never get a credit card and if you do always pay off the monthly min, and dont ever go to school. The latter is the cause of my current dept, even though i have prepaid college (which is about to turn out) my books for a semester if i only take three classes are anywhere from 3 to 5 hundred dollars.

Oh, my college we don't use books. Just and iPad. All our books are on there. Just had to pay for the iPad! Lucky generation!

a lot of professors will avocate for the ebook equivalent of required reading for the course since they charge an arm and a leg for the physical copy at the school, even if youre getting a rental or used book. i was lucky this semester since i only had to buy a single book and had an old copy of one from when i took the class before in my frist semester. I cant think of any college around here that uses that method though, but thats really awesome that they dont charge you for the ebook or anything just the ipad. I know of high schools that are doing this, but the students cant actually take the ipad home (i think, but i could totally be wrong on that part). I hope your college is one that offers the type of degree you need/want and you wont have to change schools because if they dont have that system in place you will see it being a lot more expensive.
For a lot of people your age dept is more than likely due to loans, either because of student loans, credit card fees and/or car loans.