<p>Yup I think 500 dinning dollars will be worthy. I am sorry but am still confused about the community meal plans like the community 25 plan. Is this in addition to or on its own?</p>
<p>Those are independent meal plans.</p>
<p>pixeljig, those plans are optional and are for non-freshmen. For example, if students are living off-campus but would like a food plan.</p>
<p>i am a freshman on a community meal plan.
it’s 50 meals + 100$ dining, i believe for 560$ total.</p>
<p>i’m living in an apartment.
honestly, i’m glad. the meal plans are expensive and with a kitchen i’ll be able to cook and eat for cheaper.</p>
<p>^^That sounds like a great choice, LMU10. However, that choice is not available to freshmen living in dorms, I believe.</p>
<p>right.</p>
<p>parkside and century freshman residents automatically get it.</p>
<p>And by Parkside, LMU10 means Parkside apartments, not Parkside Suites (IRC and Arts and Humanities).</p>
<p>I’m most interested in the daily lunch menu at the galen center dining facility which only takes discresh so I’m leaning towards just using 100% discresh for dining instead of getting one of the meal plans as an off-campus transfer.</p>
<p>Kulakai,
My advice would be to not waste your money on on-campus food options…</p>
<p>Unfortunately I am horrible about packing a lunch/dinner for each day while I’m on campus. Since I would be on campus all day at least 4 days a week I’d rather pay for the on-campus convenience.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. I would still rather save a couple bucks a day and get lunch at subway, yoshinoya, chipotle, quiznos, UV foodcourt, etc located around campus.</p>
<p>Thanks ^^, it is beginning to make more sense now! </p>
<p>This is going to be an experience! Wow, nearly 3,000 dollars for 4 months spent on food that the kids will grow to hate!</p>
<p>I’m actually torn between Gold and Trojan for my son. I know he’ll want to eat often at places other than EVK and Parkside, so SOME dining dollars at a discount is obviously an advantage. The question is do we just go for the Trojan plan, so he can eat anywhere any time, because otherwise he might end up spending that many discretionary dollars anyway… or do we with go with Gold and just add some Discretionary Dollars as needed? But might we not end up spending the 3k that way anyway (since the new Trojan plan is ALL Dining Dollars?) I don’t like the no rollover thing, though, and the discretionary dollars do roll over.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>I believe they use cash/credit too Kulaki, so no point in adding discresh just for Galen as there’s no additional discount for using discresh anywhere on campus (vs using cash/credit).</p>
<p>discresh is a lot faster than cash/credit, especially credit where they make you sign. </p>
<p>Unless you have dining dollars or you’re short on money and can’t afford to load up your discresh in advance, I would put some money on it.</p>
<p>So someone please give a suggestion for new Freshman…who lets say will eat at EVk/Parkside 8 meals a week and lets say 2-4 meals at other places (University Village/New Center).</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Jazz/Shreddermom,
I am wondering about the same thing. Anyone have advice?</p>
<p>These are new options, so we “older” folks may only be able to guess, based on our student’s own food preferences. Yours may be quite different.</p>
<p>The unlimited meals (as opposed to 10 meals/week) is effectively a wash for most kids, since they very rarely ever used their full allotment in the past anyway. Still, the nice thing about the workings of ‘unlimited’ is students can just stop in to EVK and grab some fruit or an English muffin and juice, or other small meals several times a day. Why not? It’s easy and <em>free</em> and close by between classes. With the old arrangement, it felt wasteful to spend a $10 meal-allotment on just an apple. If you think you (or your son/daughter) would be likely to find this sort of stop in and grab a bite arrangement appealing, then I’d recommend getting the plan with meals plus $500 dining dollars.</p>
<p>In past years, the food service allowed students to change meal plans in the first two weeks, so if you start with that plan and you don’t like it, you may be able to pay the difference and upgrade. Check if this is still the case.</p>
<p>My s liked the convenience of the Parkside cafeteria, found food was fine. His friends often liked to eat at other venues, so it was a social choice to eat out.</p>
<p>Madbean, all the dorm meal plans have unlimited swipes in the main dining halls now. It’s more about getting some discounted dining dollars on top of that, or getting a 3K All-dining-dollar plan. They’re posted on the previous page. Thanks!</p>
<p>We’re trying to decide between Gold and Trojan too. I think Gold is the best way to go because you can’t use it up before the end of the semester, plus you get the $500 dining dollars to use where ever you want on campus. My son would prefer the Trojan because he doesn’t want to be limited to just the cafeterias but I think it will be hard to gauge how much you can spend each day with the Trojan plan. You could either run out before the end of the semester or end up not using it all and it won’t roll over. Funny how much thought is going into the dining plans now!</p>