<p>Yeah, but one's person's opinion cannot be taken as the bottom line. One must ask questions.</p>
<p>No questions to ask here.. we're telling you that the best way to get the most bang for your buck, convenience, etc etc. is 175 flex. I used up all of my meals, whereas my friends ended up with alot left over so you shouldn't be going higher than 175. 14 is too much. and 10 a week is the comparable choice but you don't have a say when you can eat. Everyone I know who was on 14 or 10 ended up with a flex by second semester.</p>
<p>Plus you can change the meal plan - up or down at any time.</p>
<p>And i didn't know that you could only eat 1 lunch for example on the 14 meals.</p>
<p>Breakfast is from around 8 - 11 am, Lunch is from 11 - 4 pm, Dinner is 4 - 9 pm and anything after nine is considered Late Night Meal. Those numbers may not be exact but I think they are pretty close to accurate.</p>
<p>If you plan on eating out a lot, get 113 flex or 10 meals a week. If you live in apartment style, and plan on using the kitchen get 5 meals/wk or a low flex. If you are dorm, though, and plan on eating in the dorm, get 175 flex or 14/wk. I used 10 meals/wk but that's because I don't eat breakfast (so only two meals a day worked for me). You also get declining dollars you can use if you run out of meals for the week or whatever, and you can pay that way.</p>
<p>If you plan on eating out, expect to pay a minimum/average of $10 for your meals. If you eat at nicer places, well, it's New York and expect to pay. Personally, I ate "out" about 1-2 times a week, max 3 (maybe 4). First semester I had 113 flex and I ran out too soon (and had used all my declining dollars on starbucks) so the 10 meals/wk. worked for me second semester cuz I knew I always had meals every week. </p>
<p>You can also add declining dollars if you need to.</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. Just sit down, think about how you eat (do you eat homecooked/aka dorm meals or do you want to mostly eat out, etc.) and what you expect your eating habits to be at NYU. Then choose a meal plan that is most beneficial to you. You can always change your mealpan until a month or so into the semester if you realize it's not working for you.</p>
<p>Ok, so here's my situation:
I'm a drama student, so Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I'm only going to be able to eat at the dorms really early in the morning and later on in the evening (twice) because I'm at studio from 9-6 (?).</p>
<p>On Monday and Wednesdays I'm going to be eating at the dorms twice a day probably as well, seeing as how my WTE class is early in the morning and Intro to Theatre Studies is in the evening, and I'd be doing work-study in-between.</p>
<p>So, my question would be if it would be wise to switch from the 14/week meal plan to 175 flex?</p>
<p>It's always wise to do flex. 175 is circa 10.1 meals a week, so if you eat twice a day that's good for you. You'll end up skipping meals and any eating schedule you might have will be moot by the second week of school. Flex allows you to eat whenever you want.</p>
<p>according to the FAQ:</p>
<p><<changes: you="" may="" change="" your="" meal="" plan="" by="" completing="" the="" online="" form="" via="" nyu="" home="" september="" 16,="" 2007,="" for="" fall="" 2007="" and="" february="" 3,="" 2008,="" spring="" 2008.="" additional="" charges="" be="" added="" depending="" on="">></changes:></p>
<p>The meal change plan form is now accessible via Albert.</p>
<p>I think we're going to start the year with the 175 flex. I'll reevaluate before the cuttoff date for changes. that will give my son a chance to get into a routine.</p>
<p>I</p>
<p>So if we do the Flex plan we can, say, grab a muffin from the dinning hall on the way to a morning class and on the way back, if we wanted, get some scrambled eggs? Or like someone else said, we can grab a quick tide-me-over snack between lunch and dinner, and if it winds up being in the dinner time slot, still get dinner later?</p>
<p>Basically the difference is that with flex it doesn't matter when you eat, you could have as much a day as you wanted?</p>
<p>Yes, I believe with a flex plan you can eat as many meals a day as you wish at any time. But realize that 175 per semester is an average of 11.66 meals per week based on a 15 week semester. If you plan on eating 3 meals a day on the meal plan, the 225 flex would be better. </p>
<p>I figure it's better to start with the lower plan and then upgrade if necessary before the deadline for changes. </p>
<p>I don't think any freshman can say for sure how their schedules will jive with dining until you get there and do it.</p>
<p>225 is WAY to much. You have to eat ALOT, and I mean alot to actually use 175 meals. Nobody I know was satisfied with their meal plans because they were way to big. And everyone I knew was on 175 or 14. I remeber going to eat with friends at the end of the semesters and some had an excess of 30 while others were down to 12 in the last days of the semester. </p>
<p>sueinphilly, sounds like you do too much for your son.</p>
<p>dublin, if you grab a muffin in the morning, you will use a meal. if you come back after class and eat something you will use ANOTHER meal. it will not all count as the same meal, even if it is breakfast both times.</p>
<p>I take care of the behind the scenes stuff. He will be home a total of 10 days between when he graduated HS on June 15 and leave for school on Aug 26. We've discussed the meal plan options. He knows how I feel about the food & $$ situation. He'll have plenty to do fending for himself as a student.</p>
<p>lindseygs, that was what i was trying to get at, I just wanted to make sure that you could do that if you wanted to, and that sort of thing is only allowable under the flex plan, correct?</p>
<p>where exactly do we get to use declining dollars? i never got a chance to read the packet i got on that and i cant find it. are they like nyu discount dollars for food or something?</p>
<p>i know everybody has been reccommending the 175 flex but i was wondering if anybody had feedback on my particular situation:</p>
<ol>
<li>i want to eat healthy and am willing to go shopping for healthy food. will i have time for this? or better yet, room?</li>
<li>I am only a 1 hour train ride from home. Where i can sometimes eat there.</li>
<li>my dorm does not have a dining hall and i would have to walk to weinstein or another nearby dorm.</li>
</ol>
<p>p.s.: what does declining dollars mean? and when you purchase a meal plan is that only to be used in the dining hall itself because i heard alot of nearby coffee shops and stores take some sort of nyu cash or something like that.</p>
<p>no, that sort of thing isn't allowable under any plan. you can't go into the cafeteria twice and count it once even if it is the same meal time. each time you go in you swipe.</p>
<p>declining dollars is money on your nyu card (your ID) that you can use in your dining hall to buy snacks (or meals if you run out of meals before the semester is over) or toiletries. you can also use them at starbucks in WSP and the dunkin donuts at Union Square. i feel like i'm forgetting another place....but, i can't think of it.</p>
<p>No, that's not what I'm trying to say, sorry about the confusion, I'll try again.</p>
<p>If you do a regular 14 a week or w/e you get that much a week, but you also only get one meal per meal time slot, or at least that's how it sounds.</p>
<p>If you do flex you get that many a semester and if you wanted to have two dinners within the dinner time slot, you could.</p>
<p>I'm just trying to get the clarification about that. I can't eat an hour or two before running and so I often have a large, early dinner then a small dinner after my run. So, there are two meals within what someone wrote was the dinner time slot, and I was trying to figure out if this is something we can do with flex, because it sounded like we couldn't with regular. I don't care if it counts as three meals, but I want to be able to eat when I want to eat.</p>
<p>175 Flex all the way</p>