<p>OK, for my dorms next year I was planning on putting for my preference:
1) Max P 2) Pierce 3) Burton-Judson
But, what does everyone think about the comparison of dining halls? I know people say Bartlett (with max p) has the best food, but I heard its expensive and I work out and eat a TON. I know Pierce has all you can eat (and all you can steal ha), but is it worth it to live in Pierce over Max P for the all you can eat? Or should I not worry about running out of money at Bartlett? I'm in quite a quandry.</p>
<p>Pierce is at the bottom food-wise IMHO. I'd go for Max P myself.</p>
<p>My first year ran out of Bartlett food credit (dollars, points, w/e) at the end of the quarter and his friends had plenty left, so they scanned for him. He also eats a ton and said that the fruit (gorging on strawberries) his the big expense.
I don't think this is an issue at BJ?</p>
<p>Do you just get food credits? Is it all-you-can-eat for X meals a week? Just curious -- DS is extremely picky. Trying to figure how he won't starve!</p>
<p>The kids who eat at Pierce and BJ have, I think, 14 or 15 all-you-can-eat meals/week, plus a fairly limited number of credits to use on an a la carte basis at Bartlett or various snack-type places. I believe all the dining halls except the convenience stores are closed Saturday evening, and they don't serve regular breakfast on Saturday or Sunday. My son is a pretty enthusiastic eater, and he can't begin to use all of his meals (which don't roll over from quarter to quarter). In part, that's because the hours aren't so long; it's relatively easy for him to miss a meal. (He'd not anything like underfed, believe me.) As is the custom, he often treats upperclassmen to a meal (including, sometimes, his sister). </p>
<p>The Bartlett dollars go very quickly, though.</p>
<p>As a gross generalization, Bartlett is probably marginally better for kids who watch their calorie intake, because the system leaves them with free cash they can spend on other things. I think many boys can eat their way through their Bartlett allotment fairly easily and run into problems at the end of a quarter.</p>
<p>My rough sense is that kids get tired of Bartlett about two weeks later than they get tired of the other dining halls. The kids at Pierce and BJ don't spend much time wishing they ate at Bartlett. If you are choosing a dorm based on where it eats, chances are you won't care much about that by mid-October. (That's OK, you will probably like your house no matter what.) None of the food is great, but there's plenty of things even for picky eaters. Not that I know many of those personally.</p>
<p>I agree with JHS, and I would also say that your eating habits adjust to your dining hall, and you learn your dining halls ups (burritos, omelettes, salad bar) and its downs (coffee). It's not gourmet, but it's not half-bad.</p>
<p>Freshmen often serve as patron saints for upperclassmen in terms of meal swipes or Bartlett points :-)</p>
<p>Eating strategies at the dining halls are different. If you're a BJ kid used to putting a little bit of everything on your plate, you're going to rack up charges to your Bartlett points account (as I once did, spending an impressive 15 Bartlett dollars on a lunch). Bartlett tends to give very generous portions, particularly when it comes to pasta, so calorie conscious might like BJ/Pierce serve-your-own better. (Then again, BJ/Pierce kids tend to go back for seconds and thirds and Bartlett kids don't).</p>
<p>Don't use dining as a tiebreaker between Max and Pierce. Consider instead the ups and the downs of each: Max is newer, Pierce is more aggressively social. Max kids really like Max, but my Pierce friends are incredibly diehard about Pierce. Max houses are 70-100 and are not super-duper-bonded, with lounges in inconvenient places, Pierce houses are 60-70 supertight kids with a centrally located, two-level lounge (a feature the new dorm is stealing).</p>
<p>CD-- My S is picky too, in that he will only eat "real food". I think he means simple, fresh and recognizable. But it seems like the picky survive. He has had no problem with food quality at Bartlett and I think he just goes out for fun and variety.</p>
<p>Burritos and omelettes, unalove? I wish! More like plain pasta, fruit, salad where he can add his own ingredients (no dressing), bread, and hot dogs/ham. No chicken, hamburger, fish, tomato products, eggs, condiments, potatoes, pizza... Breakfast is probably the meal where he eats the most -- cereal, bacon, bagels, etc. I suspect he will be keeping a heavily stocked fridge. The freshman 10 would be a very good thing for him (so would 20-25, actually).</p>
<p>Now as for my younger son, our mantra has been "food...or college..." He's an enthusiastic eater and darned good cook.</p>
<p>The BJ dining hall has all of those items at every meal (with the exception of maybe ham) so I don't think that that diet is a problem. I'm sure Bartlett/Pierce have something similar, though it might be a little odd to ask a Bartlett person for two slices of plain bread-- at BJ and Pierce, you can just take the bread yourself.</p>
<p>When you eat with the same people often enough, you learn that almost everybody has odd habits with food.</p>
<p>You can get bread for yourself at Bartlett.</p>
<p>I like the quality at Bartlett, but the lines can be a downer especially in bad weather.</p>
<p>oops. My lack of knowledge of Bartlett layout is showing.</p>
<p>Usually the lines are short. If you go at a peak time period to a station that requires cooking (pasta, Mexican especially) you may have to wait several minutes. Normally people take lines into account when choosing what to eat. The really busy times are lunches, usually MW around 12:30 because students are getting out from 12:20 classes and other students are eating before 1:30 classes.</p>