<p>This should make it all far more pleasant!</p>
<p>I agree, those changes are a good sign that they are listening to the students. Prior to the changes, the Meal Plans were almost in competition with each other. Students were using the Meal Plan as a contributing factor as to which dorm they chose. The meals should be neutral. The selection of which dorm should be based on location, size, social activities, etc - not on where the students can eat their dinner. </p>
<p>The old system had definite flaws. Prior to the changes, with the Cardinal Plan students had to eat their dinners at EVK. With the Gold Plan, students had to eat their dinners at Parkside. It made no sense. (possibly from a meal administration standpoint, it may have made ordering quantities and cooking quantities easier to plan/schedule. But from the student's perspective, their desire for variety of meals was stiffled. My son has the Cardinal Plan, and at times wanted to eat at Parkside (class nearby, or just for a change), so he would use dining dollars or discretionary. At times, he would adjust his activities based on where he was going to be at dinner. Now, he will have the freedom to eat at either location. Makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>It really depends on how you eat at college, and you won't know till you get here. For me, it was difficult to get people to go with me to the dining hall (people already ate, were planning on eating elsewhere, were not in their rooms, etc.) so I bought food at Trojan Grounds or Commons with my Trojan dining dollars. For those who don't mind eating alone, Cardinal is fine, but a lot of people exhaust their $510 quickly. Mine was gone in 3 weeks...but then again, I don't eat at EVK or Parkside much.</p>
<p>Conclusion: Get Trojan Plan! You can eat almost anywhere on campus!</p>
<p>"...it was difficult to get people to go with me to the dining hall (people already ate, were planning on eating elsewhere, were not in their rooms, etc.)..."</p>
<p>This is a little off-topic, but I've been thinking about making a web application to keep track of your (and others') meal times, so that you can always eat with someone.</p>
<p>For me, I know that someone is always eating at the same time as me (plus or minus 15 minutes), but I never know who or where. This application would allow us to quickly and easily enter our meal times and see when we intersect, so you'd never eat alone again.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>This web app might be useful if people ate at the same time every day, but I have lots of random activities and eat when I have free time. People might be too lazy to update their meal status 2-3 times a day, but who knows?</p>
<p>Would you update your meal status? How could I make it really easy? How about a few buttons, and having your status update as soon as you click one:</p>
<p>**Eating in 15 minutes</p>
<p>Eating sometime from 12 noon to 1pm</p>
<p>Eating sometime from 1pm to 2pm</p>
<p>Eating sometime from after 2pm**</p>
<p>haha I think it sounds like a good idea. Considering how much time I spend on Facebook, I would probably update the status. Though I imagine the system would have to be fairly complex... a "see what time your friends are eating" feature is probably necessary (I mean, it's nice that John Doe is eating at 6:15 but I don't know him... why would I care when he's eating?) It's a good idea though :)</p>
<p>"I agree on the Fast track plan. I didn't meet ANY freshmen last year that opted for fast track."</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman and is in her second semester using Cardinal Fastpass, and she really likes it. She enjoys knowing she can pop in whenever she wishes, and if I understand correctly she now has the option of dinner at Parkside included. We keep some $ on her Spirit Card so she is free to eat at Carls Jr., Ground Zero, etc., when she feels like it or wants to hang out with friends going those places. </p>
<p>I visited campus last week (took daughter of friends from out of town to tour and interview), and it was very nice to take advantage of the free guest meal which had just gone into effect! We had a good meal at EVK.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, even with the extra variety that Trojan Plan provides, you'll find yourself getting sick of the food on campus. I had the Trojan Plan last semester, and I have it this semester, and I have to admit that the food options here are quite limited. The reason I chose Trojan over Cardinal was so that I wouldn't be stuck with EVK all semester. Now that USC Hospitality made some revisions to their meal plans, I would recommending going for Cardinal. </p>
<p>The vendors in Commons (Wolfgang Puck, Carl's Jr., Malibu Subs, Rice Garden)and Cafe 84 (Krispy Kreme, burger joint, pizza/chicken joint, Wok Crazy), are decent, but they all really just serve a load of fast food. The food is satiating to an extent, but after a while, you'll probably end up feeling like you shouldn't have eaten it.</p>
<p>The cafeterias are all right. It's buffet style, so you can choose as much as you want from what they offer. But because it's buffet style, you're limited to only what they serve on their daily menus, so there'll be nights when you'll find a dish you love with all your heart, and there'll be nights when you can't find anything you like.
Nonetheless, you can definitely eat a lot healthier in the dining halls. For the first few weeks, it'll be very tempting to indulge yourself in many, many dishes, especially the desserts. That'll definitely change, though. There're only so many nights when you can fill your stomach beyond human limits. The food gets boring... VERY quickly. They serve the same selections of food every night, with few variations. I personally got tired of eating food at Parkside just 2 weeks into my first semester. Nowadays, I settle mostly for a bowl of fruit, salad, rice, a plate of meat, and an occasional side dish.</p>
<p>If you do get Trojan, you can spend a lot of your dining dollars treating friends out to Upstairs Commons. It's a fancy sit-down restaurant where you can order from a selected menu of appetizers and entrees. The food here is good (but NOT exquisite by any stretch of the imagination), but it'll seriously drain your dining dollars, so keep an eye on your balance.</p>
<p>The food offered on campus is way overpriced for the quality you get. A 6" pizza pie from Wolfgang Puck costs $6! A pizza slice from Cafe 84 costs $4. A full-sized 18" pie from Costco or Pizza Hut costs less than $10. The Tommy Burger from Upstairs Commons costs $12. My friends and I were thoroughly disappointed by our 1/3 pound burgers, which were comparable to the tiny patties you find from McDonald's cheeseburgers (a little exaggerated, but still similar. </p>
<p>Since incoming freshmen are required to get a meal plan, I would strongly suggest freshmen opt for the Cardinal Meal Plan, especially because of the revisions USC Hospitality made. Meals stack over now, you can eat in Parkside for dinner now, and you have $510 dining dollars which is sufficient for getting food elsewhere. You won't have as much variety, but there isn't much variety to begin with. The food outside of EVK and Parkside isn't THAT impressive. If you need to spend more than your allotted $510, you can pay with some extra cash or discretionary. Plus, you can spend some cash out in the UV, and still save about $500+ by getting Cardinal over Trojan. I regret spending so much money on Trojan. If I had the chance, I would switch over to Cardinal now. I wish USC Hospitality had made the changes to the meal plans earlier...</p>
<p>I'm glad I'm moving out to an apartment next year. Spending ~$6,000 on food strictly from meal plans is ridiculous. I think $2,500 is more than sufficient for food purposes, especially when buying in bulk from Costco. Sure, it'll take more time to cook, but it'll be healthier, cheaper, and more flexible.</p>
<p>I LOVE the food in Commons and Cafe 84!!! I'm so glad I'm on Trojan because I'm starting to hate EVK, and Parkside just isn't that delicious anymore.</p>