<p>which meal plan should i get? where is the best place to get food? how does the whole meal plan/dollars work? thank you</p>
<p>I think I'll answer your questions in the opposite order that you listed them, its a bit easier for me.</p>
<p>The meal plan works on a 20, 14, or 7 meals a week plan. 20 meals a week would be 3 every day and 2 Sunday, 14 meals a week would be 2 every day, and 7 meals a week is 1 a day. A meal credit gets you into all you can eat dining facilities. Along with your meal credits you get a certain number of "flex points" which are essentially dollars that you can use at Brown cafes (theres a bunch). Meal credits can be used at any time during the day, and if you don't want to use them to get into all you can eat dining facilities, they can also be used as $4.20 worth of flex points. Thats $4.20 for each meal credit, which isn't very generous seeming, but at most schools if you don't use a meal credit it simply evaporates, so its better than you think. Every night most brown cafes are full of students socializing and trading in old meal credits.</p>
<p>There are several places on campus to get food (since we're talking about meal credits and flex points I'm going to assume you aren't refering to off-campus places). The Ratty is the main dining hall and the V-Dub is a smaller dining hall on Pembroke campus. Students tend to align themselves with one verse the other (there's even some facebook groups about it). They are both all you can eat, one meal credit gets you in. There are also several Brown eateries on campus. The Gate, Josiah's, and the Ivy Room all have different "themes" and feels and have different kinds of food. The Gate (named in honor of Brown's many famous Gates) is on Pembroke, very coffee shop like feel with couches and comfy chairs, they are known for panini, pizza, and sushi next year I believe. Josiahs (named after the mythical Brown prof Josiah Carburry) is down Thayer St, its more of a grill type place, gets a bit rowdy on weekend nights, and has hamburgers, fries, candy, a market, and the famous Chicken Carbury Sandwhiches. Finally, the Ivy Room (decorated with Ivy League memorabilia) is beneath the Ratty, and has more international foods (like falafel) and is all vegetarian. They all of course have far more options than I listed, those are just the things that they are "known for." There is also the Blue Room, a cafe in Faunce House, the market in the basement of Faunce, the Underground (a bar in Faunce that has concerts sometimes), the Hourglass Cafe (an organic, student run, fair trade cafe in the basement of faunce that also holds concerts), and the Grad Center Bar. However, some of the ones I just listed may not take meal credits that have turned into flex points. Wow, thats confusing, sorry. I tried not to leave anything out but I probably did. And like I said, I didn't mention any off campus options.</p>
<p>I suggest getting the 20 meal a week plan. You really don't save much money getting the 14 or 7 meal a week plan, its a real rip-off to get less meals. The other option is to get no meal plan at all (not an option if you're a freshman), which I do not suggest, as eating is a very social activity at Brown (people spend hours in the differnet eateries hanging out) and the food on theme nights is incredible. Hope I helped. Any other questions about food?</p>
<p>At ADOCh, some students were saying something confusing about how you could only eat three meals a day, so if you missed a meal, and didn't make it up the same day, you had to make it up on Sunday, since you only had 2 meals on Sunday, or something like that. Could you clarify that at all?</p>
<p>Yeah well I mentioned earlier how for the 20 meals a week plan you get 3 meals a day and 2 on Sunday. That was slightly untrue (sorry). The truth is that you get 3 meals a day and 2 on one day during the week. Almost everyone makes this Sunday, since they serve Brunch and dinner at the Ratty (Even though its open the same hours, 7am to 7pm), but if you accidently only use two meal credits on, say, Tuesday, then that Sunday you could have three meals. Or just have two meals and then use the third meal credit at a Brown cafe. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>I think what RaboK. is asking might have more to do with how you make up missed meals by day vs. in total...correct me if I am wrong, but if I understand your question, the answer is this:</p>
<p>You may only use three meal credits per day, that is true, no matter what--so it's not really 20 meals a week as much as basically three meals a day.<br>
For example, let's say you only eat two meals on campus one day and then don't get around to using the extra credit that night. The next day you eat three meals on campus. You think, that's ok, I didn't use all my credits from yesterday, so I still have an extra one for tonight. Wrong, your max is three credits a day.
Bottom line: your free meals don't carry over from one day to the next.
Exception (and this is probably what you heard about): If you have used fewer than twenty meals in total over the course of the week, you will be able to get one credit on sunday night (i.e. one opportunity to make up a missed meal, and on Sunday because it's the end of the week and because only two meals are officially served in the dining halls on sunday).</p>
<p>I hope that was clear. Perhaps Moat and I have demonstrated, if nothing else, that there really is no simple way to talk about the meal plan! :) BUT, it is all very fair and getting fairer each year--they have been making positive changes to campus dining since I was a freshman, to both the food and the meal plan procedures. I can only promise that it will all make complete sense once you're doing it.</p>
<p>First-years must pick a meal plan..Just pick the 20 meal plan and don't worry about the nominal price difference it's a ripoff to do the 7 or 14. The food in the Blue Room is terrific, I wish they'd take meal credit</p>
<p>I'm a fan of Chicken Carburries myself. Unfortunatley they aren't as good coming up as they are going down.</p>