<p>Hi, </p>
<p>So could someone maybe explain how the meal plans at brown work? i.e. what can you get with flex points versus a dining hall meal?</p>
<p>Also what combination of flex / meals would you recommend?</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>
<p>If you are not:</p>
<p>1) A hungry growing young man who eats 3 hot-dogs, 3 bowls of cereal, and a sandwich in a sitting(As one of my close male friends from high school used to at lunch…)
or
2) A hungry athlete
or
3) Someone with a crazy metabolism that requires you devour large amounts of food</p>
<p>I suggest the Flex 460 first semester and dropping down to the lowest flex second semester.
This gives you more meals for less money than the second flex level(Flex 330?) both semesters. </p>
<p>Meals can be used to gain access to the buffet style dining halls or traded in for $5.70(or $5.75? don’t remember) worth of food at Jo’s, the Gate, and night-time Ivy Room. Points can be used as regular cash would be at the Blue Room, Campus Market, lunch-time Ivy Room, Jo’s, the Gate, and night-time Ivy Room. </p>
<p>Meals on the 20-week, 14-week, and 10-week meal plan expire at the end of the week.</p>
<p>Meals on the flex plan don’t expire until the school year ends and roll over from fall to spring semester. (But not from spring to fall). </p>
<p>Points on both meal plans don’t expire until the school year ends.</p>
<p>In terms of how much food this can give you–
A meal credit can get you:
Two Slices of Pizza, Chips, and a Drink at the Gate
You can eat to your heart’s content at the dining halls
A smoothie and a protein bar at the Ivy Room at night</p>
<p>You know. $5.70($5.75?) worth of food.</p>
<p>LOL Justbreathe-- My D is none of the above!! Yet, she chose the 460 Flex each of her so far two years. And, she needed to add more points each year! Still, I think that has been the best plan for her. She could never eat 20 meals a week and precisely because she is not a hungry growing male, an athlete, nor has she got a crazy metabolism (I don’t think…), the flexibility of the point system was just the thing for her. She could pop into most of the eateries and get something small for points. Actually, we never did a cost analysis, and we may very well have paid more than we could have, but the flexibility was worth it for her. She will be living off campus next year, and will stay on the meal plan, but probably reduced. She is likely a minority of one, but she LOVES the Ratty!!</p>
<p>@franglish</p>
<p>I find it really surprising that she runs out—although, if she likes to swipe into the Ratty a lot, that would explain it. Most people I know end up using their meal credits to swipe elsewhere with some regularity getting the $5.70 worth of food that they actually can’t finish in one meal. I know my freshman year I used to get like a thing of yogurt with my dinner meal credit and call it breakfast the next morning. Or a muffin could be considered lunch. Doing just what I said—the highest flex 1st semester and lowest flex 2nd semester I ended up spending some of my free time during finals going through the cashier line over and over and over and over and over when my friends were working the cashier(because you’re actually supposed to be limited to to 2meal credits each time) to buy cereal to donate to a food drive and I still left campus with 20 unused flex meals(just didn’t have the time to get rid of those). And used up the rest of my flex points in campus market buying like notebooks.</p>
<p>can you use the flex points at the Ratty/V-Dub i.e. normal dining halls?</p>
<p>justbreathe: so you can use flex points to buy something other than food?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/497577-meal-plans.html?highlight=meal+plan[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/497577-meal-plans.html?highlight=meal+plan</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/207017-mean-plan-flex-460-a.html?highlight=meal+plan[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/207017-mean-plan-flex-460-a.html?highlight=meal+plan</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/51368-whichc-meal-plan.html?highlight=meal+plan[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/51368-whichc-meal-plan.html?highlight=meal+plan</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/188832-housing-s.html?highlight=meal+plan[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/188832-housing-s.html?highlight=meal+plan</a></p>
<p>I’m probably sounding like a broken record at this point but may I say it again: You are not the first people to ever have questions about Brown. Every year people are in your place…every year. As you can imagine the questions people are going to ask are just about the same which is why we have some sort of FAQ going (somewhere on here). If you can’t find an answer on the FAQ OR on the Brown website (Brown Dining Services or whatever it is you are looking for) then you might also use the search function above and go to “advanced search” and be sure to select the Brown forum and read the prior years threads. If you STILL can’t find an answer and already harassed the people working at Brown via telephone about meal plans (or whatever) but you are looking for a student’s opinion - that’s where we come in. We’re sort of last on the chain of information sources IMO. None of mind helping you and actually enjoy it, but sometimes you need to help yourself first.</p>
<p>I copied this straight from Brown Dining Services which is available to anyone who looks for it.</p>
<p>How Flex Points Work
Here’s the rundown on Flex Points:</p>
<pre><code>* 1 Flex Point is equivalent to $1 at the register.
- Use Points to pay for a bite to eat or a drink at campus retail venues and caf
</code></pre>
<p>Yeah this is one where I disagree with justbreathe quite regularly-- I think you’ve got to be on either maximum plan, 20 a week or 460 flex, straight through the year. 20 a week really requires you to be a bit more diligent about going and using your swipes to get your money’s worth, but it’s more economical. 460 is a bit more mindless, but you get less food for the same money and I’ve known people to run out on that plan with a few weeks to go.</p>
<p>I’m no longer on meal plan, but the first year they offered flex most of my friends went on that and I stuck with the 20. About half who tried flex wishes they were back on the 20, about half loved flex.</p>
<p>i have about 140 meal credits left off of the second highest plan. don’t get the highest just because it’s more bang for your buck, especially if you know you won’t be in and out of the cafeteria every day possible.</p>
<p>If I were at that point, I wouldn’t be on meal plan at all.</p>
<p>im sure if i had a car and an apartment i wouldn’t be, but for walking + dorm it’s much more convenient for my preferences</p>
<p>I guess that’s true-- but I feel like that’s a lot of money for a meal plan I’m not using that much at all. Eating off-meal plan is definitely cheaper than the max plans by quite a bit (don’t remember the lower plans that well), and I think that even with ZipCar fees it’d come out cheaper.</p>
<p>Of course, then you’d have to cook, which is no problem for me but some people would rather not.</p>
<p>Dang though, 140 extra meals at this point in the year on the second highest plan? You’re either eating out a lot or not eating much overall…</p>
<p>@modestmelody</p>
<p>I think we disagree because our social circle tends to consume differing amounts of food. Most(though not all, obviously) of my friends are short girls. My tallest close female friend is 5’3". So yes, amendment, I think my perception of how much food one needs to eat is skewed. I consider a muffin or bagel a meal–which I can get for like a buck at the blue room. So having the full meal plan just leads to me with a lot of leftovermeals. A fair number of my friends who were on the full flex plan at the end of freshmen year had over 100 meal credits left on the last day and they rarely, if ever, ate off of meal plan (only for birthdays). That’s a waste. I did what I’ve said–highest first semester, then lowest second, and still had 20 left and I also rarely ate off of meal plan. </p>
<p>I still think the type that expires is a waste for most smaller-size people. Flex is much preferable. Going on the highest first semester is always the smartest choice though no matter what you do second semester since it rolls over.</p>
<p>Sorry for resurrecting a really old thread!</p>
<p>Does anybody know if we’re allowed to cross between meal plans and flex plans between semesters? My ideal year is to use the Flex460 for first semester and the 10 meal/week plan and I wanted to know if my leftover meals and points from a first semester flex plan will also rollover to a 2nd semester meal plan.</p>
<p>[Brown</a> Dining Services - Meal Plan Changes, Policies and Deadlines](<a href=“Meal Plans | Dining | Brown University”>Meal Plans | Dining | Brown University)</p>
<p>This talks about how and when you are allowed to change meal plans. It seems that you are able to do what you explain, above.</p>
<p>My son, who is thin, wants to go off meal plan next yr (yr 3). He has had the 460 flex plan for two years and he always had lots left, even giving plenty away. I should have downgraded his plan for spring semesters (just didn’t think of it). Like justbreathe, he considers a bagel (or poptarts), a slice of pizza or a sandwich a meal. I know he does sushi/pizza/chinese off campus but even that doesn’t cost much.</p>