<p>I attend the University of South Florida right now and am going through the same thing as far as the expensive meal plan goes. They are actually raising our prices up next year which I believe is completely ridiculous. They advertise all sorts of things on campus to try and convince upper class students (sophomores etc) to try and get a meal plan. I will be a sophomore next year and I will still be living on campus so I was debating on whether to get a meal plan or not. I came to the conclusion that one is going to be needed because I'm going to get hungry and groceries wont fit into my tiny college dorm room sized fridge. The biggest problem with getting this meal plan is the expense and the quality of food. I am getting sick of eating the same thing in the dining halls every week and I'm getting sick of walking out still hungry. $3000 this year for a meal plan is way over priced and I can't believe they are going to raise that price for next year. I am so outraged by this that if I had a choice I would choose another college. Are there any parents out there who are looking into colleges for their kids? If you saw this outrageous price on meal plans that required your freshmen to have would you suggest that they look into a new school? How would you feel about your credit after spending $3000 on food for your kid and then another $6000 for them to stay on campus and experience the college life? Do you think that all of this money is worth it? I believe that changes could be made to the meal plan at least.</p>
<p>I’d probably tell my kids to move off-campus after freshman year. I can’t imagine myself spending $3,000 a year on food for myself. Maybe if I dined out every day, but I won’t have the money to do that for a long time.</p>
<p>Assuming you’re in school for 8 months of the year and your meal plan covers 3 meals a day:</p>
<p>8 months = approx. 240 days = approx. 720 meals</p>
<p>$3000 / 720 = $4.17 per meal. </p>
<p>That’s really not that bad, especially when you are getting an all-you-can-eat buffet and don’t have to cook or wash dishes. You could probably go slightly cheaper by cooking for yourself, eating a lot of Ramen, etc. but it’s still way cheaper than eating out anywhere but a fast food restaurant.</p>
<p>This is all assuming that your food is pretty good. If the food is really, really bad (not just kind of boring after a while) then it might be worthwhile to consider other options.</p>
<p>However how many people eat 3 meals a day, and I heard food gets repetitive.</p>
<p>Exactly. I mean, I eat three meals a day, but I also have a few snacks here and there. It’d still be a lot cheaper per year for me to buy groceries for myself than to buy a meal plan.</p>
<p>Unless your kids and their friends just FAIL at cooking of any sort. But i believe that can be fixed quite easily during summers at home. I eat A LOT so for the first year, i can see this being a good start and easier to manage.</p>
<p>The food really gets old, it’s on a 3-4 week cycle at my school so you can tell what’s coming haha</p>
<p>It’s even worse when you’re school charges over $5500 for their required meal plan…thankfully next semester I’m free from their absurd waste of money!</p>
<p>By the way, Aramark (if anybody has their food service) sucks!</p>
<p>don’t know why we can’t have a food system like virginia tech or UGA</p>
<p>$4,000 here…and I have like 60+ extra meals. What a waste :(. Anyone wanna free meal? 
Comes with an entree, drink, side & toy.</p>
<p>And I agree…Aramark really really sucks.</p>
<p>Another student at a school with Aramark (Sodexo is the other popular one).
For me it’s $2500 for 320 meals. I’m pushing myself to use up every meal, so I’m eating dining hall food 2x a day, which is too much. I also get tired of other people choosing my portion sizes on anything that tastes good and having places that use the name of a restaurant chain but don’t do the national promotions, don’t have a value menu, and don’t take gift cards. I often walk up to a mile off-campus to a corporate or normally-franchised place rather than the Aramark-operated “location.”</p>
<p>I unfortunately pay 6000 a year for my meal plan and its the lowest one for my dorm. I only get 10 meals a week and some cash. I eat maybe twice at my dorm and have to buy food throughout the weekend.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t have meal plans, and I love it, especially because I only eat in the dining halls about 2 or 3 times a week. You put money in your account when you feel like and buy what you want. I don’t know why more places don’t adopt this sort of plan; it works great and people love it.</p>
<p>^totally agree, on campus here we have Burger King, Chic-fil-a, Pizza Hut and Chili’s. No gift cards, value menus and the food isn’t even of the same quality (always worst than the actual restaurant) and it’s more expensive than what you would find at the real chain. (Whopper meal for $6.50+??)</p>
<p>For me it’s $1,321/semester for unlimited dining hall access, $1,227 for 15 meals/week, and $1,111 for 10 meals/week</p>
<p>^ I would be eating Chik-Fil-A everyday…</p>
<p>A dining plan at VT is about 1300/semester and we have the best on campus food in the country. Score.</p>
<p>Can anyone comment on the quality of Sodexo? The university I’m attending this coming fall uses Sodexo and I’m curious.</p>
<p>everyone should just adopt Virginia Tech’s dining program, i ate there when I visited and the food is good!</p>
<p>3000 a year? HA! That’s cheap.</p>
<p>Aramark is pretty terrible. Meal plan is 1720 per semester here for 10 meals a week and 400 dollars in food credit to be used on campus.</p>
<p>This may be expensive, but it’s better than surviving off my own cooking.</p>