<p>Food quality can vary widely and can change over time, as contracts are renewed or not. I think the question of variety is paramount. No matter where you go, you are essentially eating in the same "restaurant" on a daily basis as many means a day as you eat. It's hard for even the best food service to not become boring. Therefore, the more variety, individuality, and fresh produce that one can find, the better.</p>
<p>And the cooks get tired, too. D was raving about her college food, but said that the quality slipped somewhat by the end of the semester.</p>
<p>Fordham's spot on that list is well-deserved. Worst college food I have ever had the misfortune to eat. I did a summer program there in 2007 and came home 12 pounds lighter from skipping meals to eat fruit cups and oreos instead (and I did not have that weight to lose so it was kind of worrisome).</p>
<p>As long as the dining hall has a good, varied salad bar, you can eat pretty well. Mine had various spices, vinegars, soy sauce, etc. as well as a microwave in the dining area. Many students made creative dishes out of cold tofu, beans, veggies, etc., seasoned and steamed in the microwave. I never felt the need to do it myself, but I was impressed by their creativity!</p>
<p>Not only does Aramark have terrible food, but they're a disgusting, greedy corporation that gouges students. Last semester here, there was an incident in which a volunteer group I'm involved in on campus was trying to use students' extra meals (which don't roll over at the end of the semester, so God forbid you overestimate how much you're going to eat, because that money's just going back to Aramark) to buy food to donate to a local food pantry. Aramark was jerking us and other groups around - they would quote one price to one group and another price to us for the exact same thing, and it eventually turned out that they would be charging us some obscene amount of meals for a very small amount of real food. It was really disheartening for us to see that Aramark cares only about profits and not at all about hunger.</p>
<p>Willamette was featured on a Food Network show awhile ago. They were searing fillet mignon to order and the whole set up looked like a five star restaurant.</p>
<p>Vassar has gross food.</p>
<p>The food at Notre Dame is really good and has lots of selection.</p>
<p>"Aramark is pretty much universally bad and there contract at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim was cancelled prematurely due to customer complaints. Too bad that they are the vendor at UVA (at least during our spring break in 2008)"</p>
<p>Aramark got the contract for my alma mater, and the food in the main dining hall has been consistently great when I've eaten there for lunch (and I'm super picky). In fact, one day a week the lunch is considered so good a bunch of people from town come to have lunch there. However, the current students have told me that lunch is great, because they really want to please the faculty/staff/visitors/alums, but dinner is nasty. </p>
<p>One night I had a meeting on campus, so I decided to try it out. They weren't wrong. It was, I think, mostly leftovers served in truly bizarre ways. The salad bar, which is usually fantastic, wasn't even as well stocked as it as lunch.</p>
<p>There's a silver lining to having bad food at college, and that is the "Freshman 20" doesn't exist.</p>
<p>As someone who put on 15-20 pounds during the first two years of college (many years ago), it took me halfway through junior year to get back to my highschool weight. Having bad food makes it easier to avoid, and nobody ever starved from eating fruit, salad, and spaghetti.</p>
<p>It builds character.</p>
<p>^^^
Not necessarily! When we got bored with cafeteria food, we did pizza and sub runs several times a week. Talk about packing on the pounds...</p>
<p>Even if the food tastes good, it still does not mean it is good food. Most campuses have yet to embrace organic produce and meats so most of what they serve is heavily processed with tons of pesticides and chemicals and additives. </p>
<p>Syracuse University is trying to stop that by having a farmer's market on campus once a week with fresh "farm to table" food. Better our food money go to local US farm families than big corporation bigwigs like Aramark! And it's healthier for our kids in the long run. Plus my S hasn't put on the dreaded freshman 15 despite not getting the amount of exercise he was used to while on three different teams in H.S. - the only exercise I think he gets in SU is racing to class (after sleeping until the last possible minute, of course!).</p>