<p>Can a current student please suggest the best meal plan for my soon-to-be frosh D? I find it a bit confusing. I want her to have enough choices to eat where she wants to, but I don’t totally understand the points and meal plan policy although I did visit the website. I also don’t want to overspend. Does anyone know/remember from their freshmen year how how to choose the best option?</p>
<p>Thank you for any advice.</p>
<p>It depends on your own preferences, really and could also depend on where she ends up living. If she is someone who generally eats 3 meals a day, then the 21 meal plan is probably the most convenient, although it is the most expensive. That plan just is what it sounds like, you get 3 meals a day during specific meal periods and there is a different fixed price for a meal at the different times of day . That doesn’t mean she can’t get meals outside of mealtimes: she can add money on to the campus debit card system whocash (can be added online) and use her I.D. card to get meals outside of mealtimes at the convenience store or if she goes over the fixed price. If she lives near Sherman, the all-you can eat diner, in Massell, that might also speak for the 21 meal plan since there you can eat as much as you want for a fixed price as well as if she plans on keeping kosher.
If she doesn’t necessarily eat 3 meals a day during the week and might eat during other times or use a microwave/minifridge, then the combo plan, 10 meals per week and 525 $ in points per semester, might be better, which still gives you a fixed number of meals per week but also points to be more flexible.
There are only 2 other options available to freshmen:
14 meals per week + 20$ in points per semester (not very much)
or
100 meals per semester and $ 650 $ in points per semester
Here’s a pretty good rundown of the plans:
<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/NR/rdonlyres/2731A652-87C4-449B-9513-21AF0ECE304D/0/MealPlanFlyerBrandeis.pdf[/url]”>http://www.campusdish.com/NR/rdonlyres/2731A652-87C4-449B-9513-21AF0ECE304D/0/MealPlanFlyerBrandeis.pdf</a>
Here’s a pretty good rundown of their prices:
[Meal</a> Plan Options | Campus Card Office | Brandeis University](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/services/campuscard/mealplans.html]Meal”>http://www.brandeis.edu/services/campuscard/mealplans.html)
Points carry over from semester to semester, but not from year to year, Who cash always carries over.
Meal plans are not something to stress about though. She can change the within the first two weeks of school. Also, there is some talk of the Student Government working on reforming the meal plans by next year. Granted, this discussion kind of resurfaces every year, but my feeling is that this year it may actually go somewhere.</p>
<p>Full Disclosure: I had 21 meals freshmen year and even for a while afterwards. I was probably in the minority especially afterwards, but I am the kind of person who generally eats 3 meals a day during the week, so it was more convenient, but other people can be more concerned about the price.</p>
<p>Thank you catperson-your post was very helpful! I guess I will discuss with D here preference and it is good to know you can change the plan during the first two weeks too.</p>
<p>the following is based on how things were when my student lived on campus - from checking on line, it doesn’t seem to have changed much – but hopefully if i get anything wrong a current student will correct me –</p>
<p>there are a few factors to consider – how many meals a day your student is likely to eat, and which dining hall they are likely to do most of their eating in (both of which may be hard to predict ahead of time – so don’t stress to much about planning ahead of time – as already noted, changes can be made early in a semester).</p>
<p>there are two main dining facilities on campus – Sherman and Usdan. Sherman is the traditional “all you can eat” cafeteria with a kosher and non-kosher line. You pay to enter and then can eat as much as you want for that entry fee. The entry fee is either a “meal” or a cash equivalent. If you have “meals” available on your meal plan, one “meal” is used up by entering Sherman. If you do not have meals (you’ve used up those available on your meal plan), you can pay to enter Sherman in cash (which includes the school’s debit plan of WhoCash) or meal plan “points.” The cost to enter varies by the meal – eg., dinner more expensive than lunch, kosher meals more expensive than non-kosher meals. Generally, I believe it is more cost effective to be able to use “meals” at Sherman instead of “points” - especially if the student keeps kosher.</p>
<p>The other facility is Usdan which is the pay as you go facility. You enter and choose your food and “pay” on the way out. You can pay with either “meals” or “points.” If you pay with a “meal” you get an allowance that you can spend for you food - that allotment varies depending on what meal you are purchasing (you get most to spend for dinner and least for breakfast). If the actual food on your tray costs less than that allowance, you do not get change back. If the actual food on your tray costs more than that allowance, you have to pay the difference - either with points, WhoCash, or cash. You can probably see why people who eat a lot in Usdan prefer to have points to pay for their meals. </p>
<p>One year I did a spreadsheet on the current costs of the meal program to judge what was best for my student – something to consider – the actual cost of various meal plans didn’t always translate into equivalent additional buying power based on how my student used the plan – it really depends a lot on how your student would use the “meals” as to what balance of meals vs. points is best for your student. And that you won’t really know until she’s been there a while – so don’t worry too much for first semester, and for second semester, she will have a much better idea as to what will work for her.</p>
<p>This is a great example of why I am so happy my D chose Brandeis. Very kind and useful replies. Thank you bmom, very good things to consider and help me put meal plan in perspective as well. If anyone can answer, I’d also like to know how much spending money, aside from meal plan/points does a typical freshman need a semester? Do you calculate it per week? Do you have to pay for the use of the gym, on campus movies, etc? Do clubs have dues?
Can you tell she is my first (really only) kid?! lol</p>
<p>I’m not good with estimating numbers so I’ll leave that to someone else, but I can say that the gym is free, most on campus movies are free and to participate in any club is free. However, for many concerts , theater performances or some special events (last year’s Bill Ayers event was one) there can be an entrance fee of 3 to 10 dollars because clubs can’t always receive as much funding as they would like. Then there’s also events where such entrance fees go to charity. Also, your daughter might go off campus for dinner, a movie or a performance in Waltham or Boston/Cambridge on weekends so then she would have to pay for dinner or entrance fee and possibly the Boston subway.
You can use WhoCash in all dining facilities, the convenience store, the bookstore, to pay library fines or computer repair costs and it even works in some off-campus shops.
Transportation to Waltham or Boston/Cambridge (on weekends) is free on Brandeis Vans or Shuttle Buses, but at other times you would have to pay for the commuter rail to get into Boston.
For larger amounts of money, what I think a lot of students do, I know I do, is to have a credit in their own name for their parents’ account.</p>
<p>the cost for “other expense” can vary widely by individual student. it really depends on what your student will do – how often she’ll eat off campus, how often she’ll go off campus for entertainment or shopping. there is no need to spend a lot to have a great freshman year experience – my own student was rather miserly and had a fabulous time with loads of friends.</p>
<p>there are a lot of threads about spending money on the parents forum if you do a search. the views of parents always vary enormously as well as does their estimates of what their kids spend.</p>
<p>really ask yourself how much experience your d has in handling money. will a lump sum at the beginning of the year/semester be budgeted or seen as a windfall? even great kids with little money experience can get themselves into trouble. </p>
<p>we had our student put $X in a local checking account (one that had on campus atm) and took a wait and see approach to how long that’d last – as i said, our student was fairly miserly and stayed on campus a lot – the money lasted. how much X should be and what will come of a wait and see approach will simply depend on the individual student.</p>