<p>This must have been asked a million times, but how do you figure out what meal plan to choose? The best bargain of the four choices looks like the 15 meals/wk, but they expire at the end of every week, so I would expect a lot of those could be forfeited. The other plans are a combination of meals, plus dining dollars (which means you don't pay sales tax) and one that is dining dollars alone. You can also add dollars whenever you want. I'm totally perplexed.</p>
<p>I think it depends on your student’s eating habits. The male athletes in my dorm bought the maximum plan and ate their money’s worth. I liked the freedom to just get a snack during the day, so an option with dining flexibility worked better for me.
At some schools, you can change your choice every quarter/semester, so you could make your best guess the first term and adjust after that.</p>
<p>15 meals/wk for a freshman isn’t that much. Figure they will eat two meals a day and that last meal might get used as a snack. So much depends on the school too. The meal plans at my son’s school are meals and dining dollars and the dining dollars rolled forward and could even be withdrawn at the end of his attendance. We’ve slowly decreased the number of full meals each year (he’s a senior now) but have kept the dining dollars. There are numerous places both on campus and off campus for him to use them so that has worked out well. </p>
<p>You might want to ask on the specific college board for the school on CC since the students who are currently at the college will understand things better than the rest of us.</p>
<p>thanks, siliconvalleymom and sharonohio. Unfortunately, my S’s college doesn’t have a board on CC (it should), so I can’t ask there.</p>
<p>It depends on the school, or course, but everyone at my son’s prospective school says pick the cheapest option in the begining because you can always add to it, but money paid is money lost if kids don’t eat. And when you calculate the cost, even the cheapest meals are about $10 each. </p>
<p>My son will just keep bagels and milk in his room since he hardly ever eats breakfast and then eat 1-2 meals daily at the dining hall or on campus with dining dollars. Really, he could get away with one huge 4:00 meal and then snacks from his fridge…that’s kind of how he eats now!</p>
<p>I say, buy cheap, see what it looks like your child will ACTUALLY eat/do and then add to the plan accordingly and as needed.</p>
<p>my freshman daughter began with a 15 meal plan and dropped it down to 10. She isn’t one to eat a big breakfast , but prefers fixing herself a bowl of cereal or oatmeal and yogurt. Sometimes she had to add more money to her meal card, but it worked out fine for her to drop it down.</p>
<p>Thanks, Jamiecakes. And lje62!</p>
<p>Same here with girls we always took the lowest meal plan. One DD would still spend the last month swiping in hungry guy friends to use up her extra meals</p>
<p>10 seemed to be about where we settled, with cash on the card. A lot of times they did not get to the dining hall except for dinner and used the cash for lunch, no breakfast. It depended on their schedules and the variety available, too.</p>
<p>Another whose D took the smallest plan. She is currently a junior and it has worked remarkably well!</p>
<p>The get bored of the cafeteria food pretty quickly so I would suggest medium meal plan and dining dollars to begin with and top up later.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for those with sons? Mine eats like a horse, but never eats breakfast. Still, I don’t want him locked into eating in the dining hall all the time. Perhaps he can find a friend like somemom’s DD!! :)</p>
<p>Both of my Ds did the lowest plan and at that ended up with wasted meals. It’s too bad so many colleges force them into this but I’m sure it’s a moneymaker for them. But there are others, mostly some guys, who might need to add on to the maxo plan since they eat so much. I wonder sometimes if the girls are essentially subsidizing the guys when it comes to meal plans.</p>
<p>You really just need to figure out not only how much your kid eats but also what types of foods the kid eats. For example, if they’re a health conscious vegetarian they should usually take the lowest meal plan available since they’ll have a hard time finding adequate decent veg meals at most campuses (i.e. not bathed in butter or oil, fresh fruit/veggies, etc.).</p>
<p>Again, I think it depends on the student, their eating habits and their friends. S has an “unlimited” meal plan which he loves. He and his friends have a routine for their meals. This semester, he even eats breakfast! I think he also does lunch, dinner, and what they call “late night”. He started in September with the 14 meal plan, but the decided to increase it to unlimited. We were just billed for the difference.</p>
<p>When D was in school, she went with the 14 meal plan because she would cook in the kitchen in her dorrm. Sometimes she just preferred that if she was busy studying or didn’t feel like trekking to the student center.</p>
<p>My S is on the 14 meal per week plan, and he manages to consume huge amounts of food in those 2 meals per day. He runs a lot and needs the fuel. He doesn’t eat out much, partly because he loves the school food and partly because he just doesn’t want to spend the money. His plan also has a specific number of “school” dollars that he is allowed to spend in various eateries on campus. He always has extra that he doesn’t use.</p>
<p>Most schools will allow the kids to change their meal plans if they make the wrong choice initially.</p>
<p>My S is a freshman and started with the unlimited plan. The first and second quarters he ate breakfast, lunch and dinner most days and other days he would go in to get a snack.</p>
<p>This quarter he dropped down to the 15 meals/week plan because of his schedule and he tends to be going out to eat more on the weekends.</p>
<p>Unless your kid is a very big eater, go with the cheapest plan with the most dining dollars. You can always supplement later – but with dining dollars your kid pays for what he eats, with everything else you subsidizing others with dollars spent on skipped meals, etc.</p>
<p>It also depends on what else is available on or near campus – after a few weeks your son will get tired of dorm food (it happens everywhere). At more urban & suburban campuses, there is plenty to choose from off-campus – I remember my son and his roommates frequently ordered take-out chinese or pizza. (At his school there were places near campus that delivered until pretty late at night). Less money tied up in a meal plan means more money to pay for other food on occasion. </p>
<p>Also, I found out something rather interesting along the way: at many colleges there is a set price for a single meal, for students or others who are not on the plan and want to eat in the dining hall. For example, dinner might be $12. Well – my son’s sophomore year I found out what breakfast, lunch & dinner cost at his school and did the math, and found out that the plan actually cost significantly MORE for the same number of meals. In other words, if he stayed off the plan but paid “dining dollars” for each separate meal and ate the same number of meals as the plan offered – he would save several hundred dollars! (It was a long time ago, but I think it was around $400).</p>
<p>So shop carefully and be wary.</p>
<p>Figure that your student will spend as much on food as the MOST expensive plan.</p>
<p>But don’t necessarily choose that one.</p>
<p>Instead, it may be better to choose a cheaper one and give the student the difference in cash.</p>
<p>If a choice is offered between varying amounts of meals and “dining dollars,” go with the largest amount of “dining dollars.” This gives the student the maximum flexibility concerning when and where to eat – flexibility he may need if his classes or activities prevent him from eating in the dining halls at mealtimes on some days.</p>
<p>At the school my daughter will be attending, freshmen are required to sign up for a 10 meal plan (minimum).</p>
<p>The 16 meal plan costs about $200 more (per semester) and includes $100 meal plan dollars.</p>
<p>We have signed her up for the 16 meal plan as, even if she misses meals, I would guess she would spend more than $200 extra if she had only the 10 meal plan.</p>
<p>This depends if your child goes home or not on the weekends. I have 12 meals a week and it’s wayyy too much. I literally have to force myself to go to the dining hall to use the meal swipes. 12 meals/week is minimum for freshmen here and I know no one who actually uses them all. However, many people here go home on the weekends so that could be a factor. Nonetheless, if I were to stay here every weekend, 10 meals/week would be perfect for me.</p>