i have been looking to do this as well, but to what i have read on the nookstudy etextbbooks, you CAN NOT use them on a ipad or other mobile devices other then your laptop. but it seems that you can get the same books from amazon kindle, and since your a college student, your eligible for amazon prime free for six months i believe, and then its half off after that for 4 years. also the amazon kindle can be downloaded on your ipad, and your text books an be read from there. just go to amazon, search the book you need, and hit the buy e book, im not sure if they have a rent option.