<p>Are freshmen living on campus required to purchase meal plans at UF? If so how much are they and how many meals do they cover? Is there different plan rates? Such as buying fewer meals than 3 or day or such? First child off to college in 2011 and mom and I are in a new learning experience.</p>
<p>You are not required to purchase a meal plan. We purchased a meal plan for our daughter her first semester and not after that (she is graduated). We have put money in a declining balance account for our son (second year) and that seems to work best. It costs more per meal with decling balance if you go to the dining hall but you can use it all over campus at Taco Bell, Burger King, dining halls, etc. Declining balance funds roll to the second semester if not used up. You can check out the meal plan costs and what they include on UF’s website.</p>
<p>^What is the difference between declining balance and a gift card? Is there a discount?</p>
<p>If not, I don’t know why people don’t just use a credit card.</p>
<p>using declining balance is just a little bit faster. I’ve noticed that whenever I use my debit card to buy a meal, they have to swipe it and then punch in the numbers on my card, with declining balance, they just swipe your gator1 & you’re done.
That being said, as a freshman myself, I would really recommend getting a meal plan if your kid is going to live on campus. The dining hall is a lot healthier than most of the other places to get food on campus, and a lot of people go to the dining hall together & eat with their friends.</p>
<p>Meal plans aren’t required, I’m glad I had the unlimited plan though. There’s so much new stuff to get used to freshman year that I wouldn’t of wanted to go through the process of learning to plan meals, go grocery shopping, and cook for yourself. If you’re just gonna be paying cash (that’s what declining balance is) you end up eating taco bell and burgerking all the time, and that doesn’t exactly do well for your health. </p>
<p>I know most the freshmen I knew had standing times where they would meet their friends for dinner and a lot of people had lunches too. Sure the food gets a bit… grating… after a full year, but anything would.</p>