<p>I noticed that the meal plan includes dinner meals in the houses plus $400 for other meals. Even if a student went into Pasadena for all the weekend meals, it doesn't seem like $400 would be enough to cover breakfast and lunch for 11 weeks. Am I missing some info here?</p>
<p>I visited Caltech over the Christmas holidays, and I know that there are lots of stores and restaurants nearby. I don't recall seeing a grocery store. Is there one nearby?</p>
<p>A continental breakfast in the kitchens is free from 9-11:30 AM for students on board. There is also a grocery store 2 blocks from Caltech at the intersection of Lake and California.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response!</p>
<p>The $400 is declining balance that can only be used on-campus- so the only place to use it on weekends is the convenience store and the coffeehouse. For many students, $400 is too much (few students eat breakfast every morning in Chandler) and you're left with a fair amount of money at the end of the term that doesn't roll over.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A continental breakfast in the kitchens is free from 9-11:30 AM for students on board.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Really? Is this open kitchen? </p>
<p>By the way, $400 <em>usually</em> turns out to be too much. I know people who spend more, but that's because they are lavishly irresponsible with buying too much from the C-store, etc. Even if you do run low, there <em>will</em> be people who are over and, towards the end of the term, trying to figure out what to do with all this extra balance. (Disclaimer: I don't actually have experience with running on $400 balance...)</p>
<p>You might also want to know that there is no dinner served during finals. Caltech students can correct me if I'm wrong. & some students (my son for sure) don't get up early enough for breakfast. So he buys lunch - he loves the Korean bowls (I think thats what he calls them) - and says some people eat half and save the other half for a meal another day and then has dinner. For a third meal he snacks on things. I send regular care packages to supplement the meal plan. </p>
<p>My son's complaint about food on the weekends - the C-store is closed from 3-4 and when he wakes up at 3 pm on the weekends, there's no where close to get some food between 3 & 4.</p>
<p>There is dinner during finals, it's just buffet style rather than waited. </p>
<p>zoogies: yes.</p>
<p>You can also vote to have your House serve waited dinners during finals. Most people don't want this, though, because finals tend to mess up their schedules a lot due to lack of classes (mine gets messed up to the point where the Ride of the Valkyries marks when I should go to sleep.) There are also snake kits, which aren't particularly fine cuisine, but provide some extra energy for working late at night.</p>
<p>The annoying thing about the C-store on the weekends is that it closes so early. Usually by 3-4 pm enough people are awake that we can wrangle up a big group to go get lunch on Colorado or Lake. But after midnight on Sunday night, it often strikes you that you're getting kind of hungry finishing up whatever set/s is/are due Monday. Ideally, the C-store would be on card-swipe so students could get in 24/7 and check out their own food without Caltech having to hire someone to be there at weird times during the night. Granted, this problem can easily be gotten around by buying the food you need late at night before the C-store is closed, but that requires for forethought. :(</p>
<p>"A continental breakfast in the kitchens is free from 9-11:30 AM for students on board"</p>
<p>I think open kitchen is technically from 7 until 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 until 7 p.m., or it was last year, but in practice, the door is open before 7, long after 10:30, and long before 3:30. And I don't believe that there's such thing as a free lunch (free breakfast?)... it's just that you've paid for it through the overpriced board plan already. :P</p>
<p>omgninja & llamarific, thanks for the info..I'll have to talk to my dear frosh about that. If I tell you where he is will you go get him so he eats a little more? (I'm just joking - he'd kill me if he knew I was writing this but I don't think he ever looks at CC).</p>
<p>The C-Store does have retarded hours. I don't know what's up with that... it never ceases to irritate me though.</p>
<p>Yes, they do suffer from a severe mental disability, just like you!</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>Clearly the hours that the C-Store is open and I have much in common. I hadn't thought of dating an abstract concept of time, but I get pretty lonely... thanks for the pointer Simonster.</p>
<p>Let me offer another view on the declining balance program. I regularly go more than $100 'negative,' which is to say that I spend more than $100 more than what is allotted for declining balance. That said, I have a metabolism that's through the roof, and consume an average of 3500-3700 calories a day.</p>
<p>Mike and I are similar in that regard--although mine also has to do with that my friends often buy snacks at grocery stores or get them in the mail from parents... I don't, for the most part (so I get my goldfish at the C-store :D )</p>
<p>How well do vegetarians fare with the meal plan offered at Caltech? Do vegetarians have to go out of their way to get a substantial meal everyday?</p>
<p>Vegans and vegetarians are very common at Caltech, so there are vegan alternatives (and definitely vegetarian alternatives) to pretty much everything. At dinners there is always a salad bar, pasta with at least one type of vegan sauce, and two kinds of soup, at least one always vegan. For almost all dinners there is only one dish with meat in it. On steak nights vegans and vegetarians can have grilled mushroom instead of steak, chicken, or fish and there is always a vegan option at dress dinners. Pretty much everything at Chandler can be ordered vegan or vegetarian really easily.</p>
<p>In fact a lot of times the vegetarian food looks more appetizing than the non-vegetarian food. But it's reserved for vegetarians so non-vegetarians can't have it.</p>
<p>I'm going to be the party pooper and say that a couple of my friends (one vegetarian, one vegan) complain that the vegetarian/vegan options are rather lacking and unappetizing. Usually the only way to get off the board program is to live off-campus. : (</p>