<p>Ok, all this time I was assuming that the meal plan business at stony was--like for most schools I know--a fair way to provide students with food for an affordable price. You know, you pay a certain price and receive twice or more the number of points to get food around campus. But I was checking the meal plan at stony brook, and for the Gold plan:</p>
<p>GOLD PLAN (Meal Plan 3) * $1,809 = 1,104 400 points + 400 flex credits.</p>
<p>So you are actually getting less points than the money you pay for. BUT not only that, the prices around campus are all hiked up to screw the students even further! For instance, a regular bottle of water costs $1.40, a 1l bottle = $2.40, and a banana = $80 c each. I can't think of more examples, but if you are a student here, you know what i am talking about. It is hard to spend less than $10 for a decent lunch or dinner. Doesn't this outrage anyone? The whole purpose of having a meal plan is so that students can eat for affordable prices. At my former school, they charged $3.75 dollars for a buffet type of arrangement, so once you got in, you could have as much milk, beverages, food, desert(several soft ice cream machines inside), and pizza as you wanted and I never paid more than .90c for a complete breakfast.</p>
<p>I think the problem at stony brook is that they are relying too much on contracts with outside companies and commercial products (i.e. bottled beverages instead of drink fountains) to provide the food. Still, that does not explain the ridiculously high prices. It is worse than living in manhattan--at least you can get cup noddles for less than $1.40 there!</p>
<p>your right the food at stony brook is extremely overpriced... i didnt like the fact that the all meals have to be pay per item..they had an all you can eat brunch on the weekend that was $7.45 but it was so crappy...there were long lines and the food was so bad...the reason why your only getting 1500 points for $1800 is the fact that the food is tax exempt...but even when factoring in the tax the school was making out like bandits... at my current school...they have buffet and pay per item...dinner buffet is 6.75 and breakfast is 5.50 and the food is actually pretty decent.</p>
<p>Food here sucks, especially in the SAC. It's like prison food. The only decent palces to eat, where your chances of food poisoning are dimished is at Delancy St. (in the Union) and hte Hospital (where they have great food at a cheaper price). Everywhere else that you go, be prepared to use Tums b/c you may have a hard time waking up in the morning. Trust me I had food poisoning 7 times last semester. Plus the hours of the food places suck and the ones that are open 24 hrs are either far away and/or the food sucks.</p>
<p>$10 for a decent lunch or dinner? I can usually keep it around $5.</p>
<p>The activation fee for the meal plan sucks, but the food prices really aren't that bad... some things are way overpriced, but in general costs are comparable to or less than what the same thing costs off campus (though at a deli or restaurant, not a grocery store). And compared to school food at a lot of places I've been, ours is pretty damn good. Personally, I'd hate it if they switched from a la carte to buffet pricing (though I hear they're talking about doing just that in some of the dining halls) because a) you're screwed if you just want to grab a snack, b) it doesn't give you a lot of leeway to cut down on costs if you're running out of money, c) it makes it more annoying to grab food with friends if you're not on a meal plan, d) you're cheated if you don't eat a lot.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that prices need to be lower since they require most residents to be on the meal plan... you shouldn't have to pay takeout prices for every meal. But the food is pretty good, the hours are convenient, and campus dining's been fairly good about listening to student input in the past couple of years.</p>
<p>I don't know what you are eating but I am an average built guy and just a "plate" with pasta costs $5 and a sandwhich roll, $5 something so let's talk about normal consumption. The prices are comparable to that of store?? A 1l bottle of water for 2.45, a quart of milk for $2.10??? No, the prices are hiked up on purpose. </p>
<p>
[quote]
costs are comparable to or less than what the same thing costs off campus (though at a deli or restaurant, not a grocery store).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah, that completely defeats the purpose of a meal plan; you are basically confirming the students are doing the equivalent of ordering take out food 3-4 times a day. It is outrageous to say the least. Even if we had an a la carte to buffet, other venues would obviously exist for snacks and other things.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with you that some of the prices are absurd, I just don't want them to switch to buffet style, because they won't necessarily have other venues for snacks and grabbing a meal quickly between classes. I don't trust them that much :-P</p>
<p>I mind the prices on packaged items much more than the actual food food; it's absolutely obscene how much they try to charge for things like milk or a banana or a bag of chips. Basically, I agree with you on everything besides wanting them to go to buffet style and that it's not possible to eat decently for less than $10 a meal--I'd also characterize my appetite as average; you're not talking to someone who eats like a bird. Yeah, the prices for bottled water are obscene, but bottled water is ridiculously dumb anyway, so just bring your own water bottle. A fairly big sandwich for lunch is around ~5, a plate of pasta with grated cheese on top instead of the absurdly overpriced sauce is around $3. The portions are fairly big, and each of those could easily be a meal by itself. A burrito is $5, also usually big enough for a meal. The stuff that would drive it up to $10 is buying a bottled drink every time, extra snacks, that kind of thing.</p>
<p>Yeah, they're getting away with highway robbery. Believe it or not, some things are actually better than they used to be, which is both sad and hopeful. At least the food's very edible for school fare, the hours are good, and they're improving (albeit too slowly). In the mean time, invest in a good water bottle :)</p>
<p>I've heard that you're better off buying one of the cheaper meal plans your first year so that you can explore the other food options...And you probably won't use all the credits.</p>
<p>From what I heard about the less points as to the amount we paid is that they took off that amount each semester because they believe every student intend to steal that much $$ of food on campus. I don't know how that happened, I dont even think anyone can steal a box of hot food from the Union Commons. It gotta be a joke....</p>