<p>15 or 19 meals per week for an incoming freshman? I dont want to spend too much money eating out with the 15, but also dont want to end up wasting meals on the 19.</p>
<p>This varies a lot depending upon what kind of eater you are. My daughter as a freshman was the only one among her friends with a 19 meal plan but she was also the only one who ate breakfast every morning. If in doubt start with the 15 and then go up to 19 if you need it (you can only go up once you pick - not down - so you could not go from 19 to 15 once the term starts.) If you have extra meals - at the end of the week all the kids go to outtakes and use their extra meals to buy food for their room (they have milk, juice, cookies, snacks, cereals, etc.) Keep in mind that each plan gives you 10 friend meals for the term and vary on the amount of dining dollars you get (these dollars can also be used for groceries at Wollansteins or for food at the places in Curry).</p>
<p>My daughter also is a breakfast eater and she had trouble using all 15 meals some weeks. I don’t think either semester she used up all her guest meals. She didn’t spend a lot of money eating out, but obviously did buy some other meals. While you can use extra meals at Outtakes, it wasn’t always the kind of food she wanted to buy. 15 meals seemed to work very well for her.</p>
<p>While outtakes is better than nothing, the cost of a meal greatly exceeds anything you can get there in exchange for one.
Its tough because since most freshmen have the higher meal plans, that ends up being where you go with people most often. However you’ll be sick of eating the same food fairly quickly (even though it is good by college dining hall standards), so I’d be going for the smaller one so you have more flexibility to go somewhere else.</p>
<p>Takeout near the campus is often cheaper than the per meal price if you break it down anyway…</p>
<p>If you look at the cost difference between the different meal plans, adding the extra 4-5 meals comes out to ~$2 per meal for these additional meals (if I recall correctly), which seems like a pretty good deal… if you think of it that way. If you’re going to use up all your meals and spend extra to go out as the alternative, go for it.</p>
<p>But that’s not how most college students eat. I knew a few people with the 19 meal plan freshman year, and they always had trouble using up their swipes. I started with the 15 meal plan, knowing that I could always increase it. But even 15 was too much. I don’t skip meals, and I eat breakfast every day. Instead of eating pancakes and bacon in the dining hall every day, though (hello, freshman 15), I would use the dining dollars included in the meal plan to get myself breakfast food to eat in my room. I also got things like ramen and mac & cheese for times I wasn’t as hungry or didn’t want to go to the dining hall. All of that, plus being able to get enough food for multiple meals and snacks at outakes, the 10 meal plan and its included dining dollars was plenty. I know some people who used up all their dining dollars in the first month of the semester going out to eat, but mine lasted the whole semester with no problem.</p>
<p>Everyone eats differently. That’s my two cents on what worked for me. I’d recommend starting low, perhaps lower than you think you’d eat. Going in, I thought 19 would be best for me and I was totally wrong. (Plus, if you aren’t going to the all-you-can-eat dining hall 19 times a week, you’ll be less likely to overeat.)</p>