<p>So the most important part about college, the food. Do most people agree that the preferred plan is the way to go? Becuz I can always bring extra cash with me to go to safeway to get food because the food on campus tends to be more expensive right?</p>
<p>Ionno, the food is pretty good in Eleven01. They also got "Too Conveient" which is lieka mini 7-11, but nto as cheap...so it depends on how much you want to spend!</p>
<p>By going with the preferred plan, can you eat as much as you want, are you limited by the amount of money you pay for it (namely, 3 thousand something annually), or you buy on-campus food for cheaper price?</p>
<p>I think you basically get a "credit card" which has the amount of money that matches the plan you paid for. You can get a receipt after every use which shows how much is left. The amount corresponds to a "typical" days use (which is outlined in the housing & food website somehwere). You can always add more money as needed. I though when I visited there that the food was very reasonably priced and there is lots of choices on where to eat. Ranged from pizza to salads to Asian food to Subway. I was mostly in the SUB and one of dorms.</p>
<p>The money from your food plan can be used at any on-campus location: the cafeterias in the dorms, the large food court in the HUB, coffee shops and snack shops scattered about. Any unused money from the fall and winter quarter rolls over into the next quarter. HOWEVER, at the end of spring quarter, any unused money is kept by Housing and Food Services and you never see it again. My son was on the Preferred level for the 1st two quarters, but has gone to Basic for the spring quarter, and I'm hoping not too much money disappears. All those weekends home make for a noticably smaller on-campus outlay for food!</p>
<p>The Husky card also functions as a debit card, but with seperate money than your food plan. So you can put on, say, $100 extra if you are running short of food plan money, and use it at on-campus locations. The Husky card debit account also works at a few off-campus restaurants.</p>
<p>I think I'll go with the Basic plan, and then supplement that with a bi-weekly trip to a nearby WinCo or something...</p>
<p>I just talked to a parent of a freshman girl who said they thought the basic plan was too little (assuming you stay in Seattle most weekends) and the preferred may be a little too much, so she is going to use any leftover amount (from preferred) to buy bottled water for her dorm room. She said you can use the account money for that.</p>
<p>RailRoadBaron has it right...bi weekly trips to winco food. Stock up on your favorite goodies!</p>
<p>You have to be at the Preferred level for your first quarter -- after that you can change.</p>