<h1>Carte Blanche - $1700.00</h1>
<h1>Carte Blanche + 100 - $1775.00</h1>
<h1>Carte Blanche + 250 - $1900.00</h1>
<h1>Carte Blanche + 400 - $2025.00</h1>
<p>Which one should I get?
That extra money is called "greenbucks" i guess... does that get used?</p>
<p>According to my son, the fewer meal plan dollars and the more greenbucks, the better. That means fewer Bruff meals and more at your own discretion at better places on campus, while you can still use college savings funds to pay for it all, if that's an issue for you. I don't know how much info you're after, but for anyone reading this who uses a 529 plan, it matters. The cash we send him to buy food to keep him healthy at Whole Foods, etc., we can't take out of the 529. The greenbucks, we can. Either way, he doesn't have to eat at Bruff as often.</p>
<p>More than you wanted to know, maybe, but maybe someone will use the info.</p>
<p>I would also get as many green bucks as you can afford. Breaks from Bruff are welcome all the time as you will see. Bruff seems great at first, but it wears on you after awhile. That said, I got by freshman year with the +250 plan. Greenbucks are usable at most places on campus now except for the two PJ's. That includes the food court in the UC, the Rat, Le Gourmet, and at Reilly for the smoothie stand.</p>
<p>Greenbucks are tax free dollars, and in agreement with Vinin, get as many as you can afford but make sure you keep track of them. After first semester, they transfer but after the year is over they are donated. You can also change your meal plan after the first semester if you realize you need more or less. I went through mine very quickly and basically always ended up using debit instead. You can use greenbucks (as well as debit) at the UC (Quizno's, sushi, Einstein's bagels, Taco bell, Wow wings, smoothies, etc) as well as McAlister Market (overpriced on-campus convenience store) along with all of the above mentioned places.</p>
<p>Another vote for greenbucks here. S ended up hating Bruffs so much he didn't want ANY meal plan this past semester. He's a skinny guy and I worry about him not eating, so that definitely was not an option in the mind of a worried mom!</p>
<p>I've heard that many kids who don't mind living on campus more aggressively look for apartments just to be able to cook regularly for themselves and get away from Bruff altogether! Each semester, I hope that things will improve and Bruff will get better. Guess we'd better not hold our breath....</p>
<p>Yes, that's what mine did this year, and it ended up costing him his RA meal stipend and costing us the ability to use 529 funds for his food. That's why I posted about that issue. So now he's going to put up with Bruff food most of the week and cook for himself when he can. That's a trade-off but, fortunately, he's cheap enough to be willing to deal with it. Some meals at Bruff are better/worse than others.</p>
<p>I went off my meal plan as soon as I could, meaning I was off it for this year, my sophmore year. It is tough as most of your friends still use Bruff, but you learn to get by. I lived in Irby, and since the kitchen there would blow the alarm at the slightest hint of water vapor, I had to go to Patterson to cook. In the end, I had a bunch of sandwiches with stuff bought from shopping trips. It's what I would probably end up eating at Bruff anyway and is cheaper overall. You figure out your own ways to deal with not having a meal plan.</p>
<p>Bruff ends up pretty universally hated even if it does not start that way. Like most institutional food it doesn't take long for it to get old. ecause you avoid the very high New Orleans sales tax the Green Bucks can be a good deal. Just make sure you don't get stuck holding them at the end of Spring semester and don't put on the freshman fifteen just to get rid of them either - a new wardrobe can be expensive :-)</p>
<p>My S and I talked about it and decided on the 1700 +250 plan. Since you have to buy the Bruff plan anyway, it makes sense to eat as much as you can stomach there, plus get morning coffee & bagels there. Next year he'll have more options.</p>
<p>Don'f forget that there are dorms on campus that are like apartments, with kitchens, living rooms, and private bedrooms. This can be a good alternative for kids who have had enough of Bruff, but still want to live on campus.</p>
<p>I do't know how they are going to handle assigning dorm space in the future. It used to be a pretty complex system based on what year you were in and whether you had a group and some other factors. That was pre-katrina. At that time the suites Gotopractice references were pretty much limited to juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>Post-katrina the incoming freshman class was very small plus high attrition from the previous freshman class meant that there was a lot of unoccupied dorm space last year. Off campus housing costs have also shot up significantly and part of the post-katrina renewal plan involves requiring students to live on campus during their sophmore year. Also one dormitory that was under-construction has been abandoned and another that used to house married and graduate students has been (is being) demolished.</p>
<p>In short don't necessarily count on the availability of suite housing with kitchens for sophomore year. It would be best to contact student housing and see if they have any preliminary plans for next years housing lottery. Those plans usually are not finalized util Spring semester and there is often a lot of tweaking of the rules.</p>
<p>The only dorms that have kitchens in each individual suite/apt are the Aron dorms. It has been traditionally been limited to Juniors and Seniors, and even then mostly just seniors. As an upcoming Junior, I found a lot of frustration with the brand new selection process and won't be living in Aron even as a junior. I don't think there is any way that a sophomore can find themselves in Aron.</p>
<p>Don't count on getting solid info out of housing. Even an RA can't find out where he's going to be living in the fall.</p>
<p>All I can contribute is that my D will be a "second-year" (the new designation because, apparently, freshman, sophomore, etc is based on number of hours and that includes AP, dual enrollment, etc.) They were given specific dorms to which second-years could apply. Same thing for the third- and fourth years.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how I feel about the students being segregated by class year instead of intermixed (I was OK for freshman year). It seemed like after the second year the third and fourth years were housed together.</p>
<p>According to the housing web site, they had enough space for all students for next year. In light of the number of new freshman for this current fall, housing for the following year will be interesting.</p>
<p>That "second-year" designation IS interesting. My son will be third-year in the fall but has enough hours to be a senior. His GF was in the same boat last year and kept getting e-mails asking whether she had done her graduation audit. As scholarship students, neither has any interest in graduating a year early!</p>
<p>As a mom of a rising 3rd year, I'm a bit worried about housing when he's a senior, precisely because this year's incoming freshman class will be large (which is GREAT news, really) and because students are now being required to live on campus for 2 years. Seems to me like a housing shortage is imminent and I'm unaware of any new dorms opening up by Fall of 2008.</p>
<p>S says he was lucky enough to be assigned to Willow, although he also tried for Aron.</p>
<p>There was a new dorm planned but it was canceled after Karina. It was to go where the temporary Complex is behind Butler. They tore an old dormitory down that occupied the site.</p>
<p>There was a lot of empty dorm space this year because recruiting went badly following Katrina. It bounced back some this year but still not to pre-Katrina levels and in fact there are no plans to get back to pre-Katrina levels.</p>
<p>If next years freshman class hits the 1400 goal and attrition from this years class is modest you will probably be talking 2300 - 2400 beds occupied by freshmen and sophmores (am assuming they still don't require locals to live on campus).</p>
<p>They have something in the neighborhood of 3,000 beds counting that little Hooverville of temporaries on the back campus. So there wil not be a lot of upper classmen dorm space but then there usually is not all that much demand for it.</p>
<p>To be honest, as much as they say that they have enough housing, they really don't. One of my friends (a rising third year like me) couldn't get into Willow or any of the 3rd year standing housing, and was relegated down to JL Hall, which I believe is mostly for freshman girls. What I am trying to get at is that RHL is not always very reliable. The worst/best part is that a couple of my friends who are the same age as me got qualified as fourth years, which I presume was based on their credit count, not their actual years. Just another thing RHL looked over in their rush to put in a new housing system. I'm lucky I got put into Willow/LV.</p>
<p>Vinin - How is the housing if you study abroad the first semester of your junior (third year)? Do you have a hard time getting a room when you get back?</p>
<p>As far as I know it, you get placed wherever there is space according to your "grade level." One of my friends is going to Brazil for the first semester next year, and many of my friends are going abroad just for the spring semester. I'm sure that RHL could figure out a system where those moving in take over those moving out.</p>
<p>Or they could not. Shrug.</p>