Students searching for a deal on textbooks now have a new online option, thanks to an engineering student’s senior project.
SchoolSwap, a free online bulletin that allows college students to combine different aspects of their schools’ Web sites and other popular college student sites. Students can buy and sell textbooks, advertise campus events and apartment sublets, vote in online polls, post on forums, rate their professors and even find a job.
The Web site asks students to register using their university e-mail addresses. Registered students then select which school they attend in order to enter college-specific bulletin boards. Colleges are sorted both alphabetically and by state.
Brian Burbank, 23, created the Web site as part of his senior project at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He said he established SchoolSwap to help students save money — especially on popular items like textbooks.
“When I was a freshman at Tufts, I was walking around campus and I saw some signs for students selling books, and I wondered if there was a Web site for that,” said Burbank, who graduates with a degree in computer engineering. “I looked around and there weren’t.”
Burbank initially launched the site only for Tufts students before deciding to include other schools.
“(SchoolSwap is) just starting to gain momentum,” he said. “Right now, it’s most popular in the Northeast, but it’s been expanding.”
SchoolSwap first went online six months ago, and according to Burbank, many students already have found the site useful.
“I ran it at Tufts and a lot of students saved money by finding used books and subletters for their apartments,” he said. “Some of my friends saved thousands of dollars by finding someone to sublet their apartment for the summer.”
At Northwestern, however, the Web site has yet to catch on. Some NU students said SchoolSwap does not offer any new services that they cannot already find on other Web sites run by the university or by popular merchants.
“I don’t see myself ever using it,” said Steve Dallas, a Weinberg sophomore. “For feedback on professors and classes I can use CTECs. I suppose the job listings might be useful.”
Other students said they think SchoolSwap could be helpful because it encompasses more than individual Web sites.
“I’m sure there are people whose needs could be more easily satisfied in a comprehensive site like this instead of having to find more than one source,” said Weinberg junior Zoran Balac. “I can definitely see the potential in an idea like this.”
Burbank said he hopes to work on enlarging the Web site’s demographics.
“I need to work on it,” he said. “I’m hopefully going to look into advertisement and am thinking of partnering with a friend of mine who is an economics major. I want to expand so that the Web site is as useful nationwide as it is in the Northeast.”
