https://uofsc.sodexomyway.com/dining-plans/index.html
I don’t understand how this year’s meal plan pricing makes any sense. It seems that you sometimes get less value for paying more. For instance, the Garnet 14 Silver plan costs $1,550 and comes with $25 meal dollars. However, the Garnet 14 Gold plan costs $1,747 ($197 more) and comes with $190 meal dollars ($165 more).
Now, the gold plan says it has 10% purchase incentive savings, but what exactly does that mean? When I go to sign up for a meal plan on Self Service Carolina, it doesn’t even mention this.
Hmm, this is new. I would guess the purchase incentive is a discount - as in a $10 meal would only cost $9 of your meal dollars which makes them go further and makes plan more valuable. But this is only a guess - call or post question on dining FB page. You’re probably not the only one with this question.
Note with dining that you can always increase your plan if it doesn’t meet your needs but can only decrease plan for next semester, so start low based on how you think you’ll eat knowing you can increase it after semester begins. Also, someone told me the best advice given during orientation was to look at schedule of classes and see how they fit swipe periods. It may be obvious that you won’t use the plan the way you think you will. We started with a 16/wk plan but dropped down to 10 or 12 second semester of freshman year - D would rather eat cereal in her room than get up earlier than needed so breakfast swipes not used as much.
I don’t see anywhere that the USC website explains the “purchase incentive savings.” That seems to be the difference in the level of the plan – silver, gold, platinum. That seems like something that should be explained.
I was confused as well, which is pretty bad considering I have two kids there. In general, I have found (at least for both of mine over the past 2 years) that they rarely eat 3 meals a day and often might just have an apple and coffee or something not even worth using a meal for (instead they use the bonus bucks). Also, there are several off-campus places they can (and will) use their Carolina card - for example, my daughter goes to Moe’s at least 2-3 times/week, considering it’s right next to her dorm! - But those off campus places do not count towards the allotted meals either.
And as scmom12 said, you can always increase your meal plan but cannot decrease it so it’s better to start off smaller. That said, I just signed both up for the “Carolina 10 Platinum” which gives them 10 meals per week plus $325 bonus bucks. I feel like that will suffice but if not, I can always increase it- or just add money to their accounts, which is sometimes less expensive too.
Declining balance is, I think, what use to be called flex and would be for upperclassmen. Another declining balance option is is called Carolina cash and you add it to your carolina card and it can be used at dining facilities, laundry, vending, printing, several restaurants, a dry cleaner, bookstore, etc. Different from dining dollars or whatever they now call it. This money doesn’t expire and if you don’t use it all when you graduate you get a refund. Check that out here:
@ironhead17 You can check out the different options on the dining page. There are several veggie alternatives even though they might get old every day. Breakfast is usually a good deal and might be best way to use lots of swipes for veggie.
July is when trustees meet to see what money they have from the state, which allows them to determine tuition and fees for upcoming year. That’s probably why you are now seeing updates to fees, housing and dining costs, and tuition. There is a sentence on tuition page of admissions that says that COA listed there is for current year and that final cost for next year is set after July. That’s why what you get at orientation is often not the final cost for new year.
so breakfast swipes not used as much.