Chicago Success Award

The Chicago Success Award is a new resource for some of DePaul’s incoming freshmen. The estimated cost of textbooks for an entire academic year at DePaul is $1104. DePaul is rounding that amount up to $1200 for the Chicago Success Award recipients. The award can be used to purchase or rent required course material at the DePaul bookstores. It cannot be used to purchase recommended or optional course material or DePaul apparel.

The award is only available in the 2023-2024 academic year to those students who received the award offer and are starting at DePaul in Autumn 2023. To remain eligible, students need to enroll in 12 or more credit hours per quarter and need to maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher throughout the academic year.

Both bookstore locations are currently open and textbook staff are ready to assist students that visit in person or call.

Here are the locations and contact information for each bookstore:

DePaul Lincoln Park Bookstore
2425 N Sheffield Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
htttp://depaul-lincolnpark.bncollege.com
(773) 325-7700

DePaul Loop Bookstore
1 E Jackson Blvd
Lower level of Barnes & Noble
Chicago, IL 60604
http://depaul-loop.bncollege.com
(312) 362-8795

Yes. The bookstore normally recommends that new students visit one of bookstores in person when buying their books for the first time. However, they realize that students may want to order their books online this quarter due to COVID-19 concerns. Know that both locations are open, but if you are ordering your books online, you can visit depaul.bncollege.com to get started and watch this video for useful tips and directions about how to pay online, using the Chicago Success Award.

If your class is being taught on campus, your book will be available at the bookstore located on the same campus as your class location. If your class is being offered online, your book will typically be available at the bookstore location that aligns with the college that is offering your class, for example sociology online courses would have books at the Lincoln Park bookstore. However, if you cannot find your class at one location check the other location’s website, since it may be listed there.

You will need to know your student ID number and the list of your classes (subject, course number, section number; ex. WRD 103 -108). Students can find their student ID number in their Blue Demon Domain account or at the top of the My Profile tile in Campus Connect.

Yes. Bookstore staff will not automatically know that they should apply the Chicago Success Award to your purchase, so if you are visiting the store, you will need to let the textbook staff know that you are a Chicago Success Award recipient, and then, using your Student ID number, they will confirm that you are indeed eligible. If you are ordering online, there will be a CSA payment option, which will check your Student ID number to confirm you are on the list of students who can use this award. If staff know that you are using the award before pulling books, they will ask if you want to see both the required course material, which the Chicago Success Award covers, as well as recommended or optional material, which would need to be purchased separately.

Yes. The estimated total cost of textbooks for a DePaul student is $1104 per year. We’ve rounded that number up to $1200 for students to use this academic year. To help you budget, we recommend spending no more than $400 per quarter. For Autumn 2023, there is a $600 cap on what you can spend. If you exceed that amount, you will need to cover the remaining balance. And if you exceed $1200 before the end of the academic year, you will be responsible for the remaining balance.

Many of the textbooks that are sold have a number of different purchasing options: buy new, buy used, buy digital, rent new, rent used, etc. If a used copy of the book is available and you want to purchase your book, used is the best option. Digital copies are often less expensive than buying used. Renting textbooks is also often a less expensive option, however, you will need to put down a credit card when you rent and that card will be charged if the book is not returned on time or is damaged. Used copies of the book are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis, so as soon as the bookstore has sold out of all of the used copies, only new ones will be available; the bookstore will contact you if something changes with your order if you placed the order online.

The books are yours to keep. If the book was purchased and used in the first course of a sequence of courses, you may want to keep that book for your next quarter. The bookstore may buy back some books for a small amount of money. If you sell the books back, we recommend saving this money for your next quarter’s books to optimize the award money that is available to you.

The Chicago Success Award is only available through the DePaul bookstores and cannot be used to purchase or rent books from another seller or service.

Your professor may not have adopted the course material through the bookstore. If you bring the textbook information to the bookstore or call the stores, staff can often help you find the book you need or they can contact the faculty and ask that they adopt the book through the bookstore, so you can take advantage of the award. If the book cannot be purchased through the bookstore, you will be responsible for covering the cost of that book.

Return the course material from your dropped class as soon as possible. Let the bookstore staff know that you purchased the books using the Chicago Success Award and they will put the amount back into your account and they will help you select the material for your new class.

No. This award is only available to award recipients who enroll beginning in Autumn 2023.