<p>? You don't HAVE to walk to Norris, ever, on the Block plan or otherwise. Block plans can be used in dining halls across campus just like the weekly meal plans. And it's not that 13/wk is better value, you just have to budget yourself accordingly and keep track of what you have left. Slightly more work, but well worth it, IMHO.</p>
<p>Plus, using leftover points/meals at the C-store at the end of the quarter is a GODSEND. You can stock up for quarters at a time with that stuff.</p>
<p>I find it to be very strange misa that you find Block D better than 13 meals/week. Most of my friends had block D and a couple that didn't switched for the last quarter, once they had figured out their schedule and were easily available to plan. Only one of my many friends used the weekly plan and she was the spacey arist type who didnt trust herself to plan thatt far ahead. I would highly advise using the block plan. I just found this thread and its a great tool for students, so keep asking those questions youngins, i will do my best to give you top quality answers!!!</p>
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I find it to be very strange misa that you find Block D better than 13 meals/week
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<p>I don't. I find the 13 meals/wk plan better than Block D. That's just my personal opinion. It doesn't even matter that much which meal plan, as a freshman, you choose at first. I recommend starting with the 13 meal/wk plan (b/c most freshmen will start out with that plan and it will be more convenient for you at first), and then later on trying out a block plan to compare which one works for you.</p>
<p>Is the foreign language requirement for WCAS difficult to fulfill? I'm mostly interested in knowing the level of difficulty for the French classes. </p>
<p>I have heard that the Japanese courses are pretty tough though.</p>
<p>This may be a stupid question but I am a bit confused. How is the Block D plan better than the 13meal/week plan? Block D = 74 meals over 11 weeks and 159 points. 13wk plan = 13 meals a week and 32 pts. If a point is = to $1, then the 13wk plan looks a heck of a lot better to me. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for any insight.</p>
<p>Block is a worse deal in terms of bang for your buck, as long as you eat all of your meals each week. There's no week-to-week roll-over of meals. It sucks.</p>
<p>As for language? French is basically like HS from what my friends say- that is to say, easy.</p>
<p>And yah, Aquamarinee- Japanese is unfathomably hard. But, its really satisfying and fun if you like a challenge... on those days you don't leave class wanting to cry or drop the class immediately.</p>
<p>It's better, IMHO, because points are more versatile than meals, and you won't use all of your meals in the 13/week plan (it assumes you'll be doing dining halls at LEAST twice a day for 6 out of the 7 days of every week... not likely, especially if you don't do dining halls for breakfast). Plus, dining halls are technically overcharging you, and you can get a much cheaper meal at Norris and use points. So basically if you're doing the 13/week plan you're paying for a more constricting plan that is giving you unhelpful meals you aren't using.</p>
<p>If you're not being extravagant you can easily get a $6 (6 points) meal at Norris for when you are trying to budget your points. That's 26 meals you can get using points. Add that to your 74 meals and that's 100 meals for the quarter... which is really plenty, it's about 10 meals on campus a week, which is how much I'd guess the average student eats, and you can use them anywhere. If you plan on eating in Norris at ALL it's definitely worth it.</p>
<p>Meal equivalency gives Block D another added bonus. It's a little complicated, but it means you can use a meal, instead of points, at Norris. They set a value for meals for lunch and dinner (dinner is pretty high, around $8.50), meaning you can get UP TO that amount of food and simply say "1 meal." (For example, if you got $9 worth of food for dinner, you could say "1 meal, rest points" and they would take away 1 meal and .50 points to make up the difference.) This is great because if you're there for dinner and only get, say, $6 worth of food, you can use 6 points, OR use a meal and simply grab some snacks/bottled drinks from the C-store since you basically have $2.50 to spare. Throughout the quarter you can stock up on little goodies like that. THEN, at the end of the quarter, you can take ALL your leftover meals and points, go during dinner, and go crazy at the C-store so you're set for next quarter. Go with friends/roommates and pool all your meals/points and you can come away with like cases and cases of drinks and snacks. I know this sounds ridiculous, but people do this end of the quarter shopping all the time, and it's awesome.</p>
<p>Block B gives you more points and less meals, so if you're good at budgeting your Norris meals, you can easily get even more than you can with Block D-- but there's no meal equivalency for that so you can't use meals at Norris.</p>
<p>Of course, if you like to eat large volumes of food, or eat things like salad on a regular basis, points are not going to cut it. Meals are all you can eat, and they have a salad bar in the dining halls.</p>
<p>So I got this brochure from the housing office that sells bed linens, towels, and just necessities in reasonable packages. It seemed like last year's freshmen (class of '11) got those too. </p>
<p>For those who purchased these, how is the quality of the linens and stuff?
I know it's garanteed until graduation and such, but i'd like some personal opinions.</p>
<p>You're better off buying things at linens and things- it'll likely be cheaper for the same quality, and a better bargain for superior quality. I'm very glad I have nice sheets. Makes sleep much more re****l, and... other activities... more pleasurable.</p>
<p>Haha, good S. T. F. U. censoring there, boards.</p>
<p>Also, I agree with arbiter.</p>
<p>Haha, I can't say re*<strong><em>l, or </em></strong>**, but I can say almost any racial slur. Best. forum. Ever. (that second rhymes with growler)</p>
<p>I had the 16 meals a week all freshman year and I liked it. I ate almost all of my meals in the dining hall (including breakfast) and thought it was pretty easy to use and a good value (16 vs. 13 ends up to being a couple of extra dollars per extra meal)</p>
<p>I know most college kids seem to not eat breakfast, but I really enjoyed eating toast every morning and drinking coffee. Sargent also has really good chocolate chip pancakes that saved my life before morning chem exams. Plus I didn't run out of meals at the end of the quarter like a lot of my friends.</p>
<p>Northwestern meal plans screw you over so much price-wise, I would never ever give them more than the bare minimum (the price of 13/wk, Block B, Block D). I just wouldn't be able to rationalize that.</p>
<p>I knew quite a few people who ran out of points toward the end of the quarter on Block D/meal equivalency plans. No matter what keeps getting said by the block proponents, you DO pay a premium for the convenience of having "equivalency" (i.e. being able to switch meals for points), and you do get less overall. I used the 13mpw plan all of freshman year, and i was fine on it. Yes, the food at Norris is better, but if you eat a fair amount and you want to get to eat with people you live with (this is important freshman year), stick with the normal weekly plan. The food may not be AS great, but it's more convenient, it's unlimited, and you always have friends to eat with.</p>
<p>As for the bubble tea/boba question.... Joy Yee's has good smoothies, but the tapioca isn't the best. If you want good boba, buy it from Argyle and make it yourself.</p>
<p>Just because Northwestern screws you over, doesn't mean you have to then screw yourself over (I hope that makes sense). Looking at the meal plan rates, it's an extra $2.40 for each of the three extra meals. That's a pretty good bargain, if you are going to use them. </p>
<p>I managed to eat 16 meals every week without even trying, but I had morning classes and ate breakfast every day and didn't have a problem with the dining halls (plus most of my friends had a similar meal plan so I had people to eat with). Most people don't have any of those, in which case 16 meals a week is obviously a bad deal.</p>
<p>Another thing to note, if you end up joining a fraternity, many new members end up getting a meal plan at their frat and opt out of Northwestern's meal plan.</p>
<p>Do I really have to buy those special fitted sheets for D dorm bed or will oversize sheets work ?</p>
<p>No. Any extra long twin sheets, like you'll get in the college section of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, will work.</p>
<p>We are off to Bed, Bath and Beyond to look. What kinds of things are popular at NU? How do kids maximize their small closet space? Is there room under the bed for storage?</p>
<p>I recommend stacking cubes, and bed lifts can give you extra underbed storage space (though technically illegal, many students have them).</p>