My son is going to be a freshman next year and apparently we need to pick a meal plan for him by Friday. He’s going to be in engineering. We don’t really know which plan to choose. It seems like the 14 meals a week is not enough - assuming he wants to eat breakfast and lunch (and also dinner). How far do the Big Red Bucks stretch? How much would it cost to buy, for example, lunch at one of the cafes on campus? Can you add money to the BRBs throughout the semester, if you start to run out? What happens if you are on the unlimited meal plan but would like to eat at one of those cafes? Can they count that as a meal swipe, or do you have to use the BRBs? What do other people do? Thanks!
It’s all based on preference. I personally have used 10 meals a week all year and have found that even that is too many. I probably only eat 6 meals in the dining halls per week. BRBs are fantastic, and you get 500 of them if you’re on the 10 or 7 meals a week plan, which is nice. They can be used in a bunch of cafes and can be used for coffee/tea/snacks throughout the day as well. You can refill them throughout the year if you run out. Last semester I used a lot of the BRBs up early on and then spread out the remaining ones throughout the last few weeks. This semester I haven’t used enough and have about $150 remaining for the next couple weeks.
Lunch at one of the cafes I would say costs between 5-9 dollars depending which cafe and what you get, although it’s easy to make a meal out of a bagel and cream cheese for a couple bucks. You can’t use a meal swipe at cafes; you have to use either BRBs or cash/credit card. While I’ve found that even 10 meal swipes a week is too many, your son may find differently. Many days I don’t have time to sit down and eat dinner at a dining hall, or sometimes it’s just more convenient to eat a quick lunch in between classes from one of the cafes on campus. I got into a routine pretty quickly as to where/what I eat for each meal and I’m sure your son will, too. You can upgrade your meal plan at any point in the semester, but you can’t downgrade it!
Good advice above. Also, be aware that those dining halls where you swipe are nearly all near the dorms. Only one is by the classrooms. Your child may not have time to go back and have that meal at a dining hall during the day. The one on campus near classes may be too busy or inconvenient. Definitely try for 10 or 14 and go up if he wants more. BRBs are easy to use, but they won’t carry over to the next year (they do carry over to the second semester). Keeping some protein bars or other quick food in the room is also easy for running to class in the morning. Mine often grabs a bar in the morning, a wrap from a cafe on campus for lunch, and then dinner is usually in a dining hall. Laundry money, on the other hand, does carry over to the next year (which is good, since my son put $80 on his laundry account last night).
DD’14 started with 14 this year and then reduced to 10. Her brother will also be a freshman this year at the CoE and she has recommended that he start with the 14 plan because it’s pretty hard to get to a dining hall that takes swipes during lunch time. Keep in mind that he’s a 6’2" 200 lb football player, and she knows how much he eats!
@njcornellmom, Glad to hear laundry money carries over year to year! My D, who will be a freshman in the fall, signed up for 10 meals/week plan. I think this is plenty.
Thanks. My real concern is that if we get the 14 meal plan then he will really only eat 14 meals, plus a few snacks. He’s thin as it is - I want him to eat more, not less.
The other thing is that if he wants to actually have 3 meals a day, then it is more expensive with the 14 meal plan. I’ve done the calculation, and if he eats 7 meals at a cafe each week x $10 a meal x 15 weeks = $1050, or $650 more than the mealplan allows for, and more than the jump from the 14 meal plan to the unlimited plan. Of course, I guess if that’s what everyone does then that’s what everyone does. But it seems harder to budget for, and, ultimately, more expensive.
The real issue is, he still needs to eat even if he can’t get to the dining hall. Choose a lower plan to start and go up if it seems necessary. Once he sees his actual class schedule, his meal plan will start to make more sense. If he’s got time to come back and eat in the middle of the day, then he can use a swipe in the dining hall. If he’s got just an hour between classes, he’s probably going to grab something at a cafe on campus. Also, on the weekend, he’s not going to eat three meals. He’s going to sleep late (just guessing). He’ll have a big brunch and then dinner. He may want to eat out occasionally, too - go for pizza or something with friends. Those swipes don’t save. If you don’t use them each week, they are wasted. At least BRBs are good for anything.
Agree with @NJCornellMom. My son was convinced he would starve w/o the unlimited meal plan. I signed him up for ten, and he has yet to use all ten meals in one week. Evening classes or practices sometimes keep him from dinner, a meal I was certain he would eat. Also, sometimes the students want to eat in Collegetown on the weekend, again missing meal plan. He is on his own for any food spending beyond BRB, but he says that food from the truck is inexpensive.
Lunches on campus do run $10+, but am certain others could economize.
The cutoff date for downsizing the meal plan is a few days after the first day of classes, so much safer to start low and add meals since the alternative is impossible one week into the year. If your son joins a fraternity second semester, consider reducing # of meals as students end up dining at the house.
Both of my kids had a refridge in their room. They kept milk, coffee, yogurt, cereal, fruit in their room for breakfast. Most of the time they’ll wake up 15 min before their class, grab coffee, yogurt and run. It was rare they made it to the cafeteria for breakfast. My kids also went off campus for food with their friends. They thought 10 meals were plenty for them.
As far as laundry money carry over, a lot of kids do move off campus or live at a Greek house sophomore year, so the laundry money would be useless.
True on the laundry. My son has chosen to live in a program house (Risley) all four years. Most do not.
I guess we will sign him up for the 14 meal/week plan and see how that goes. How does laundry work? Do they have a separate laundry card? Can they use a credit/debit card?
His ID is the card for everything, but you will go online and pay into his laundry account (or he will do that himself). He will rarely need anything other than his student ID. He can pay for just about anything with it, even use it to pay for things in the bookstore (it will bill his account). It has his swipes for the dining hall, his BRBs and his laundry money, among other things. It’s also his access card to open the outer door to his dorm building.
Sounds useful! Can he also use it in restaurants in Collegetown? I know some college communities have agreements like that.
Only certain places. We’ve never purchased City Bucks.
https://living.sas.cornell.edu/dine/mealplans/citybucks/
Ithacatogo is probably more useful (and they do take City Bucks). My son uses his credit card for that one. He’s even been known to get delivery from Purity Ice Cream.
Thanks NJCornellMom! It looks like he’ll be able to get by with just his ID and a debit card.
What can you tell me about the postal service at Cornell? My daughter goes to a school that uses a real federal post office as their school post office - so at the beginning of the semester packages take forever to get to her (because everyone orders their books from Amazon, the post office gets swamped, and the mail moves very slowly). How does Cornell handle mail?
You should have a discussion with your student about paying for things with his ID. My kids tried to put various things on it, like sports tickets, printing, additional red bucks on it. Few months ago I was hit with a 1000 bursar bill. D2 was charging 20+ each time for printing.
Their postal address will be Cornell and their dorm name and room number. They will go to the student center (at the main cafeteria) to pick up their packages, and that would include FedEx and UPS. They won’t get anything delivered to their room, so if you send any perishables, you should let your student know.
Mine doesn’t even think to pick up his mail daily, so definitely let them know if there’s anything important arriving. We haven’t seen any crazy bursar bills, but I don’t think he’s done that much. He mostly uses his own printer (and rarely needs to print).
I wasn’t really thinking of perishables - mostly I was thinking of books ordered from Amazon. At my daughter’s school it can take a couple of weeks for the post office to sort things out, even if the books are ordered with Amazon prime and arrive in two days.
What’s this about printing, though? I thought schools generally give you some amount of free pages before they start charging you. Our local state university gives 700 pages a semester (more than anyone needs). Does Cornell really charge students by the page? Sounds like a cheap personal printer might be in order.
Cornell is quite efficient with their mail. If I deliver flowers, food to my kid, she’ll get it the same day.
My younger daughter is a humanities major, so she gets a lot of reading material that need to be printed. My older one, as a math majo,r didn’t have as much to print.
My kid’s 1000 bursar bill wasn’t all printing. There were other misc stuff she charged. She ran out of big red bucks, so she got more.