<p>Question about the UCI meal plans.</p>
<p>UCI has 3 mandatory meal plans - 100, 120 and 165 meals per quarter</p>
<p>I'm considering the 120 or 165 meal plans. For 120 meals, the cost is $11,096. For 165 meals, the cost is $11,291. The difference is $195.</p>
<p>The difference in meals is 165 - 120 = 45 meals. Since the academic year has 3 quarters, does this mean you get 135 meals (45 x 3) for the extra $195 if you go with the 165 meals plan?</p>
<p>Yeah</p>
<p>per quarter yeah</p>
<p>I personally won’t eat that much, F that… I’d be throwing money away so I’m going for the 120 meal plan</p>
<p>Yeah, so on the one hand, if you actually do eat 165 meals a quarter, you get the last 45 of them for less than $1.45 each. On the other hand, strange as it may sound, you seldom eat 15 meals/week in the dining facilities.</p>
<p>But wait, you ask, aren’t there 21 meals in a week? Well, no… they only do lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday, so that takes it down to 19 (unless you want to do the Late Night Grill and Deli which is available Mon-Wed nights). And while even 19 is more than 15, the fact is you simply won’t eat each and every meal (at least not at the dining facilities).</p>
<p>My son went with the max plan. We’re from NorCal, so he was on campus on the weekends. Plus, he never had to consider whether he had enough meals on his card… he always had more than enough.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it’s real easy to burn through the $50 Flex Dollars on coffee, etc. each quarter.</p>
<p>I would probably get the 120 meal plan. Usually you are able to provide breakfast for cheaper than $1.45 or whatever that difference is. I’m not really fond of the breakfast the dining commons serve. Also, it was difficult for me to wake up at 7:00 or so to trek to the dining commons to eat at 7:15 or whenever it opens to eat breakfast before my 8am class.</p>
<p>wait they dont give you financial aid for meal plan?? or do they?? just curious… and why is it so expensivee???</p>
<p>To the above:</p>
<p>The total cost also includes the room/dorm. 100 meal plan with $75 flex credits alone costs $784 which is cheap considering each meal costs $7.09 or $5 for the case of the 165 meal plan. </p>
<p>I chose the 120 meal option, here’s how it went:</p>
<p>1st Quarter: I had about 20 - 30 left over since I would eat out a lot. After calculating the total cost of my meals, I was ****ing blown away by the total sum. And I thought $5 meals were expensive. I began to sense the correlation between income and obesity as the cheapest foods were junk foods. In-and-Out’s $6 Double-Double Cheeseburger combo was both a blessing and curse. </p>
<p>2nd Quarter: After getting an expensive lesson of food in the 1st quarter, I began to use the meal plan more often such that I actually ran out during finals week. The week before that, I tried to stretch my remaining 5 meal tickets for the entire week. Also, I bought myself a plastic water bottle so that I can fill it up with water or flavored drink from the fountain machine so that I won’t have to pay approx. $2 bottled beverages that were sold on campus…although the fountain sodas tasted REALLY different when drunk from the bottle. </p>
<p>3rd Quarter: So after getting a hungry lesson of food in the 2nd quarter, I managed my meal plan a bit more cautiously. I was able to balance between cafteria/common meals to meals that costed money such that the total cost of meals was acceptable and I had enough to last finals week without starving for the half of the day. Another thing I learned is that you don’t sense the hunger or starvation if you’re playing a video game.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the information, especially BirdKiller for your experiences.</p>
<p>BTW, Pippen and Mesa Commons do serve breakfast on the weekends. But breakfast starts at 9:30, which is pretty close to lunch time. Another thing to consider, having extra meals may lessen the urge to over eat at a seating because you can always go back. Also, you can use 5 meals for parents and guests.</p>
<p>haha 9:30 isn’t really close to lunch 
but personally i don’t find the early “breakfast” to be worth a swipe. it’s really just stuff like bagels and fruits. if you want the food like pancakes you have to wait until 11 (i think)</p>
<p>the lowest meal plan is good for socal residents who plan to go home (almost) every weekend (such as myself). you have 11 weeks per qtr (last week is finals) and so that makes roughly 9 meals per week. 2 meals per day, m-th and maybe lunch on friday (depends on when you are going home). you can always go back to school after you’ve eaten at home too :D</p>
<p>i tried the 120 meal plan during my first qtr and had a lot of meals left at the end. i would be swiping in just for coffee during finals week in an attempt to use up the swipes.</p>
<p>my advice is: do the math and think about how much you eat but know the numbers are not going to turn out that way in the end. there will always be an interruption in your pattern, such as going out to eat instead, not feeling like eating, going home or staying for a weekend, etc.</p>
<p>Is it possible to pack a meal from the commons to eat outside or in your dorm?</p>
<p>brandywine has a “take-out” option from 11-2pm where it’s basically a pre-packed lunch but you choose the kind of meal from the list. i think that’s the only commons that does (no idea about mesa commons because i never eat there, and i know it’s not offered at pippin).</p>
<p>Huh. Mesa and Pippin both used to do “Dining on the Run”… did they discontinue this program?</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to CampusDish at the University of California Irvine!](<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSW/UnivCaliforniaIrvine/DiningontheRun/]Welcome”>http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSW/UnivCaliforniaIrvine/DiningontheRun/)</p>
<p>ohh that’s something you have to do in advance which is why i probably haven’t seen it (since you can’t just go in and order). that might still be at mesa and pippin then</p>
<p>Does anyone know when they’ll open another dining commons?
they should
what do the SOphomores living in campus have to choose from?</p>
<p>i haven’t heard anything about getting another dining commons. sophomores can buy a voluntary meal plan to eat in the regular commons. no clue where i’m eating next year actually. living off of cup noodles and tv dinners? haha. i would guess that sophomores are really getting out into the real world and are cooking for themselves because it’s cheaper</p>
<p>Unless you live at Campus Village, it’s not really not that convenient to eat all your meals on campus. Most of the sophomores who live “on campus” are at VDC or VDCN and have kitchens for breakfast and dinner. </p>
<p>If they grab lunch on campus, it’s most often at the Student Center or one of the other places on campus. With the exception of Brandywine, I don’t think that many miss eating in the commons, but if they do, they can always pay at the door (or buy a voluntary meal plan as jennifer7 says).</p>
<p>I eat a hella lot and I want to actually live at least 3 years on campus and 2 years on meal plan.</p>
<p>Um… how do u become an RA?</p>
<p>[UC</a> Irvine Student Housing - CP/HA/RA Staff Selection - Overview and Deadlines](<a href=“http://www.housing.uci.edu/employment/cphara/overview.asp]UC”>http://www.housing.uci.edu/employment/cphara/overview.asp)</p>
<p>thanks jennifer 7!</p>
<p>Mandatory? Bah i was planning to eat ramen the whole year</p>
<p>During your residence you can’t miss the RA application…this year there were posters everywhere! I am not happy enough to be an RA, I would probably end up throwing someone out a window. =D ahaha …jk?</p>
<p>Don’t worry you can eat Ramen all of second year!</p>