<p>would anyone like to explain how meal plans work at UVa?</p>
<p>Welcome</a> to CampusDish at University of Virginia!</p>
<p>i was looking at this page, and i'm guessing that plus$ is some kind of credit system, but regardless of which plan (unlimited, limited, etc.) you get, they all cost $1890? and i'm going to guess that the meal plan is not included in the cost of attendance?</p>
<p>No, meal plans aren’t included in tuition.</p>
<p>And yes, most of the meal plans cost pretty much the same. If you get less meals, you get more PLUS dollars. PLUS dollars can be used for food anywhere on the grounds. That includes any of the dining halls, the convenience store at O-Hill, the coffee shop at the campus bookstore, etc. Purchases made with PLUS dollars aren’t taxed and are discounted from what those paying with cash would pay.</p>
<p>I did the math, and basically with the meal plans you’re paying as much as $10 per meal, which is pretty steep. And that assumes you use every meal your plan gives you – if you have 15 meals per week and eat 14, you just wasted $10. I’m living off campus, so I’m planning on just buying my own groceries. Note: a 1.5lb Stouffer’s vegetarian lasagna that serves 6 costs just under $10…</p>
<p>There are only two GOOD reasons for getting a meal plan: 1) you’re an athlete and would go broke if you didn’t have the all-you-can-eat-buffet 2) socialize with friends as a freshman/sophomore.</p>
<p>To be fair though, if my friends prepay for a meal plan, effectively paying about $10 per meal, if I don’t have a meal plan I can still just go and pay for my meal with a credit card for something like $1 more that they paid.</p>
<p>i’m not quite sure how the meal plan works but i’m guessing the Plus $ is money you are able to spend at other dining areas (outside the meal plan dining area), if you will eat out more then you should probably get a plan with more plus $, one of my friend who was a first year student last year said that the University dining serves a lot of the same food so it’s better to get plus $ so you can eat elsewhere, personally I’ma get the unlimited plan and see how it goes, I eat a lot, so if I get plus 15 I don’t think $200 will cover 6 meals a week for a whole semester (considering I eat 21 meals a week), but that’s just me</p>
<p>You see I doubt I’d be eating much breakfast/lunch (especially the former) in dining areas in the mad scramble to get to classes - I eat 21 meals a week, but I imagine I’d be doing more cornflakes/milk/bread/sandwiches than social eating in halls for these, and on weekends I expect to be sleeping in for brunch, so for me it seems like the less prescribed meals and more plus$ the better. Am I likely to be in the shock of my life when/if I enroll and find that everybody at UVA is engaged in public eating at scarily frequent intervals?</p>
<p>Also question - are meal plans compulsory as long as one lives on campus, can one stop buying them after the first year or must one move off campus to be free of cafeteria grub? (are they compulsory in the first year? I’m assuming yes)</p>
<p>You need a meal plan if you’re a first or in a residential college (brown/hereford/irc). Other dorms beyond first year do not require one - although just like dining, not using university’s housing and living off campus often gets you cheaper and better accommodations…</p>
<p>you can also try out your plan first semester, or the first few weeks, and switch to a less-meals-more-plus-dollars plan if you find that you buy cereal and milk at the C3 or crossroads or something instead of going to the dining hall (thus not eating 21 meals a week in the dining hall).</p>
<p>agneisse, at this point, it really doesn’t matter which meal plan you buy; you’ll be paying $1890 anyway. During the first few weeks of school, be conscious of your eating habits and adjust it accordingly. You have the first 2-3 weeks to change your meal plan. Ask your RA for the exact date.</p>
<p>Is it possible to get food from the dining halls to go? I’m not sure that I’m going to want to eat every meal in them.</p>
<p>yes you can get a to-go box and 2 cups with a swipe.</p>
<p>The best advice I ever got was buy the smallest number of meals and the largest number of plus dollars possible. Hall food is not good.</p>
<p>Dining hall food really sucks, unless you can eat at John Paul Jones Arena (only for student-athletes).</p>
<p><a href=“only%20for%20student-athletes”>quote</a>.
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<p>My roommate (who is not an “official” athlete, you know, besides the intramural sort of thing) got one… </p>
<p>The rumor I’m told is, UVA Athletics isn’t allowed (by whatever rules of the leagues they participate in) to have an athlete-only dining plan. Thus, they market the athletic dining plan to athletes but not to students … but that doesn’t mean regular students can’t apply for it.</p>
<p>UVA Dining is decent … my only real complaints are the price and its hostility to student cooking.</p>
<p>There are other schools with dining halls for athletes.</p>
<p>I think so too, but whether or not they explicitly “forbid” students is another matter, I think?</p>
<p>As my roommate tells me, whether or not regular students are allowed to apply versus whether regular students know they can apply are quite two different things.</p>
<p>Of course, I can’t confirm any of this first-hand because I haven’t attempted to do what my roommate did … nor am I getting a meal plan next year.</p>
<p>I came to college eating three squares a day, now I rarely eat breakfast. As the semester progresses, you will find it much harder to wake up early enough to eat breakfast. Get a meal plan with enough plus dollars to buy a box of cereal for breakfast if you still think you’ll want some food as you’re running out the door.</p>
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<p>Me either!</p>
<p>You have to get into JPJ to use the dining hall and that requires one to swipe his/her ID into the building; only student-athletes and athletic personnel have access to the building anyway. Those related to UVA athletics also have access to parking at JPJ. I would imagine that if you’re a non-athlete wanting to eat there, you’d have to take the bus, have an athletic mealplan and be swiped into the building. Also, it will be kind of awkward since no one eats there by himself/herself - these athletes are always eating with their sports teams.</p>
<p>If your roommate isn’t an “official” athlete, then what is he?</p>
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<p>Really? It’s sort of easy to get in … you just take the bus there, and enter?</p>
<p>The thing is, we live at the IRC, so JPJ is like a 10-minute walk.</p>
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<p>Hahaha, regular player of intramural/IRC-organised sports?</p>
<p>Well, that’s if you wait for someone to open the door for you… I’m saying that if you’re not related to UVA athletics, you probably have to walk or take the bus to JPJ since you have no access to parking there.</p>
<p>And anyone can participate in intramural sports, really… How often has he eaten in JPJ?</p>
<p>Haha, we’re first years. All we can do is walk or take the bus…</p>
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<p>That’s the idea. ;)</p>
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<p>I know he’s eaten there, but I don’t dine with him that often. Haha, our schedules are practically complementary to each other.</p>