<p>I went to visit GW in April (I'm a rising senior) and I was very under impressed by the food, it seemed like an awful lot of fast food with a small area for "health/regular" food, but you had to pay for it by the pound, which seems ridiculous. What do people general do about the food situation? I asked while on the tour and people kept saying "Well there are so many restaurants around it's not an issue," but really, what college kid can afford to eat out every day, 3 days a meal?!</p>
<p>Perspective on this would be much appreciated! The other thing I noticed was that there didn't seem to be a lot of kids eating in the dining hall, is GW one of those schools that doesn't have any area where you can generally find a large part of the school hanging out at certain times of the day?</p>
<p>“what college kid can afford to eat out every day, 3 days a meal?!”</p>
<p>a kid that goes to GW. Because they pretty much make you. The dining plan for freshman is $3400 which goes onto your GWorld card, 1700/semester. Of that 1700, 700 (or 1000 I forgot which one) HAS to be spent at J Street (the food court), the mount vernon dining hall (which I hear is more traditional) and Duques Hall (which I think is an academic building so…vending machines maybe?) so yeah, they make you eat it. For the other 1000 you can spend it at any other place that accepts GWorld. You can find all the partners here: [GWorld</a> Colonial Cash - Retail Partners](<a href=“http://gwired.gwu.edu/gwdining/retailpartners.html]GWorld”>http://gwired.gwu.edu/gwdining/retailpartners.html).</p>
<p>Actually I just read it, and there are a lot of places that accept GWorld. If you don’t want to eat out the time you can use your own cash to pay for groceries and your gworld to pay for other stuff.</p>
<p>A lot of the dorms have kitchens available for use. But I think you are looking for the “hang out” type of cafeteria which I agree is not really the way GW is set up. Last Oct, when I visited, J Street was packed at lunch time, so I do think there are quite a few that hang out during the day even if it looks like it is not set up that way.</p>
<p>Just to clarify- the pay-by-the-pound place, J Street Cafe, is not the only place you can use your GWorld (but it’s actually quite good most of the time- lots of variety, and there is a very well-stocked salad bar). The restaurants that the tour guide was talking about also accept GWorld, and if you budget your money correctly you shouldn’t have a problem running out of money. There is also a grocery store, Safeway, near campus that accepts GWorld.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you guys, but I doubt that I will eat many breakfasts out. I plan on stocking up with bagels/creme cheese or cereal/milk for a quick one before running out to my first class. So that will cut down on meal costs. When the weekends come along, I doubt I’ll see lunch before 2 pm (I love to sleep in) so I’ll probably have a big lunch/dinner and then snack later at night. At first I was worried about $3400 making it all year long and then I started looking at my eating habits and realized I should be just fine. My only downfall (which I will have to keep a check on) will be eating dinners at finer restaurants to celebrate something - and I can always come up with an excuse to celebrate something!!!</p>
<p>What also eats into your $3400 is that sales tax is 10% in DC, so add that into every meal, snack, drink, etc. you have other than at J St. & MV.</p>
<p>In addition to the sales tax you also have a tip at all the restaurants where you use your GWorld. My S, now a senior, found this really ate through his money on his GWorld. You end up eating at restaurants more than he realized.</p>