Trying to figure out dining options for freshmen. What are the ranges of cash / BRB costs in the all-you-can-eat dining halls? Not sure how well my son will utilize the meal swipes, so trying to figure out the most cost effective plan to use.
I would start with the ten meal plan and then increase it if he is actually using more than ten. The university has a very early cut-off date for downgrading the meal plan, but IIRC you can upgrade at any time during the semester.
AFAIK, Willard Straight Hall is the only swipe dining on main campus, so unless your son plans to head back up to North for lunch, he will end up using BRBs midday.
I assumed that my son would eat both breakfast and dinner on North, but he didn’t always make it to breakfast on time and seemed to eat dinner from the truck at least once a week (evening section or club meeting), so ten meals worked out to be the correct number.
We signed up for the 10 meal plan also. I think this will be plenty for my D.
If you are asking how much the dining halls cost, you don’t spend BRBs there. One meal swipe gets you all you can eat at the dining halls. However, BRBs are incredibly useful throughout the day for certain meals, snacks, drinks, etc.
I had 10 meals a week which came with 500 BRBs a semester. Used up all the BRBs both semesters. I don’t think I ever used all 10 meal swipes a week.
Any idea which dining halls have better food? When we visited, we ate at Trillium (not a dining hall) - liked the food but too crowded and less place to sit… wonder if dining halls are better in terms of food?
Well according to the Freshman Issue of the Cornell Daily Sun that arrived in our mail box a few days ago, it says that Appel is the “crown jewel of Cornell dining”.
Thanks Ranza123|
From Cornell’s web page:
"Guests on a meal plan just swipe their card at the door; other guests may pay with Big Red Bucks, cash, or credit card. "
So, if you run out of swipes for the week, how much do these halls charge?
If I remember correctly, without a meal swipe it’s like $14 or something like that. But honestly I never used up my meal swipes in a week. 10 was way more than enough for me. I used BRBs more often than anything.
@cd2015 on North Campus there are three dining halls: Appel, RPCC, and Risley. Those are where freshmen typically eat. Everyone has their own preference. I personally ate at Appel almost all the time because that was where my mailbox was and it felt closer to my dorm (even though all were probably equidistant). Okenshields on central campus also takes meal swipes and again, everyone has their own opinion on it. The general consensus, however, is that the best food can be found on West Campus, where mainly upperclassmen eat (I ate there twice I think throughout my entire freshman year).
Breakfast, lunch and dinners have diff prices for swipes. I still trying to get current information - I’m guessing $6 or so for breakfast, $10 lunch and $15 for dinner.
We signed up for 14 (lunches and dinners) and is now on 7/week. I think I calculated that the cost difference between 14 to 7/wk to be 7 meals, $533 or $31/wk 17 weeks. With the addition of the $500 BRB, $29.40/wk, or total $61/wk, she should get more than 6 lunches. She will not likely buy snacks, coffees/teas and such. The last posting in 2012 indicated that Okenshields charges $6.75 for lunch (probably more now…) The biggest challenge was getting to an all-you-can-eat eatery at lunch when classes are on main campus. The only one on main campus is Okenshields which, I hear, the food is not that great and is so crowded that there is no place to sit. My light eater also doesn’t eat a huge breakfast (which the 14 meals would not have have covered anyway). This will give her the flexibility to eat at the better rated cafes.
Most ppl on this board indicated that they signed up for 10 meals per week but rarely ate all 10 meals with the limited dining hours (5-7:30p).
I ate at the Appel Dining hall when I moved my student in. Yes, there were choices (salads, fruit, western food, asian food, etc.). Unfortunately, I am sorry to say that I was not impressed with the food and neither was my student. Granted, many people would say that I am a great cook and I say I am a fairly good cook. The mint sauce for the pakora was corn starchy and not the sauce I would have paired with the fried vegetable balls, the pizza was good but cold so not so good, the green Thai curry had mushrooms, bamboo shoots and baby corn (i think baby corn) which is TOTALLY wrong - it was spicy (had fire) though the Thai basil taste was negligible. The balsamic pork chops, which I noticed the RAs, who sat next to me, also ate/only ate (as in they have eaten many times at the dining hall as upperclassmen and they definitely ate this dish) were pretty good (one serving was very good and the other was overcooked). My daughter did have good sausages later, was impressed that they had dim sum and said that the fried sesame red bean balls were pretty good.
The unenthusiastic attitude of my daughter (not really great food at the dining halls), lack of dining halls on main campus, the cafes are suppose to have better choice/food and how many expressed how their kids didn’t use all 10 meals/wk are why we went with only 7 meals/week.
^^ I can’t decide whether the fourth paragraph is a parody or not, but most people wouldn’t worry too much whether the mint sauce was paired correctly, and whether the green curry had mushrooms (rather than eggplant, I assume?) but I could definitely complain about cold pizza! Anyway, if it is parody, thanks for the chuckle 
. If it’s not parody, then I think your D will begin cooking her own meals quickly, and hopefully my kids will be friends of hers because they would definitely enjoy real Thai curry.
I was thrilled to read about the dim sum and the fried sesame red bean balls. My d adores red bean paste anything and its not always easy to find, even in China.
According to both of my kids when they were freshmen, Sun brunch was usually the best because of the dim sum.
@oldfort - So there’s dim sum on Sundays often? Always?
"^^ I can’t decide whether the fourth paragraph is a parody or not, but most people wouldn’t worry too much whether the mint sauce was paired correctly, and whether the green curry had mushrooms (rather than eggplant, I assume?) but I could definitely complain about cold pizza! "
Not a parody. Just trying to give my impression of if the food was really good (yes - sign me up for unlimited meal plan!) or not (do I have to buy the 7 meal/week plan?). I grew up eating all sorts of food in NYC (5 star, ethnic to dive pubs) and lived in Thailand, Hong Kong and China for many years and my dad was a chef. So no - the food is not authentic. The western food was OK though.
I was hoping that it was better than my college dining hall 25 years ago but it was disappointed since Cornell Dining is usually so highly rated.
hs2015mom - I believe so, at least when my kids (5 years apart) were eating at the dining hall. They said dim sum were credible.
It’s all relative.