@psssthoy only from certain locations. if you eat from one of the main dining halls (Donahue, Dougherty, St. Mary’s) you cannot take food to go or take any leftovers. however, at Cafe Nova, the Exchange, and Belle Air Terrace, you are able to order food to go. at certain Holy Grounds locations across campus you can also pick up a simple sandwich or cup of soup to go.
@hcbcdad I’m not sure the exact percentage of freshman that are tripled, but on the Villanova University website you can find the statement, “We anticipate that more than half of the incoming class will reside in converted triple rooms.”
I also am unsure if entering into Honors will in any way decrease your chances of being tripled, but most of the students that I know from Honors did end up being placed in forced triples (although I only know a few).
Looks like the meal plan prices went up almost $200 this year. Not entirely surprising there. My son is not a big meal eater, but he snacks. I may just have him on a meal plan that offers more in the way of discretionary dollars rather than set number of meals.
Yes So many Engineers do learning communities. I am in leadership right now and there are about 20 engineers on my floor of about guys. The time commitment of a learning community is honestly not significant at all and to be honest it was the best decision I made at Nova thus far. My best friend is a mechanical engineer who also does service about 6 hours a week and he still gets to sleep pretty early. The extra course basically has no homework as well and it does not last the entirety of Freshman year. The level of extra work almost makes the learning community feel more like a club than an academic commitment.
With regard to the meal plan. MPEs are the way to go they are by far what you use most as a student and while having unlimited is very nice and points are nice. being able to eat mpes whenever like you can when you are not on the unlimited is game changing.
My son will be attending Villanova next year and I was wondering which meal plan to sign up for. He is a swimmer and tends to eat all 3 meals and a snack at night. He will only be doing club swimming at Villanova but he still will tend to eat more food due to his metabolism although not giant meals in each sitting. Would you recommend the unlimited or is the 20 meal plan ok?
I can’t really say for sure though unlimited sounds about right. The “late night snack” is kinda a fourth meal on campus so I myself usually will eat breakfast lunch dinner using the 2 MPEs a day you get on the unlimited for coffee w/ some pretzels and that late night snack. If your son thinks that would work for him I would say go for the unlimited. The other meal plans do not really allow for that late night food. Also keep in mind you can switch your meal plan after a semester once you have a sense of how many meals you really need.
Choosing the 20-meal plan would mean that your son would have to skip one meal per week, which may happen anyway if he wakes up late for class or does not have a lunch break in his schedule on a particular day. However, the 20-meal plan would give you $30 extra in points for snacks or other things from the convenience stores/coffee shops on campus if he wants to snack. In the end, it is up to your son and his food preferences! hope this helps!
@CSCisLife good point! @gigs17 your son can use a meal to get a late night meal from the South Campus dining hall as a snack. In this case, the unlimited meal plan would be better, and as @CSCisLife said you can also use an MPE for a pretzel or muffin from the coffee shops. However, if your son leans more towards snacking on chips and things like that, the 20-meal plan will give you more money in points to use towards those snacks at the convenience stores.
Thanks, I’m still confused about which plan is better. When I say he snacks, he has granola bars,hard boiled egg or protein drink, peanut butter jelly sandwich (more real food like) than chips or junk food type stuff. So maybe try the unlimited and you can switch next semester?? The unlimited seems to be more “real food” as opposed to snack type food?
@gigs17 Yes, the unlimited plan may work better for your son. They have crumbled granola by the cereal that you can eat with yogurt and fruit, hard-boiled eggs (in the morning), etc. Like you said, you can always switch after the first semester, so you could just try the unlimited to see what works best.
you don’t necessarily have to order through the Villanova website for that though. for example, when I got my Mac I just found Villanova in the Education section on the Apple website and ordered it as a student through there.
@auntlu I doubt that Best Buy would have better pricing than the student discounts through Villanova. You just need to settle on the computer model. Apple has an online outlet that sells remanufactured Macs at decent prices.
Hi! @novanationer12 My son will be an incoming freshman this fall and I read somewhere the beds are regular twins. My question is if he is in a forced triple and we did request for the extra long twin ( he is 6’4) will his bed be assigned to him if we end up getting a later check in time?
Hi @novamom2022 ! if you request the extra long mattress I’m not sure if they put it on a bed right away, but either way you are not necessarily “assigned” a bed. you can always move the mattress to a different bed just like you can move the furniture around to your liking. just make sure your son discusses with his roommates which bed he would like before you move-in, that way he is not stuck with the “last-come-last-choice” bed if you receive a later check in time. hope this helps!
Hi again! @novanationer12 thank you for your response! I decided to call and double check what they told me was they do assign the mattress which is good! But you’re right they probably will move beds to the way they like anyway! I was more concerned about that then the placement of beds! Thanks again for your help!!
@AquaBowl sorry for the late response! Stanford and Good Counsel are mostly doubles, but there are usually one or two random doubles on each floor of St. Monica, Katharine, Caughlin, and McGuire.
For Thanksgiving break, I understand that dorms shut down. Will they be open back up on Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving? For purposes of airfare, its a lot cheaper for son to fly back to school on Saturday instead of Sunday.
If the dorms are closed on Saturday and Sunday yout son can file for housing over the break. With things like Thanksgiving break and Easter break the school is very flexible with giving you housing. I had to do it for Easter break the form took me 5 minutes to complete and I was approved for housing in 10.