Is the meal plan required?
When considering son’s options as a freshman we decided a meal plan was way more expensive than paying cash. For the number of meals that would be eaten in the dorm, missed because of tons of reasons (going out with friends, wrong hours), we opted out.
We figured that even if he ate on a regular basis in the cafeteria that we’d still come out ahead by skipping the meal plan. The kicker (in small print) was that you couldn’t " buy and try" the meal plan for just one semester–you had to sign up for the entire year.
The only way I could see it as a good option is if you’ve got a kid who eats a LOT.
At my D’s school they have a swipes and dollars setup. My D usually just eats a yogurt or granola bar for breakfast, and two meals a day.
So if she was going to eat a whole meal in the dining hall, she swiped. If she was just going to get a sandwich she could use her dollars at a take-out place.
They also had a little convenience store to get snacks and fruit close by.
meal plan is required according to the website, unless i’m reading it wrong. always a possibility of that.
@Marian i like your idea. i say just get the cheapest option but plan to make more cash available to him for groceries, snacks, eating out, food trucks, etc. he’s gonna eat at other places besides the dining hall anyway, so it does not make sense to me to tie up too much $$$ in the more expensive meal plans, unless you get some sort of huge discount for doing so.
If it’s really an “a la carte” plan where you pay for each item and there’s no discount on meals for getting a larger plan, I’d go with the smallest one that’s an option for freshmen and add to it (or have him use cash or a debit card) if necessary. That’s especially the case if there are options other than the dining hall where he could eat more cheaply or might prefer to go.
My daughter’s meal plan cost a fortune and there were only two options: 5 days a week, all access all the time with $500 of dining dollars (points that could be used at many places on campus) or 7 days a week all access, with $200 in dining dollars, same price for either. She went for the M-F/$500 and it was fine. Sophomores could have all the money in dining dollars and she liked that a lot more. Even though she lived closer to the dining hall when she was a sophomore, she liked being able to go to the deli, the pizza place or even the on campus grocery store with her dining dollars.
They could just grab a coke or an ice cream. They could swipe 10 times a day if they wanted to when on a meal plan (not the all dining dollars plan). They could swipe once and stay in the dining room all day if they wanted to. Her boyfriend had a ‘lunch M-F’ option when he lived off campus. He could go as many times as he wanted between 10:30 and 3. He ate a ton of food during the lunch period.