The College Bookstore

I hated my college bookstore and started using Amazon to purchase my college textbooks long before it was cool. The bookstore was the second biggest money racket on campus, after all the hidden fees the University tacked onto our tuitions. Ironically, my college bookstore was also owned by Barnes and Noble, who has been dying a slow death.

At the beginning of each semester, the bookstore would sell me a used book for $65. And 16 weeks later, they would buy it back from me for $10 or 15.  It didn’t take long before I realized that I could just buy the same used textbook on Amazon for $10-15. Then after the semester was over, I would just sell it to the bookstore for $10-15.

Sometimes if the book I really needed was very expensive. I just purchased it from Amazon, which was still always cheaper then the bookstore.After I was done using it, I then resold it as new and this would cost me about $10 in amazon seller fees

The Amazon Student Program

In 2010, Amazon launched a special Amazon Prime program for Students only. You need an email account with an .edu email address to sign up and be able to prove you are a current student. They created this program to compete against your school bookstore.

What Amazon Student includes:

• Amazon Student has a free 6-month trial membership. After that, the cost is $49. This is 50% cheaper than an Amazon Prime Membership, which is $99.

• Unlimited FREE 2-Day Shipping on textbooks, drafting supplies and millions of other items on their marketplace—anything listed as a PRIME – No minimum order size and have it delivered to your studio.

• Upgrade your order to 1-Day shipping for only $3.99.

• Free release-date delivery on video games, DVDs, and books.

• Unlimited Cloud storage on Prime Photos, plus 5 gigs of storage for non- photo files and documents.

The Amazon Student Scholarship

Amazon Student is awarding $250,000 in merit scholarships and $25,000 in textbook gift cards to 50 Amazon Student Members.

Amazon Student's Scholarship is Merit-based. Applicants are scored on their GPAs, Community Service, and Leadership Experience. Semifinalists will be required to submit an essay to be able to advance to the final round.

Applications will be accepted until 11:59pm PST on November 20th, 2015. Semifinalists will be chosen from all completed applications, and applicants will be notified of their status by January 8, 2016. Winners will be notified in May 2016, and the scholarship will be awarded in July 2016. You must be an Amazon Student Member to apply for the scholarship.

Click here for more details about the scholarship.

What’s the difference between Amazon Student and Amazon Prime?

Not much…

Student is 50% cheaper, but it requires an .edu account and being registered as a current student.

I guess the big difference is that you cannot stream video or music during your free trial— or until you’re a paying Amazon Student Member.

Also, the student program doesn’t allow access to privileges of other specialized Prime programs. Amazon has another a program called Amazon Moms, which has special privileges for buying diapers and stuff for kids.

Click here to learn more about Amazon Student.

Click here to learn more about Amazon Prime

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