<p>I was looking at the meal plan choices and it seems that the biggest plan is only 190 meals. There's also this cryptic message: "If a student eats the maximum number of meals a day, meal plans will not cover the entire semester." by maximum number of meals, do they mean 3? That is what my family eats every day! It looks very expensive to have to pay out of pocket for all those "extra" meals. Can anyone explain this?</p>
<p>As a student, the meal-plan is confusing even to me. But let’s see if I can explain this. Having 190 block meal plan means you can have 190 meal “swipes” per semester. Okay, so what does this mean? At Stimson, you use a meal swipe and have access to an all you can eat buffet. Same thing with Huebeck (a vegetarian-friendly alternative to Stimson). At Pearlstone and Alice’s, where food is a la cart, a meal swipe is anything under $6. In addition to these meal swipes, the 190 blocks, students also get 300 dining dollars to use each semester. The dining dollar system works basically like a debit card. You can use these to pay if you go over 6.00 on the a la cart items and also to buy smaller items (smoothies, coffee, etc.) at Alice’s… I hope this made some sort of sense. </p>
<p>For the record, I have a 150 block meal plan. While I usually voluntarily skip breakfast during the week (I have a lot of morning classes), I’ve never had to worry about running out of meals/dining dollars. I can’t imagine anyone with a 190 block meal plan would have anything to worry about.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply! It certainly is confusing. :)</p>
<p>My son ended up making some meals in his dorm (PB&J and Bagels and cream cheese) to fill in the gaps. Also he was on an ultimate frisbee team that took some trips that prevented him from using the meal service fully. He did end up running out of meals close to finals and would come home ( we live in DC to study). As a Senior he took the minumum number of meals and cooked most dinners with a group of friends in a small dorm kitchen. I should note that he bought very little food as his budget was very tight.</p>
<p>My sense is that he probably needed the equivalent of 200 meal swipes to eat fully.</p>