<p>So I'm choosing a meal plan and will most likely go with the Cardinal Plan. I read the description, and it says that I get unlimited swipes in both EVK and Parkside on designated meal plan days. So, what does this mean? Is there a schedule of meal plan days or am I just confused? Can someone clarify the Cardinal Plan for me?</p>
<p>Source: <a href=“http://hospitality.usc.edu/forms/meal_plans_faq.pdf[/url]”>http://hospitality.usc.edu/forms/meal_plans_faq.pdf</a></p>
<p>Cardinal is unlimited in the dining halls for the student, and they have 7 guest meals. I’d recommend the Gold plan though, having no dining dollars sucks, and you will get tired of the dining halls very quickly.</p>
<p>Agreed, i highly recommend gold.</p>
<p>yeah I’d say gold as well. $500 dining was about perfect for me.</p>
<p>Can you buy dining dollars separately…or only by purchasing the “gold” plan?</p>
<p>If you get the cardinal can’t you just pay cash to eat somewhere else. Why the gold plan? I don’t understand.</p>
<p>Coming from a former student, I found that dining dollars (and conversely having money on your USC card) were way more useful than having cash. Cash is easily lost or stolen – and honestly, how many college students have enough money in their bank accounts to have cash in the first place?</p>
<p>Also, when you use your USC card, you either get a discount or aren’t charged tax, depending on the place. (But I could be wrong?)</p>
<p>Thanks Zelda. I’ll check out the discount and tax. That would make sense.</p>
<p>Yeah, I just did a quick look and couldn’t immediately find any info. Another good thing about using your USC card instead of cash (at least from my experience) that it could be easier to give your student food money that way. My mom used to do it online and preferred that instead of going to the ATM to put money in my bank account. </p>
<p>(Also, she liked that she knew that money was going to food/school supplies and other on-campus purchases instead of…oh, record shopping, online purchases and whatever other junk I spent money on in college…)</p>
<p>Is the Community 50 Meal Plan available to only certain students, or is it available to all USC students?</p>
<p>when you show your USCard on campus (whether you’re paying with it or not), you don’t have to pay food tax (except on soda. I think that’s the only exception). There aren’t any discounts on campus, though. Yogurtland (in Gateway) used to have a discount, but they got rid of it pretty quickly. :(</p>
<p>I don’t think you can put Dining Dollars on, but you can add as much or as little discresh as you want. Discresh is also more versatile, I think. I never used it except for at the athlete’s cafeteria once (they definitely don’t take any version of the normal meal plan jsyk–dining dollars or swipes) and on the laundry machines in Parkside A&H.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/bus-affairs/admin_serv/uscard_serv/documents/Locations.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/bus-affairs/admin_serv/uscard_serv/documents/Locations.pdf</a></p>
<p>So are these all the places you can use your Dining Dollars or is this just for the USCard in general?</p>
<p>Also, did you guys find it easy to use the whole $500 alotted?</p>
<p>That’s everywhere you can use discresh. Dining dollars are accepted in all on-campus food places and a few off-campus I think.</p>
<p>I rationed out my dining dollars and had about $50 left at the end of the semester, so I went and raided EVK and the Lot for snacks. It resets every semester so if you don’t spend it, you lose it.</p>
<p>I definitely used it up faster than most people. I was still vegetarian my freshman year and didn’t have many options in the dining halls, so I ate at the non-dining hall restaurants a lot.</p>
<p>The food is better now, I hear.</p>
<p>Dining dollars are very useful since you buy them at a good rate and most things in Trogro and Seeds are too expensive/overpriced to justify buying with regular cash in my opinion. Not all on-campus food places except dining dollars - I believe Morton Fig doesn’t and I know traddies doesnt. No off-campus places accept dining dollars. </p>
<p>I’m a recently finished first year and if the food is better now than before I pity those that came before me haha. Most people get sick of it fast and it’s most useful just due to its convenience and the fact that you pre-paid for your unlimited swipes. </p>
<p>The first semester I used my dollars too slowly for fear of running out and had like 300 to spend with three weeks left…so my friends got a lot of snacks and free meals. Second semester I timed it well to run out by the last couple days since I ate at Campus Center more and bought more from Seeds and had more late night Trogro runs :)</p>
<p>Dining Dollars are not accepted at Traddies, The Lab, Rosso Oro’s, Moreton Fig, or Ground Zero. Those all accept discresh, though, I think. Neither dining dollars nor discresh are accepted at any privately (non-USC) owned restaurant in the area. However, I know Moreton Fig is looking into accepting Dining Dollars, and the new USG president & vice president are going to try and get Dining Dollars accepted at Gateway (e.g. Yogurtland, Seattle’s Best, Soy, Subway), but I don’t know if that will happen, and if it does, it probably won’t be until at least fall 2012.</p>