<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I am just wondering if I plan to live on-campus and eat every meal from food services what type of dining plan should I get? Should I get one that's mostly meals and little dining dollars or one that's mostly dining dollars?</p>
<p>Apparently even with Liberty Plan people still have meals left at the end, and I have yet to read someone regretting having chosen Liberty Plan. I mean, if you run out of meals you can always borrow someone else’s card.</p>
<p>Of course, you should take into account your eating style, the distance between dining hall and your classes, etc. Overall I would say choose Liberty Plan – you can switch your plan from September 3~24 should you want more meals.</p>
<p>Go with the Liberty plan. You don’t know what the food is going to be like, so you want to have a lot of flexibility. You’ve got roughly three weeks to change your meal plan with no repercussions, so if you find that you’re eating two to three meals a day every day into your third week of class, you can change your plan to include more meals and fewer dining dollars. But realistically the liberty plan is the best option.</p>
<p>Oh cool. But what about the other less expensive plans? Like the Chestnut Plan, the Walnut Plan, the Market Plan and so on?</p>
<p>Oh and also how is the dining dollars calculated? How much does it generally cost to have a meal using dining dollars?</p>
<p>^Are you a transfer student? If so, get the cheapest meal plan if your dorm doesn’t have a kitchen. Most upperclassmen are not on a meal plan, so as you make friends very few will go to dining halls.</p>
<p>About meals using dining dollars, there are fast food places on campus like subway and a burger place that take dining dollars. When I was a freshman I probably spent an average of 5 dining dollars for meals. Most of my friends were very liberal with their dining dollars and wasted a lot of them.</p>
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<p>I could not resist doing this but: 5 dollar, 5 dollar foot longs!!!</p>
<p>Ok I’m done…</p>
<p>Anyways:
I would say go with the liberty plan, I mean if you get tired of the campus food (some people do) then you have the freedom to go spend the dining dollars where you think you’ll enjoy the food. You have more flexibility with the liberty plan. </p>
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<p>According to UPenn: Dining Dollars can be used in any Penn Dining location including Starbucks in 1920 Commons and Houston Market. Each time you make a purchase, that amount is subtracted from your Dining Dollars account balance.</p>
<p>In other words it’s like a gift card, you buy this, this many dollars gets subtracted from your dining dollars.</p>
<p>Dining Dollars are on your account in a declining balance type thing. Here’s how the plan works (I’ll use Liberty as the example)</p>
<p>125 meals per semester
$400 in Dining Dollars per semester</p>
<p>Meals terminate at the end of the semester, so if you haven’t used all 125, they’re gone.
Dining Dollars carry over from first semester to second semester but not from year to year.</p>
<p>People use dining dollars most commonly at Houston Market for lunch. Meals (including a drink) are roughly between $8 and $10 on average.</p>
<p>Freshmen can only choose the four expensive meal plans; upperclassmen get the cheaper options.</p>
<p>^The meals including drink is where my friends burned through their dining dollars. I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a soda with lunch or dinner. They would buy $3 drinks because dining dollars feels different from spending your own money. I know other people who bought a lot of Starbucks or pastries at ABP everyday which can eat up dining dollars too.</p>
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<p>If there is one thing people have to learn at Wharton is to learn to finance their dining dollars and not spend it on 3 dollar drinks and Starbucks which is like overly priced. =)</p>