<p>So, I'm hoping this serves as a general thread on meal plans, especially for us pre-frosh that will have our first MIT experience this coming fall.</p>
<p>From what I've read online, here's my understanding of meal plans for next year:</p>
<p>At all dorms with dining halls, except Masseh, first year students will need to get at least the 14 meal basic plan. This means that they get 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners for the week (costs $3800/year). At Masseh, first year students need the 19-meal full plan, which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the weekdays and brunch and dinner for the weekends (costs $4500/year). Note that the 19-meal plan is available for all students, but Masseh is the only dining hall offering lunch, and every dinning hall gives breakfast (brunch on weekends) and dinner.</p>
<p>So, personally, these plans are unappealing. These plans seem extremely strict and I'm not a breakfast person, so the requirement to pay for a breakfast when I would be content with a bowl of cereal is extremely annoying. This makes the non-dining hall dorms seem much more appealing to me simply because of the freedom they offer. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Also, some separate questions about the non-dining dorms. Is cooking for yourself (and the accompanying chores, such as washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen) a hassle time-wise, considering how busy MIT life is? Can you buy meals (dinners) at other dining halls as take-out? Are the dining-hall meals for non-meal-plan students too expensive? Is buying food off campus (delivery or not) a viable option? Are there lots of good food places that aren't too expensive close to MIT? Are there cheap grocery stores close to campus?</p>
<p>Is cooking for yourself (and the accompanying chores, such as washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen) a hassle time-wise, considering how busy MIT life is?</p>
<p>If you cook something that you can eat for multiple days, it’s manageable, but I wouldn’t have the time to cook for myself every night (though if you want to make it a priority and let it take away time from hanging out/sports/lab you could, but I decided I wasn’t willing to do that). I usually eat dining food four nights a week just out of convenience and because if I have a lot of work, dining may be my only time that day when I get to hang out with my awesome dorm-mates.</p>
<p>Can you buy meals (dinners) at other dining halls as take-out?
Yepp.</p>
<p>Are the dining-hall meals for non-meal-plan students too expensive?
I’m not sure how that’s going to work next year, maybe someone else can enlighten us?</p>
<p>Is buying food off campus (delivery or not) a viable option?
Definitely viable, but I haven’t tried.</p>
<p>Are there lots of good food places that aren’t too expensive close to MIT?
Most of the ones I know are ideal for lunch and are very reasonably priced (yay food trucks!) I either go to dining or cook (or skip…) dinner, so someone else who’s more knowledgable of dinner options could probably help you out here.</p>
<p>Are there cheap grocery stores close to campus?
The closest on is Star Market/Shaw’s which is not the cheapest but not super expensive. There is also a Trader Joe’s and a Whole Foods within a reasonable distance.</p>
<p>
During some semesters, eating at all was a hassle for me. 
But obviously I still did it.</p>
<p>I cooked for myself sophomore-senior year, sometimes cooking big meals on Sundays and eating leftovers all week, sometimes cooking every night, sometimes by myself, sometimes with others. It’s not really that much of a time commitment, depending on what you’re eating, and you can usually put something in to cook and go do other stuff for half an hour. (My advice as a time-crunched graduate student is to look up Rachael Ray’s 30-minute meals!)</p>
<p>
Definitely. I probably ordered from campusfood.com about once a week, and I had friends who ordered more frequently. </p>
<p>
Just adding to what Mangaartist said above, the Star Market near campus is part of the major Boston chain, so while I agree that it’s not super-cheap, it does have the typical prices you would pay for groceries in the Boston area – it’s not artificially expensive just because it’s located near a college campus.</p>
<p>I was wondering if one on this plan could, instead of having 7 breakfasts and 7 dinners a week, use some of the meals on lunches in Maseeh. So maybe have 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 4 dinners. Or are we required to stick to just breakfast and dinner? Thanks :)</p>
<p>In Maseeh, all the plans are flexible, so you can use them on any combination of breakfasts/lunches/dinners you want.</p>
<p>@ flanny22</p>
<p>They have the plan you’re thinking about, it’s 14-flexible, and it costs $4300, so only $200 less than the 19 plan. This plan is ridic overpriced, basically charging you $500 more than the 14-basic just for the flexibility.</p>
<p>@ Mangarrist, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that for freshmen, Masseh requires the 19 meal plan. I wouldn’t call this plan flexible at all, because it requires you to eat every single meal in there, or lose that money. So, if I wanted to go off-campus for friends on dinner on a Saturday, that’s a meal I lost. This system is not going to be good, unless they have some kind of roll-over system so those meals go to the next year.</p>
<p>Personally, I think these new meal plans are designed to make the uni more money. It seems like all the dorms have a cap on room-board, and since Masseh is already at that cap, they want the extra meal $$$ to help recoup the cost of the new dorm fast.</p>
<p>Anyways, personally I like the culture of Burton-Conner but the entire cooking-for-myself thing kinda freaked me out. Now that I realize that the set-up of the meal-plans don’t appeal to me, the idea of a cooking-dorm seems beneficial. I’m not sure what I will be doing for next year, but I’m glad I found all this info sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Anyone with specific experience with the cooking culture at Burton-Conner wanna chime in?</p>