It seems that the largest meal plan Scripps offers is 16 meals a week + 160 “board-plus dollars.” Can a current/former student enlighten me on how this works? I assume the average person eats 3 meals a day (21 meals a week) and I’m the kind of person who has always eaten 4-5 smaller meals throughout the course of a day. Am I allowed to bring a tupperware container into the dining hall to fill with leftovers and then bring back to my dorm? Am I just expected to go grocery shopping and prepare meals for myself even though I won’t have access to my own kitchen? Do students not eat on campus during the weekends? Do I just need to suck it up and learn how to get by without having breakfast? I know it’s a little early to be thinking about this stuff but it really is quite the mystery for me.
I think 16 will be more than enough for my daughter. She sleeps late when she can on a weekend so eats a late breakfast/early lunch. If she has an early class, I imagine she’ll eat a Luna bar or grab a smoothie. Plus, students probably eat pizza or go out to eat once or twice a week.
I think students at the other 5Cs have some flex dollars, too (good for a bagel or a coffee), assuming you also might. My kid keeps granola bars & dried fruit in her room and bakes muffins sometimes, and I think that is what she does for breakfast. There is a Trader Joe’s a short walk away, and a Von’s a little farther away. My kid seems to have kitchen access, and she and her roommate had a small fridge her first year. You could keep cereal and milk. I have a sense that you can’t just take food out of the dining hall.
Most people have trouble eating the full number and those not consumed can’t usually be used a different week.
Yeah… my kid had the full plan, then soph year asked to cut back and be allowed a few more flex & regular grocery dollars. She said she was too busy and wasn’t getting to the cafeteria for all her meals. Has worked out so far.
First off, there are only 19 total meals available during the week because Saturday and Sunday they only provide brunch and dinner. (College kids don’t get up on the weekends for breakfast! LOL!)
You do get a “to go” container, but this is meant for grabbing your meal to go, not for taking leftovers. But if you know you’ll need a snack later, grab a piece of fruit on your way out for later. (Or even pick something from the trees, it’s allowed!)
Most (or even all) the Scripps dorms have kitchens (some better than others), so if you like to cook you can.
Any other food you need you can use your “board-plus” (or flex as it’s more commonly called) dollars to buy at other places on campus, or even to get a meal in the dining hall if you really want.
You’ll also find there are usually activities throughout the week that will take the place of a meal (pizza served at some meeting, or a social gathering).
I agree with everything @ClaremontMom said. My D is a Pomona freshman on the 16 meal/$240 flex plan. Her roommate got a mini-fridge, plus they have a coffee maker and electric kettle. My D usually makes herself oatmeal or cereal in her room for breakfast. If she wants to eat breakfast in the dining room and is running out of meals, she can “flex” into breakfast for $3.50. But more often than not, she has unused meals at the end of the week. As ClaremontMom mentioned, they have take-out containers (recyclable green boxes). You’re supposed to either eat in the dining room, or get your meal to go. You’re not supposed to do both at one meal. But it’s fine to grab fruit or a snack to go, as long as you don’t look like you’re packing up a second meal.
As a current Scripps student, I used to be on the 16 meal plan and actually switched down to 12 meals. I used to eat 3 meals a day coming to college as well, but the truth is when you’re here things will change and you’ll most likely start eating less meals. I have never heard any of my friends complaining that 16 meals is too few, and most people struggle to use up all 16 each week. The average amount of meals used per week across the 5Cs is 14. If you’re really hungry, as mentioned previously you can always take food to go from the dining halls. There’s also free food at all sorts of events, so I never find I’m hungry. I keep snacks in my room just in case, and every dorm has a kitchen 
If you actually really wanted to make it to every available meal and flexed the last 3 meals in as breakfast (the cheapest to flex in at), assuming 16 weeks in a semester, it would come out to 168, just above what flex actually is. Which wouldn’t actually even happen between all the free food, mornings you just don’t want to go to breakfast, going off-campus for events, birthdays, etc. Heck, I’ve even been at events that were so ill-intended they even offered for us to take home an entire box of pizza for ourselves.
12 meal plan requires some budgeting. But again, there’s lots of ways to get free food. Or cheap food since sometimes people go out for In-N-Out or other places nearby. Also the to-go boxes are surprisingly sizable. I’ve sometimes filled them up just to realize that I’m not going to be able to eat all of it, and then save it for the next day’s meal, inadvertently getting a free meal out of it :).