Why does your class require it? You should ask the prof.
Basically some B&W film is old school actual B&W, other B&W film is color film a color lab will know to print as B&W. That's my guess as to why your professor is requiring Kodak T-MAX -- he doesn't want you getting film that needs to be developed with color developers.
When I took photography in college we just bought any film that with the developer (chemicals). You should ask your professor if any iso 400 B&W film is accepatble -- it looks like
B&H sells 100' of 400 iso forma for $35.
You should also ask him if you can shoot with 100 and 200 iso as well because you want pictures that are "less grainy.[1]" He'll probably be thrilled you're showing an interest, probably say yes so long as you shoot in 400 for some assignments, and you can pay a little less for your film.
If you go in and say things like that you'll A) look like a good student who's interested in the subject B) save some cash
Also what price are you looking for?
B&H sells 100 ft of tmax for $50. Doing a quick google 5.5 ft of film == 36 exposures, so 100ft == 655 exposures == $0.07 / exposure. That's almost half of the $0.14 per exposure you're getting if you pay $5 a roll in walmart.
Just make sure you're getting real B&W film and whatever else you need. Ordering from someplace like
B&H this should be easy to find.
Oh, and don't open the film can until your professor shows you how to roll your own bulk film, in a dark room.
Someone did that when I took photography in college and lost all their film. Besides the can (it'll literally be a can with 100 ft of film in it), you'll need some rolls to put your film in -- you can get those @
B&H too.
I'm sad to say you're probably not going to get 36 exposures of film for $0.50 (go to your local photo shop see if they have any expired stuff -- they might sell that cheap). That's actually why I stopped taking pictures after photography class ended until I got a digital SLR many years later -- if you think film in bulk is expensive just imagine what it costs when you no longer have a darkroom to roll your own film, and need to pay $8 / roll to develop. (Plus if you don't develop your own the photo lab techs don't care enough to burn or dodge areas that need it, but you'll learn about that later).
[1] So the "speed" of the film is the iso number. The higher the ISO the less light you need to expose the film, so in low light or for quick movements (because you can reduce the shutter speed) you go with a high ISO. The downside with traditional film is it creates a much grainier picture because the size of the film grains determines how fast it is (does that happen with digital too?) Sometimes you can put this effect to good use (ever see a dark, gritty picture? might be shot in high ISO B&W)
