Out DD21 is seriously considering Virginia Tech for undergrad and one of the (many) good things we hear about Tech is that the food is excellent. Having gone to a school where the food was absolutely terrible, I was wondering what makes Virginia Tech’s food stand out? Quality? Variety? Or is it a lot of hype? Inquiring minds want to know.
I think the reason it stands out is the don’t subcontract out their dining halls to a service company. They have their own chef’s handling the menu and I would assume keeps costs down not using a third party.
Another great thing compared to when I was in school is they don’t use a “use it or lose it” punch system. My college and a lot still today gave you a breakfasts, lunch, dinner punch and if you didn’t use any of the 3 then they were gone. So if you weren’t that hungry and you didn’t eat at all 3 meal times then you lost that money (or you ate anyhow - frankly use it or lose it pushes that freshman 15 weight gain).
At Virginia Tech you pay a fee to be on the meal plan (I think it is in range of $1200 per semester and you have to be on the meal plan freshman year when living on campus). Then all money you deposit after that gives you 50% discount at all food establishments - over 60% at the all-you-can-eat buffet.
Then all the restaurants and dining halls are just like going to food court (or the in the case of D2 all you can eat like a Golden Coral or such). The food is restaurant quality (and there are even some brand name restaurants on campus like Pizza Hut, Chick Fila, Quadoba, Dunkin Donuts, Jamba Juice). There is a Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi (yes cook in front of you) and many other specialty restaurants and a late night restaurant open until like 2 am (my son is a late eater so I see him there like midnight a lot - he recommends the Parmasan Chicken Sandwich).
It seems with my son who is freshman on the meal plan spends about $4-5 per meal with the discount. So if went to Chick Filet and the normal price is like $8 for his meal he only pays $4 being on the plan. Then if he goes downtown or something with friends one night or never eats breakfast - hey the money he didn’t spend that day he can just spend another day. There is no use it or lose it - he just has a pot of money for foods (the basic “Major” meal plan you get about $700 to spend of food for semester but can add more funds as needed that all get the 50-62% discount when spent). You do have to spend it all by the end of the school year unless you get a meal plan the following year (actually according to data your best not to get a meal plan after freshman year and just use dining dollars - where you don’t pay the $1200 meal plan fee and just pay as you go getting 5% discount by depositing money into Dining Dollar account at VT) … unless your love the All-You-Can Eat D2 where you get the 62% discount and if frequent every day the meal plan is then the cheapest option.
Ok - long winded answer - but the food is amazingly good and very flexible options for students.
In addition to @cbl1 ‘s answer, from a student here, yes, the food is pretty top-notch. I believe the 2am restaurant he mentioned was DX, which is more of a grab-and-go fast-food place that has pizza, wraps (including the Parmesan chicken wrap), etc. Also, a lot of my friends ended up getting the same plan they got freshman year once they moved off-campus. It’s just a matter of how much time they want to spend cooking for themselves, if they want to.
Good article here regarding best value after freshman year (required meal plan):
Never knew that about how they do their meal plan. I know the Hospitality school also has something to do with how good the food is. VT is always on the list of best foods. I think any time you have a bigger university now you can get better quality food especially with all the FF chains coming on site.
@Muad_dib One of the reasons that VT ranks highly each year for on campus dining is because they locally source a ton of the food via the agricultural programs at the school. Here’s a link:
https://www.dining.vt.edu/sustainability/local_sustainability.html
A couple cautionary notes re: the dining plan for first year, and dining dollars (flex additions):
Meal Plan: If you’re unsure of how often your student will actually eat, go with the lowest meal plan. If they are going through the $ at a faster than expected pace, then add dining dollars (fex adds) as needed. Same discounts apply to added funds as long as a meal plan is in place.
Dining Dollars (no meal plan): For off campus living, don’t deposit a huge amount of $ into the dining dollars at first. Why? Two reasons: 1.) If your student is commuting to campus and the planets aren’t perfectly aligned re: class times and gaps between, they are likely to go back to their apartment and eat there vs. dealing with any lines at rush hours for the most popular dining spots. 2.) Dining dollar deposits cannot be refunded until graduation or withdrawal from the school. Our student lives off campus and eats on-campus about 10% of the time now. They would much rather have the cash for groceries in our experience.