<p>Can someone give more details about the meal plans ?
The University that my daughter attended had a la carte system. The university had several dining halls and the students would “pay” points for each item, for example lunch could be as little as $2 or really expensive, depending on the student selection. From what I can gather from the past posts this is not the case for Bama. Can someone also explain which dining halls can a student use for the meal plan?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>A student will have a meal plan with a certain number of meal swipes on it. Each meal (whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner) counts for one swipe. The student’s ACT card will be swiped when they walk into the dining hall. From there, it is all you can eat. There is no points system or counting of items. It counts as one meal whether your daughter has a sandwich or whether she has 3 slices of pizza, rice, salad, soup, and a brownie.</p>
<p>Meal plans apply to Lakeside, Bryant, Burke, and Fresh Food Co. All of these operate under the above description. Now there are also other vendors on campus (ex: Chik-fil-A, Subway, etc.) that operate like any other retailer, and charge per item. You can pay for these with dining dollars or Bama cash (or just regular money), but not with meal plan swipes. On the other hand, you can pay for a meal plan swipe with money.</p>
<p>Some schools sell “points” and some schools sell “meals”. Bama sells meals that can be used anytime during the semester.</p>
<p>There are several dining halls. A student can use any one they like…</p>
<p>Lakeside Dining
Fresh Food
Burke Dining
Bryant Dining </p>
<p>When a student enters the hall, they swipe their card and a meal is deducted. Meals are “all you can eat.” the halls have “stations” and each station has a type of food…American, Italian, Asian, etc</p>
<p>Hopefully Sea-Tide can explain how it works for Bryant. I’m pretty sure that it’s one swipe for lunch. But, since the athletes eat there for dinner, big steaks and such are served, I think there’s an upcharge if you eat there for dinner…so few non-athletes eat there for dinner. lol</p>
<p>there are also several Retail Dining venues on campus. These work well for when a student either wants something different or just wants a small thing. Those items are purchased with Dining Dollars or cash/credit. </p>
<p>Many kids just eat breakfast in their rooms because they don’t have time/hunger to eat a “meal plan” meal in the morning. And they save money that way. </p>
<p>Frosh year is often the most expensive. After that, students can buy smaller meal plans or no meal plan.</p>
<p>Keep in mind when you choose a meal plan that a student can bump up at any time but cannot bump down to a lower level.</p>
<p>Would anyone with a son at Bama share their student’s freshman meal plan choice and how it worked out for them? DS keeps changing his mind. I think his choice of the moment depends on how hungry he is when we are talking about the different plans!</p>
<p>Bama allows you to upgrade, so if he sees the basic plan isn’t meeting his needs he can bump up. You cannot bump down.</p>
<p>No experience, but we’re going with the Silver, which is the smallest plan a freshman can get. In the highly unlikely event that’s not enough, we’ll add the Thrifty Twenty.</p>
<p>If I child runs out of meals, he can buy the “add on” of the Thrify 20…20 more meals.</p>
<p>For my older son, we started with the Unlimited. It was a mistake. After the first month, son and pals were wandering off campus to eat at the many other options. </p>
<p>For younger son, we started with the smallest. One time had to buy a add on, but only once.</p>
<p>Do the Silver. My D is a freshman now and will end up with over 80 unused meals. Fall semester she tended to eat at the dining halls more than the Spring semester.</p>
<p>That is what we were discussing. Though the thought of unlimited meals and snacks would put mom at ease, I just didn’t know how realistic it was to expect him to “only” eat using his meal plan. I know my DDs (different university) really got tired of the campus food. They really wanted the flexibility of eating at various locations. </p>
<p>I’ll take a look at the Thrifty Twenty.</p>
<p>If DS wanted to eat breakfast in his dorm room, are toasters allowed in the honors dorms?</p>
<p>Since a toaster has an auto shut off, I think it might be ok according to this…</p>
<p>2.27 Appliances and Fire Hazards: Use of non-approved appliances in a residence hall room is prohibited. Examples include but are not limited to personal air conditioner, space heater, ceiling fan, and fog/smoke machine. Posting flammable materials (such as posters, art canvas, T-shirts, flyers, flags, blankets, etc.) covering more than one third of total surface of the outside of a residence hall room door is prohibited. It is also prohibited to keep any item, including room decorations that may pose a fire hazard in a residence hall room. These items include, but are not limited to, any open flame source or flammable liquid. Examples include oil lamps, candles, hookah pipes, incense, gasoline, natural cut trees, branches, or greens, and halogen lamps and bulbs, deep fat fryer, electric griddle, electric grill, electric hamburger cooker (George Forman grills), electric waffle iron, electric wok, hot oil popcorn popper, hot plate, indoor grill or boiler, toaster oven, crock pots or any cooking tool that does not have an automatic shut off feature. Anytime a student is cooking or heating food, they must stay with it to avoid a fire situation.</p>
<p>Do the silver. My son had more than 160 meals left over in his freshman year. He really did not like the food at Lakeside. Also, toasters are permitted. And thank goodness, students can have a coffee maker. My son has gone through two since starting school.</p>
<p>Is the grocery store easy to get to for a student without a car? (not sure if he will take one his 1st semester yet).</p>
<p>160 meals left…that is amazing! Here I am worried he won’t have enough to eat…</p>
<p>My D also has the silver. Way too many meals. She just doesn’t eat out for breakfast.</p>
<p>At Bama Bound she was able to play a “Wheel of Fortune” type game. The students would spin the wheel and receive prizes. She won an upgrade to the Gold Plan! This game was located in the Lakeside Dining at Bama Bound. Others won the “unlimited” plan or a coffee mug.</p>
<p>Yes, the Publix is about half a mile away. The Crimson Ride will take you there also. Note, the Publix does not have a pharmacy for Rx.</p>
<p>My kids always preferred the food at Burke and Bryant. Burke is near where their tutoring jobs were so that worked out well.</p>
<p>Fresh food in The Ferg was ok. </p>
<p>Lakeside Dining, although the newest, seems to have the most complaints about the food. I don’t understand that. You’d think with frequent complaints, they’d do a better job there. I their excuse is that they serve more kids than the others. That hardly seems like a viable reason. When the new dining hall opens in Fall 2013, we’ll see if Lakeside still uses that excuse. lol</p>
<p>Can you tell me when we have to sign up for the meal plan? Do we do it thru mybama or when we go to Bama Bound?</p>
<p>You can do it on MyBama. There may be a way to do it at BB, but we just did it online.</p>
<p>You have plenty of time. You can wait to decide til about when school starts.</p>
<p>Meal plans are selected on myBama and are charged to ones student account.</p>
<p>I recommend getting the smallest meal plan possible and going from there. I made the decision this year to go without a meal plan and have found that I get better quality meals for less money buy either eating off campus or going to the dining halls when they are less expensive, such as the $5.45 lunch every other Friday and $6.30 breakfast or late night meals. Buffalo Phil’s on the Strip has great $5.99 lunch specials, Pizza Hut has an all-you-can-eat pizza lunch for $5 and many other restaurants have $5-$7 lunch specials. Publix also has huge made-to-order sandwiches for $6.39 ($4.99 if on sale), $8.39 for chicken strip sandwiches or $8.69 for a Philly made right in front of you with Boar’s Head brand roast beef.</p>
<p>With the price increase for meal plans, there is a chance that the “cash price” for most meals will be less than buying a meal plan. For returning students, wait until school starts to buy a meal plan as Bama Dining gives additional incentives. IIRC, a friend who bought the 160 meal plan got 10 free combo meals, extra dining hall meals, and a coupon book with more free meals and discounts on food.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for this valuable information. I was worried about choosing the silver plan, but you have set my mind at ease!</p>