<p>Hey, </p>
<p>I'm transferring to Binghamton, and though this is among the least of my concerns, I was wondering - is food overpriced at Binghamton?</p>
<p>The reason I ask, is because, food, among everything else, is ridiculously overpriced at my current school.</p>
<p>Also, in addition to food, are store items overpriced?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Binghamton’s dining halls are very cheap. I think a cheesebuger was $.70 and a slice of pizza was $.60. They only charge students product price because they take out some percent of money that you pay to run the facilities. Places other than the dining Halls charge retail price but students get a 10% discount. You can find more info at BUdining.com</p>
<p>binghamton’s meal plan works differently than most other schools. you pay a given amount for the meal plan – from that they deduct a specific amount to cover their overhead. what’s left is the amount you have available to spend for the semester. since they’ve collected the “overhead” up front, they supposedly charge only their cost for anything you buy – so the food you put on your tray and actually pay for is pretty cheap. anyone not on the meal plan who eats in the dining hall pays a pretty high premium over the rates charged to those on the meal plan.</p>
<p>but overall, i guess how expensive you’ll think things are depends on whether you think they charge too much for the overhead. you just don’t feel it when you buy any individual item – you’re parents may feel it when they pay the semester bill. ;)</p>
<p>if you scroll down a little here – [Binghamton</a> University - Residential Life - Rates](<a href=“http://reslife.binghamton.edu/rates.html]Binghamton”>http://reslife.binghamton.edu/rates.html) – you’ll see the rates for the various meal plans and how much spending money each plan gives you. the only difference among the plans is the amount of spending money you end up with. but if you run out of money during the course of the semester, it is VERY easy to add money (no overhead taken out of additional money added). any money left over carries over to the next semester IF you are still on a meal plan.</p>
<p>Alright, cool thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>But do you normally have a sufficient amount of meal points to get through the semester(lets say you get the average plan).</p>
<p>The school which I am transferring from, UMass Amherst, was ranked #1 in dining services among public schools and we had buffet style dining, so I imagine its a lot different at Bing, b/c of the prices.</p>
<p>(haha not tryin’ to brag, but Umass dining rocked).
(again, dining is the least of my concerns lol)</p>
<p>it depends entirely on what you eat – you pay for what you take.</p>
<p>If you avoid over eating at the Night Owls (the prices are regular there) or the Union (chain foods- also reg prices) you should be good unless you eat five meals a day… I used the regular plan this year (the C I think?) and ended up with 200 extra dollars… I’m probably going to reduce it next year.</p>