<p>is eating at nyu food courts cheaper than eating at like chinatown or restaurants around the village</p>
<p>To be honest, yes. But it’s a lot more convenient to get one freshman year (you have to get one if you’re in traditional-style dorms, they’re mandatory), because you’re still adjusting and what-not. But if you are going into apartment -style and you know you want to cook all the time and/or eat out all the time, it is cheaper to eat out (as long as your meals are under $10, the equivalent of one NYU meal).</p>
<p>I’ll be a commuter - do you reccomend I get a meal plan, or just dining dollars? Or maybe I’ll eat out for all my meals.</p>
<p>I don’t recommend getting a meal plan if you’re a commuter because then you’re just confined to all the limitations of having a meal plan (like how you must use it otherwise it’ll go to waste-- either meal/week or flex, since flex only carries over until the end of the semester) and only using declining dollars at nyu places. The thing is, all the dining halls accept cash/credit cards so it’s not like if you really wanted to eat at the dining halls, you can’t. It’ll probably cost you the same anyways. And if you decide to cook and or eat out (and also i doubt you’ll eat as much as the meal plans allow you to), you don’t feel as bad that you didn’t eat at the dining halls or that you’ve wasted money.</p>
<p>D was at the Lafayette St dorms (apartment style, near Chinatown) and bought the 75 flex plan (the cheapest…), or about 5 meals a week, which she used for lunch. The rest of the time she ate out (Chinatown has some great food at very reasonable prices; there was a deli next door to the dorm where she could get a yogurt / fruit for breakfast) or cooked in the apartment. A couple of kids from her HS had recommended she get the cheapest plan possible, which proved to be a good idea. On the other hand, if you sign up for a meal plan, you have a couple of weeks to change to a different variation at the beginning of the semester, so you’re not totally locked in.</p>
<p>I also agree with the prior post - if you are a commuter and not required to get the plan, don’t; you can always eat in the dining halls by paying out of pocket, but you’ll also have the flexibility to eat elsewhere as well. In this case, if you sign up for the meal plan, I’m not sure you can cancel it; worth checking out before you sign up.</p>
<p>thanks for the answers, guys. I didn’t know you could pay at dining halls with cash, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I don’t really want the limitations of a meal plan.</p>
<p>whoa..theyre not cheaper. if anything, nyu charges more. and yeah, only people i know who have it are freshman because theyre required to if they dorm. i don’t recommend having a meal plan.</p>