<p>People on the UoR facebook group complain a lot about the dining, and I'm worried. I typically a few specific foods from the grocery store, which I basically live off of. My parents rarely cook meals and I almost never eat out. I'm a vegetarian and mostly eat morningstar farms products, fruit, yogurt, beans, veggies, and plain oatmeal.</p>
<p>I have no idea what meal plan to get. I wish I could go without a meal plan and just buy groceries off-campus. I don't know how healthy the food on campus is, or whether the dining halls meals or meals from other locations are better.
Should I get the 150 pass with 800 declining, or the unlimited with 350 declining?</p>
<p>You can switch between these during the first 2 weeks if one looks like it will work out better. So relax, choose either one and try it.</p>
<p>Also cooking (in anything other than a microwave) in dorm rooms is prohibited by NY state fire code and UR does crack down on students who do.</p>
<p>Technically even electric hot pots and tea/coffee makers are illegal appliances.</p>
<p>I should probably also mention that except for the Hillside Market (in Sue B) and Southside Market (in de Kiewiet Tower), there are no grocery stores near campus. (At least until the new College Town development opens in 2 years.) </p>
<p>Hillside and Southside have severe limitations on what they carry and there have been plenty of issues with products selling out and not getting restocked in a timely manner. (Esp fresh produce)</p>
<p>If you want to buy groceries, you will need to take the shuttle to Marketplace.</p>
<p>I would suggest getting the one with more declining because you can use those with more flexibility. But you can change. And don’t freak out. </p>
<p>First, my kid is a vegetarian. I think Douglass is more popular for veggie options but they’re trying each year to improve and change things. My kid, who will be a senior - hard to imagine - has done fine with declining plans. Remember, lots of kids are vegetarians.</p>
<p>Second, the shuttle to Wegmans works fine.</p>
<p>Three, Rochester the city is quite vegetarian friendly with good vegetarian restaurants and variety of veggie friendly ethnic options. The Owl House, for example, is terrific.</p>
<p>Your options will change for sophomore year housing. Southside (formerly known as GLC for graduate living center) are essentially suites that do include kitchens. The kitchens have regular sized refrigerators, cabinets and counter-top space as well as a narrow oven with four burners. You can easily take the bus to Wegmans and stock up and usually by sophomore year one or more of your friends if not you personally will have a car to be able to go shopping. I think that some of other sophomore and upper class dorms have similar set-ups. You will still need to have some kind of a meal plan but it can be minimal, even if you live off campus in an apartment.</p>
<p>Some of the suites in Hill Court (building dependent) have partial kitchens (electric cooktop, refrigerator, no oven or microwave). And, of course, Riverview Apts have full kitchens in all the apartments.</p>
<p>The new dorm has some kitchen facilities as well. I should remember the name because my kid lives in it but can’t … I looked it up to keep WOWM from doing it for me. It’s O’Brien. Nice dorm. </p>
<p>Upperclassmen tend to prefer more declining $$.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I know there are places nearby with good vegetarian food…the problem is that I can’t spend money on other food along with the cost of the meal plan. I just hope the dining halls and other places on campus have healthy food similar to what I already eat.</p>
<p>D2 was a vegetarian for about a year at UR. She said there are always vegetarian options, but sometimes she felt the options got repetitive. </p>
<p>She didn’t think the food was particularly bad** or unhealthy, just boring after a while.</p>
<p>Of course, she said the same about the non-vegetarian options.</p>
<p>**She did, however, have MAJOR issues with what passed for guacamole in the dining halls. Forget cookies! I used to mail her a half dozen avocadoes at a time.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>OP–relax. Part of college is learning to adapt to new experiences. It will be fine…</p>
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<p>This is the sense that I get too. Options tend to be repetitive, but not particularly bad, esp for large scale.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but since I am also working on the dining contract, I want to say it seems that the incoming freshman class is only able to choose one out of 3 meal plans(meliora, blue and something else).
Another question, I am Asian and I eat typical Southern Chinese food with my family for dinner each day, I mean I also likes sandwiches, pizzas and fries, but I still want to know if U of R’s menu is Asian-friendly~(hope you guys won’t consider my question a stupid one:))</p>
<p>I was going to suggest, you go here:</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to CampusDish at Rochester!](<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSNE/Rochester/Locations/]Welcome”>http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSNE/Rochester/Locations/)</p>
<p>to look at actual menus for the dining halls. However, it appears that since it’s summer session, the weekly menus aren’t posted.</p>
<p>However, you can look at menus from the other dining venues on campus.</p>