Book Allowance

USN16x

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How does the book allowance work for arotc? Do I buy the books I need than get reimbursed later?
 
How does the book allowance work for arotc? Do I buy the books I need than get reimbursed later?

After you are contracted, you will receive a book allowance of $600 per semester, which is deposited directly into your bank account. The exact timing will depend on the efficiency of your battalion's HR person. You may have to lay out money for your books up front.

You are not asked to account for your expenditures. Depending on your course requirements, you may end up spending less than $600 and you may spend more.
 
+1 EDelahanty, in addition consider used books or even better rent a text book for the semester. DS saved a bunch doing this....looks like that finance/accounting major is already paying off. :shake:
 
How long does it take to get the books from Amazon, and I take it at this point they should be sent to school, not home? Also, when the book required has an "access card" or code, I have founjd that often they don't rent them...or even guarantee that the card will be there if the book is used...did you find this to be true?
 
Two Day shipping from Chegg.com for used rentals
 
Chegg is the best. We have used the for years. My only suggestion is not to order until after the 1st day of class. Many profs ask for supplemental books that they will never use. Chegg will have it at their dorm mail box within @48 hours.

I don't think we have spent more than 200 on books. DS2 is a Chemistry major, and those books run 200 a piece. DS1 and DD were lucky they were non-tech majors and able to do ebooks on their kindle. DD's books 1 semester between chegg and ebooks totalled 82 bucks.:yay:

You are lucky because for AFROTC, at least when he was a cadet 2 years ago you had to submit a bill to the det. You were reimbursed for the amount you spent up to 450 a semester. There was no keep the change option, thus our DS played the game, bought new if he couldn't get it in Ebooks, than sold them back at the end of the semester.
 
Not directly related to the allowance but just something to be mindful of if renting.

One semester my son rented the books he could. At the end of the semester when he went to return them they said two were not in returnable condition. They clearly had been used but in my opinion they were not damaged. But they get the last word as to what they will accept, no negotiating.

Well we ended up paying the full price for the books (which oddly higher than the price they were selling them for), plus a restocking fee, plus we had already paid the rental fee.

I was so angry at the time that I didn't realize that we should have just gone and bought new books and then returned those as the rented books. Then we would have saved the cost of the higher full price and the restocking fee.

So while renting can be cheaper I suggest the student be extra careful with them during the year or it will end up costing you much more.

One of the irritating things was the store kept saying that they have big signs tthat make this clear. I stood in the middle of the store and asked that they please point to one. Their response was "Uh, well not now cause this is the end of the semester". To which I replied, "but there are students in this store right now acquiring books for the summer session. What about them?"

This incident still sticks in my craw. Needless to say he doesn't rent books anymore.
 
Thanks for all the help! I plan on waiting until after the first day of class to order my books.
 
What about access codes when renting books? Most of the books on our sons' lists require them.
 
What about access codes when renting books? Most of the books on our sons' lists require them.
That's usually how college book stores get their money. I don't think book rentals come with the codes. ... thus requiring you to buy the book from the book store.

Personal suggestion: see if the school has something like a "textbook student exchange" group on Facebook. Sometimes you can get lucky for finding some with just the code. I've bought several of my books dirt cheap via this method.
 
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