On the website, there are tabs called Text Adoption Form and CCW Adoption Form.

What is this "Adoption" about?

And could you also explain what CCW is? Is it a form of media?

Custom Courseware (CCW) is one of the main texts we use at Mac. It's a compilation of articles and excerpts from other texts. Essentially it's a book of photocopies. However, we use them as texts as its cheaper than buying each of the works that the text you need comes from.

In terms of the adoption...I believe that is something for profs and profs only...It has to do with getting the CCW printed from what I understand.

When youre buying your books, I suggest you don't get your CCW until your Prof says that you'll be using them for sure. Alot of them are a rip off.. especially when you don't even end up using them. All CCW are final sale, so you can't return it once you buy it, sadly.

for the books that we need for our courses... can we order them online and pay online?
if that is possible, then does the books get mailed to our homes or do we have to pick it up?
and if we want to order it online then is there like a deadline or can we order it any time we want?

Titles does actually allow to order and have your books shipped to you. However it's not worth it because of shipping costs. You're going to be here anyway so pick them up then.

And wait until you go to your first class to buy your books...you don't need them before your classes start.

how come we dont need it until the first class starts? don't we need to have them for the first class?

Your first class is just a review of what you're going to be covering during the year as well as giving you information about the things that you'll need for the course (in terms of textbooks, lab books, and the like). It's like an intro to the class and the prof. Some profs don't require textbooks which is why you should wait for your first class before you buy any.

Originally Posted by lacus1004

how come we dont need it until the first class starts? don't we need to have them for the first class?

Actually no. Your first class as a first year will be an introduction to the course and the prof. They will hand out the syllabus (class agenda for the year) and tell you what you need to know about labs, tutorials, etc. They'll tell you what books you need to buy and which you don't, they'll tell you whether or not their using WEBCT or Moodle or something else (online forums for the class). They may go over essays or class assignments, their late policy, the plagerism policy (which is standard to the entire university) and their marking policies. They will also tell you their office hours and that of their TA's or other assistants.

I only had one class (it was a night class- 2 hrs) who actually got into teaching the first day and we didn't need the textbook that first day anyway.

so do you guys(upper years) suggest we buy our books the second week of school, or once we go through all of our courses core classes?...and is there a possibility of he books you need running out if say i wait until i hear from all my profs?....and where are used books sold again?

I would definitely recommend waiting til you go through all the core classes. If you can, ask any upper year student who's in your program and has taken some of the courses you're taking if you actually USE the textbook in the course (many profs give you required textbooks which you will never open). I suppose the books you need could run out although many first year students will be buying books secondhand since the prices for new books are ridiculously high...

You can buy used books at Titles, through Undercover (the student run used book selling place) and through older students selling textbooks from previous years. Facebook has a few groups dedicated to McMaster students selling used books so you could check there if you don't mind getting your books secondhand.

If the books are sold out, how long does it generally take for the books re-stocked?

bout a week or so. Depends on whether or not they're caught off guard by the amount of students buying the books. They usually have a good general idea based on registration.

Also, profs can't assign work (assignments) from the texts if not all of the class has it.

That doesn't mean that if you choose not to buy the textbook that the prof can't give you an assignment from it, it means that if there aren't enough available to everyone in the class then he/she cannot start making you do work from it.

Lol kokosas. I was about to make a smart comment about that. You're really on top of things