For college students, one of the biggest setbacks of starting school in the fall is the hundreds of dollars they must spend on textbooks. It can be shocking, not to mention maddening, having to spend $150 on a textbook you may never use. This year, however, Creighton’s bookstore has a more affordable option: textbook rentals.

“Rent-A-Text has certainly become a popular option,” said Calvin Petersen, Creighton’s bookstore manager. “While it’s a little early for complete results, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Arts & Sciences sophomore Matt Carnazzo was happy with his experience renting a communications book from

the bookstore.

“It was very easy, and it was nice since it was a lot cheaper than buying,” Carnazzo said.

The rental prices, on average, are more than 50 percent cheaper than the actual price of the textbook and can be kept all semester. Rent-A-Text requests that you return the book in usable condition for next semester but still allows for all the wear and tear associated with class work, like highlighting and

dog-earing pages.

Petersen is not sure how many students rented or bought their books this year, but according to Follett’s Rent-A-Text pilot program, half of students rented when given the option.

Arts & Sciences junior Melissa Hollabaugh has rented her textbooks in the past, but from Chegg.com, a website that plants a tree for every textbook rented. This year, however, she decided to rent from Creighton’s bookstore after seeing how affordable it was. She said she’s been satisfied with her experience with only one exception: She wishes more textbooks were available for rent.

“I feel like they could offer more,” Hollabaugh said, who only rented two books from the bookstore through the new program.

Although not all books are available for rent this year, the staff will be working to expand the rental library in upcoming terms.

As for the future of textbook rentals, Petersen said he hopes to see the Rent-A-Text program expand in the future.