<p>The more I think about going off to college, the more I worry about my life threatening peanut/tree nut allergies. I have applied to 4 colleges ED but haven't received any admission decisions yet, so I'm just wondering about college in general. Anybody else have food allergies? Do you eat in the dining halls or have to buy food elsewhere? What about in the classrooms? I recently read a news article about a girl who dropped out because the teachers had no control over what people ate in the classrooms, and the students were eating peanuts and what not.</p>
<p>I just need some info/advice to calm my nerves.</p>
<p>There was a long thread about this subject about 3 months ago or so. You may want to do a search on peanuts and/or allergies. My kids suffer from life threatening food allergies. I was impressed with Stanford’s cafeteria where my daughter stayed for a week. Everything was labeled with common allergens. This may not be the standard everywhere. My advice is to be a skeptic and have your epipen, prednisone, and zyrtec with you at all times. While the school may do the right thing, your classmates might not.</p>
<p>You might want to look specifically at the schools you’re interested in. You may be able to contact the dining hall managers to ask specifically about food preparation and allergies, and you may be able to contact the schools disability services office to if they’ve handled any of these situations in the past.</p>
<p>I would advise you to consider looking up information on the food plans at the four schools you have applied to and then contacting each of them regarding food allergies just as baktrax says above. Once my daughter chose her college, that is what we did. And we repeated it at orientation, went in to meet with the head chef, etc etc. Was it always perfect? No. Once there was a walnut in a muffin that should NOT have been there, but my daughter noticed it and spit it out. I called the nurse and cafeteria head chef to reiterate that nut allergies are no joking matter, and they got SUPER vigilant. It’s hard, though. She’s the only one in our family with this allergy, and sometimes even relatives don’t ‘get it’ so I understand your apprehension. My daughter eats at the dining hall and also buys food from other places on campus. She is very vocal in asking/ inspecting/ checking about tree nuts in literally EVERYthing. She is even surviving a semester abroad, and had to convince a waiter just this week that pesto really does have pine nuts and yes, those can kill her. However, she tries not to let it all hold her back. Contact those four schools and ask how they handle food for students with serious nut allergies. They probably have a track record of students in similar situations. See it as an opportunity to help educate others. Oh… and even my daughter’s roommate freshman year was so excited to bring Nutella to the dorm room, but as soon as she discovered about the tree nut allergy she was totally fine with giving it up! Students tend to protect and rally around each other. Good luck with it, and don’t give up your college dreams.</p>
<p>The issue is definitely more about your sensitivity than your severity. Someone with life threatening allergies who still has to actually ingest peanuts will be 100% fine on campus (with a little vigilance obviously) as dining halls have gotten pretty good at handling it. If you’re someone who can’t be in the same room as peanuts, things get to be a little more tricky. With regard to eating in classrooms, that’s going to vary widely based on the school, the specific classroom, and even the specific prof.</p>