<p>How expensive are typical items at the cafeteria? I know Boston College is pay-as-you-go, so are the prices fair? Is it okay for someone who may eat a lot at meals or is it common for people to have to add extra dollars?</p>
<p>The items are certainly not cheap, but not outrageous either – similar to a typical “fast-casual” restaurant like Pei Wei or Rubio’s. The prices seem to be about the same as other colleges that we have visited.</p>
<p>Whether or not you need to add extra dollars seems to depend on whether you’re a boy or a girl. My son and his roommates always get real chummy with girls at the end of the spring semester, because they have run out of dollars on their meal plans and the girls always seem to have some left over. (A trick he learned from his older brother, who did the same thing at another college.) Since any unused amounts don’t carry over to the next year, there’s usually a stampede of students stocking up on sodas and snacks for year-end parties or letting friends buy items during the last week or two.</p>
<p>How does the meal plan work? You have to pay a certain amount of money at the beginning of the year and then you have to pay again each time you purchase food? Is that right?</p>
<p>Each semester you get $2145 for food, and you will be charged for each item you buy when you go through and swipe your card. For most people this is more than enough. It rolls over to the next semester, but not the next year. A few people run out, but it’s not a big deal. Most people have hundreds left so they try to find ways to spend it. At the end of the year they start to sell big packs of cereal or vitamin water or soda that are like $60 so people can spend their money. If you run out, you can have a friend buy your meal or put more money on.</p>
<p>Assuming that we dont spend more than $2145, do we still have to pay for each item we buy? By the way, is that amount of money included in the cost of attendance fee? </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Think of the $2145 as a prepaid credit card that the school makes you buy each semester. At every visit to a dining hall, your card/account will be charged for each item you have on your tray.</p>
<p>At the end of semester 1, any unspent money in your account rolls over to the 2nd semester, but you still get charged $2145 for the 2nd semester.</p>
<p>At the end of the school year (2nd semester), one of four things will happen:</p>
<p>1: You’ve spent all your prepaid money. That means you’ll need to find other ways to pay for your food.</p>
<p>2: You have prepaid money left over, and you begin buying meals for your friends who have no prepaid money left on their cards (this is common).</p>
<p>3: You have prepaid money left over, and as Green_Apple5 noted, you buy lots of non-perishable foods “just to spend it”. This is also common</p>
<p>4: You do nothing, which is effectively making a contribution to BC, because they keep the money.</p>
<p>An yes, it meal plan is included in BC’s cost of attendance estimate.</p>
<p>The meal plan is mandatory if you live in dorms or suites (freshmen and sophomores). The meal plan is optional if you live in an apartment style dorm (juniors and seniors) or off campus.</p>
<p>Dear sdkidwooh, prbcguy, and others : As stated, each semester, freshmen will have their meal debit plan credited with $2100+. This is a mandatory requirement and cannot be avoided in the freshman year. Typically, what happens towards the end of the scholastic year, some students (mostly guys) will start running out of prepaid funds and some students (mostly girls) will have an excess of funds still on their cards. As a result, you will often see girls buying guys a lunch or dinner once early May and finals week rolls around (like right now). </p>
<p>As jpm50 stated, this is more common than you would think - a student that, for example, today, May 13th, has $150 remaining in their plan will not use all of that cash by next Monday. The students will usually be asking around amongst their friends to find out who still has excess dollars available.</p>
<p>When my eldest completed his freshman year, we were surprised to see students getting ready to leave campus but first stopping at McElroy Commons to “buy” a case of Vitamin Water or similar - only then did we realize where the final dining dollars are used.</p>
<p>Dear All : For those who are wondering how the total meal plan cost is calculated, some insights follow. If you have been on the BC campus for a meal (Lower, Stewart, McElroy), you will likely have seen signs talking about the 6-7-8 plan. Basically, this is that BC Dining Services strives to make a good breakfast, lunch, and dinner plan for $6, $7, or $8 respectively. Now, if you follow this strictly, you should expect about $21/day in meal costs.</p>
<p>At 15 weeks per semester, $2145 would represent about $143/week which is roughly $21/day. Surely, there is no student that does their full 105 days on campus per semester in the local dining hall nor are the costs of each meal exactly the numbers suggested. However, this does give a slight overview as to how the numbers are derived.</p>
<p>My DD was on the meal plan for 2 years and was always under by about $500 per semester…She ended up donating to many charities with her meal card, buying Xmas presents ( they sell alot of giftable treats at xmas time), special cakes. Everytime we drove up to bring her to school or see her we would load up on the yogurts, juices, buying a sandwhich, etc. She also treated many kids with no meal plans and kids who had run out of meal plan $.</p>