<p>I hope not…</p>
<p>Wait… if you have an average of 14 meals per week, that’s about 2 per day… what happens to the third meal? Do you just use your dineX money to buy extra food?</p>
<p>Do the one with the least meal blocks and the most dinex. You dont use the meal blocks, like 80% of the time. Also, you can buy toiletries/life items at the university store with dinex, while the other plans have the money sunk in meal blocks you arent going to use, that expire after 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Many local businesses(such as the squirrel hill eat and park) also take dinex.</p>
<p>yora8504-I’m very content at CMU. I like the people, the academics and the culture of the school. I didn’t apply anywhere binding early decision because I wanted to see financial aid first, so I don’t blame you being hesitant because of the money issue. Is there anyway you can switch your application to regular decision? Or are saying you’re hesitant because of the cost of the application fee? I chose CMU because of its high ranked engineering, how easy it is to take classes outside your major, its size (it’s not too big or too small) and the slightly nerdy culture. They also gave me acceptable financial aid, which sealed the deal.</p>
<p>Yep, metalforever is right. You have more than enough dinex to cover buying cereal, milk, fruit, poptarts(if you’re unhealthy 
) etc. from Entropy (the university store).</p>
<p>yora8504-I’m currently a freshman at tepper. I got an ok deal for FA, but it’s not as great as I expected. I personally do not like early decision because it prevents you from choosing other schools, and I think rather than withdrawing your application completely, you might well consider switching to a regular decision. Tepper is a pretty good place to be, and for the money issue, I’d say it’s better to compare the total FA you receive from CMU with FA from other schools, so this way you might be able to decide where to go is the best. </p>
<p>kate10662-You talked about the music classes before, and I was wondering were you talking about the music extension program? I’m interested in taking piano classes, but it seems like only music extension program would allow us to do it, and that program requires us to pay more than regular tuition? Any information about taking music classes without paying more? Thanks.</p>
<p>yora850-Also under ED Carnegie does offer to meet full demonstrated need if you get in ED the only problem is if your deferred that agreement doesn’t stay true. Quote from website:</p>
<p>“Carnegie Mellon will meet the full demonstrated need with a combination of grants, loans, and work-study as calculated by the university for all students admitted under early decision. However, we do not guarantee to meet full need for students who are deferred or denied admission under Early Decision and later admitted under Regular Decision”</p>
<p>regarding food, i started out the year on the meal plan metalforever mentioned (fewest blocks and most dinex) and it was alright. A block will get you something filling pretty much wherever you go, and dinex is useful to get a la carte items, vending machine drinks/snacks, and subway/pizza/whatever accepts it off-campus. </p>
<p>However, I think i actually became much happier after I switched things up a month or so into the semester. Since i joined a fraternity I was able to enroll in the fraternity meal plan and switch to the CMU yellow meal-block plan (14 blocks per 2 weeks, no dinex). Basically now my meals go as follows:</p>
<p>-Breakfast i walk across the street to the fraternity house and pour a bowl of cereal or two (note, i swear the milk itself is more than worth what i pay for the fraternity meal plan. During the first month i definitely noticed a huge dropoff in the amount of milk i drank since many eating locations offer only fountain drinks or water, or if you’re lucky a single bottle of milk)</p>
<p>-Lunch/Dinner I’ll use a block for one meal and eat at the fraternity for the other. </p>
<p>Overall, the CMU yellow meal plan + fraternity meal plan is actually way cheaper than the cheapest meal plan that CMU offers. Losing the dinex by switching to the yellow plan makes things slightly less convenient, but in reality i now have as cash what could previously only be spent on food at certain places. One of my favorite things to do with this cash is go to half-price meals (after 11pm) at the various restaraunts down Forbes (usually fuel and fuddle) once or twice per week with friends. $5 easily covers the tip and cost of a fairly decent sit-down meal.</p>
<p>Final note, on the weekend things get a bit weirder. For most people your first meal of the day will be around noon-2pm at schatz (brunch buffet) or some other place on campus (unless you go off campus which many people do as well). Then have dinner whatever time you usually do, and then there’s a good bet you’ll end up back in Skibo cafe around 1am getting your third meal of the day.</p>
<p>conan5471-I e-mailed them a month or so ago, and that’s the only way for non music-majors (I don’t know about music minors) to take lessons.</p>
<p>I hate skibo.</p>
<p>Most of those places on the second floor of the UC should, like, get decent hours. I think i lived off of the skibo paninis and pizzas + si senor because by the time i got to eat dinner, everything on the second floor was closed. Also, the places in the robotics building have ****ty hours too. It sucks because the food is good.</p>
<p>Best places are Spice it Up grill( Steak and Jumbo Grilled Shrimp on the meal plan? hell yes.), and Asiana.</p>
<p>Spice it up Grill > Asiana > Pierogie pizzas in the robot building > Si Senor (dont order anything with salsa, get it on the side, youll thank me) > City Grill (hours) > CMU Cafe > Take Comfort (its a gamble) > Indian Place > The other chinese place/Stir Crazy > Everything Else</p>
<p>agreed. thats why i usually do lunch 2nd floor UC, usually a wrap or sandwich, and then dinner at the fraternity or down forbes</p>
<p>i tried si senor once, never went back. To be fair though, i’m from AZ and somewhat sensitive to awful mexican food</p>
<p>Hey bco09, what exactly is a fraternity meal plan? Do all frats do something like that?</p>
<p>What’s the best dorm to live in? Also, as an engineering student, how many hours of work a night do you usually do?</p>
<p>There’s not one dorm that’s generally agreed to be best. Stever has AC, but tiny rooms. Mudge has bigger rooms, but is further from campus. Morewood has big rooms, is close to campus and has its own cafeteria, but is old. I don’t know much about Donner, other than it’s really close to everything.
The amount of work depends on the week. When I had three tests in one week this semester, I spent about 6 hours a night studying for several days. On light weeks, I’ll only have a couple hours a night. It is a lot of work, but isn’t too bad if you manage your time well and are used to working hard. I had a job and was an officer in a club, and still managed to get some sleep and exercise, have something resembling a social life and get a solid GPA. But sometimes it does seem like CMU is a semester long marathon.</p>
<p>Thank you conan5471- I actually didn’t know if I could switch my ed2 application to rd. But i called the school, and it was damn easyyyyyyy thanks ;)</p>
<p>Donner has huge rooms, but it’s a bit old (unless they’ve renovated it in the three years since I’ve graduated). Scobel sucks. No AC, one window a room if you’re in one of the interior rooms, and tiny, tiny rooms. The only positive was your desk was the size of your bed (since it was lofted). Shady Oak was a pretty nice apartment, but you can get a lot cheaper if you move off of campus housing.</p>
<p>As for food, get the smallest meal plan you can and just hit up the food trucks if you don’t have enough blocks/dinex to cover what you want.</p>
<p>You aren’t going to need that AC in new house/stever after the first week. Its not worth it for the room size tradeoff. Its nice and renovated, but the rooms were just too small…</p>
<p>Heres how I would rate everything for first years…</p>
<p>Mudge Quads > Mudge > Donner > Stever > Morewood E > Any single sex dorm not mentioned here > Hammerschlag > Scobell > London/Terrace</p>
<p>Mudge is sort of far, but only like a few feet from stever, so dont opt for stever instead for distance reasons. Mudge and donner have in-house tutoring and the biggest rooms. Donner is close to everything, but its kind of ugly. Mudge is beautiful/has a piano lounge and won house wars 2 year in a row. Morewood E I was in, but i thought that the layout was confusing. It was my second choice, but im glad im not in it now, because it just seems so inconvenient. Hammerschlag is a sausage fest, and it kind of smells. Scobell has small rooms. London/Terrace is too far away, and I feel that they detract from the freshman experience, heavily. They have kitchens though. Mudge has cockroaches the first few weeks. London/Terrace doesnt have free laundry, they are coin-op. I kind of like the fact that morewood has the underground.</p>
<p>Why do the quads rank so highly in your list?</p>
<p>“Mudge has cockroaches the first few weeks”</p>
<p>You’re kidding right?!?</p>
<p>Yeah I was wondering the same…Does Mudge deserve a number one spot if it has cockroaches?</p>
<p>i like morewood e a lot… especially being 3rd floor it’s about as convenient as housing on campus is going to get since that seems to be a concern?</p>
<p>@whoever asked about fraternity meal plans, i think most of the fraternities have one. basically they hire a chef to cook (usually) 5 days a week lunch and dinner.</p>