making the choice between renting or buying the textbooks, there are many factors that influence that decision, some of which I named, but there are more than just the three I talked about.

So, as we approach the end of the semester, with all the knowledge of how you have used your textbooks, take a moment to figure out if you’ll stick with renting the book or buying it so they’re your own and can be highlighted to your heart’s desire.