My son will be a freshman in college this fall, will be attending Syracuse on a full tuition scholarship. We are struggling to choose a meal plan option. His college offers a meal plan of 21/19/14 meals a week for freshman. I would like to understand from others, given classes and other activities in college, is it possible to eat 3 meals in the dinning dorms everyday. We were thinking of the 14 meal plan, which will allow him the flexibility of eating 1 meal somewhere else on campus. Any information and suggestions highly appreciated.
You might want to post this on the Syracuse page and see what people say. I think where the kids tend to eat might vary by college. At my daughter’s school she eats almost every meal in her dorm. But her school is on the small side and they have residential colleges so eating with your college is a big deal and part of the social experience. Classes are usually not scheduled over their set meal times. I went to a large Big 10 school and it was often just too much of a pain to get back to the dorms for meals so I skipped a lot and/or ordered a lot of pizza.
Is the student an early bird or night owl? An early bird is more likely to be able to eat 19-21 meals per week, while a night owl is unlikely to eat more than 14 meals per week.
The price difference between the meal plans does not seem to be that much: https://housingmealplans.syr.edu/meal-plans/rates/2019-2020-meal-plan-rates-for-matriculated-syracuse-university-undergraduate-students-on-or-after-fall-2018/
Find out which places are those where the meal plan meals can be eaten, and where they are relative to places that the student will be throughout the day: https://www.syracuse.edu/about/map/
Agree with asking on the Syracuse page, since student eating habits can vary by campus characteristics.
We started our daughter with a 21 plan when she was a freshman. We didn’t want her to worry about the food piece. She always eats breakfast so we didn’t want her to think she had to skimp. As a sophomore, she dropped down to a 14 plan because she prefers to eat breakfast in her room now and sleep a bit more.
You may want to see what SU’s policy is too. At my D’s school, students could increase the plan but not decrease once the semester started.
My son will be a freshman as well. I joined the Syracuse parents’ FB page and this was one of the topics discussed. Most parents are indicating 14 meals is enough (mine is not a big breakfast guy anyway) - you can also put extra money on their card so they can buy snacks/drinks throughout the day, if needed.
Thank you all for the input.
Congratulations on the full scholarship!
SU recommends you start with 14 meals because you can always add to the plan but you cannot always decrease it.
14 was enough for my daughter - supplemented with her food plus dollars. The students rarely eat 3 meals on Saturday or Sunday.
SU Parent and Family services is very knowledgeable and helpful. You can reach out to them with any dining questions.