What stuff from college should I keep?

Question

I graduated from college last June with a science degree (geology). Now I teach high school (chemistry and physics). Frankly, I didn't enjoy the courses I took in college, and I don't ever plan on going to grad school in geology or going into the field at all; probably I'll stay with teaching, or maybe go to law school...
Anyway, I live in a small apartment and all my old textbooks and homework are taking up a lot of space. I want to sell the books and toss the homework, but my parents so far have convinced me not to do it. They say I'll want the textbooks in case I go to grad school (which is especially silly since the science is changing quickly and I would need the most up-to-date books if I went back) and I'll want the homework for sentimental reasons. They both have kept all their stuff from college, though I doubt they look at it, and they both have problems getting rid of other things.
My question is, did you get rid of college stuff, and did you regret it later on?

Note: I didn't really write more than 1 paper in the whole time that I care about, and I'm definitely keeping that. My dad says I should keep the tests I did well on but frankly there weren't any (hehe). What about those?

Answer 1

This reminds me of my parents who insisted that I keep all my textbooks. Because they were so insistent, I kept them until I moved into my own apartment, but with the exception of a couple of books in my major I never looked at them again. And I went on to graduate school and made a straight A record there, so I didn't miss the books at all.

By all means sell your textbooks unless there are some that especially fascinate you or that you might want to reference in your work. Toss all the homework with the possible exception of a paper you did that you might need in your work or that might serve as the basis of a scholarly article.

I am just sorry thinking now about the money I wasted by not selling my textbooks.

In my case, I cut my parents some slack because neither had been to college and were convinced that because I had read those college textbooks once that they would be invaluable to me forever.

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Answer 2

Keep the graded term papers.

If you ever decide to go to grad school or law school and need letters of recommendation from former professors, these will be handy. It will be very helpful to your professors if you can send them copies of graded papers.

Since you have no further interest in geology, sell the geology textbooks. Keep the physics and chem books for reference in your teaching.

Personally, I kept most of my books and many of my papers from college. They have come in incredibly handy in many situations. But then my field of study is the same as my college major.

Answer 3

Two schoolofthought.
I havefriends, who, between the two of them have 5 degrees from the same college, (He- Lawyer, she, Dr.Ed) and they have every single book and paper from college. Bookcase takes up the whole wall. )
Me, I was unmerciful. When I left,an books I had were " Want it, take it."
When I left home for an appt, I asked, "will I ever read this again." If I answered no or maybe, bye bye. Except for some old sports and concet programs, I never missed any of it. Who reads Victorian Poetry for light bedtime reading? Shakespeare gave way to Business week.

Answer 4

Dump the books unless they are recent, then sell them. Nothing more expensive than a college text, nothing cheaper and in less demand than the new one you bought last year.

Save a bit of homework for sentimental reasons; you'll be glad you did.

Answer 5

Keep the textbooks, but toss the homework.

Answer 6

You might save a couple of intro textbooks and any major essays you wrote. That would be about it.

Answer 7

well i think u should sell it if its taking to much space and the homework you might think that later on you'll need it but is not true .yeah i kept my stuff but later on i threw it away because i realized i didn't need it .so is your choice to trow it or not.