My son committed to Pitt and we are in the process of filling out the housing contract and deciding on a meal plan. There are so many options for plans and I am confused. I don’t want to go for the top tier plan as I think that will be too much for him. Looking for feedback from others on what they chose. Thanks 
Dining passes can only be used at Market Central, Market-to-go and The Perch.
Dining dollars are accepted at other dining facilities on campus.
So generally it is advised to get the plan with the least amount of passes and highest amount of dining dollars.
Dining dollars can be added.
Unused dining dollars roll over from fall to spring semester, if plan in same tier is maintained but then expire at end of the school year.
So I would say plan D in either Tier 2 100 passes with $825 DD, or Tier 1 130 passes with $950 DD.
They can change meal plan during add/drop period at beginning of semester.
Thank you this was very helpful!
Dining passes or swipes EXPIRE at the end of each semester - and they are least likely to be used up (unless your child is very disciplined about getting to a dining hall for each meal and not just grabbing something…) - SO rule of thumb is lowest passes possible with most dollars on the lowest tier - unless you have any reason to believe your kid is a different kind of eater.
I’ll chime in and also recommend the plan with the fewest passes and more dining dollars. Even on the Tier 2 plan my daughter had a hard time using up all her swipes and DD. She rented the refrigerator/microwave and was happy to do her own cereal breakfasts and occasional light meals. When you do visit the cafeteria they allow you to take two items of fruit out, and I thought that was healthy and generous. Cafeteria food tends to get old imo. Given the choice, my daughter would have picked even fewer swipes. There are lots of restaurants close to campus that are student friendly, and sometimes it is nice to eat out and get authentic Thai or Indian or whatever. She felt guilty doing that however as she was not keeping up with her dining plan.
All. thank you so much. We are having trouble deciding on the meal plan and will now take fewest passes. Just one question, do restaurants in the campus accept dining dollars?
http://www.pc.pitt.edu/dining/menus.php
http://www.pc.pitt.edu/dining/subMap.php
here is a handy map, and list of campus eateries
https://www.pc.pitt.edu/card/merchantlist.php (places that accept Panther Funds, there are two tabs for university merchsnts and community merchants)
https://www.pc.pitt.edu/dining/mealplans/pantherFunds.php
The university eateries on the above map and list with menus all accept dining dollars.
The restaurants near campus like Panera Bread or Noodles and Co don’t accept dining dollars, but they will accept Panther Funds, which can be loaded onto their Panther ID.
Panther Funds can be used for dorm laundry machines, and lots of other things. They can be added by parent or student. They don’t expire at end of year.
Thanks so much mommdc.
my D going to Pitt in Aug and a girl from our town is a freshman at Pitt. She said the same - the least Passes with more Dining Dollars. So many great places to eat and on weekends they go into the city or on day trips so eating off campus. We will probably do Tier 2 with 100 DP and $825 dining dollars.
Another thing about the swipes is that they don’t always register. My D says that when she goes to the main cafeteria and tries to swipe in it usually says “invalid card”. Apparently this is so common that the kids at the register just let the people go. Because of this, D still has half her swipes remaining now even though the semester is over.
Thank you all so much! I ended up choosing the Tier 2 130 swipes with $625 dining dollars. I was going to go to the lowest one of 100 swipes but husband thought it just wasn’t enough swipes for our son. We will give this one a shot and see how it works out.
You can always change it up to a certain date - or in the following semester. There are just too many other options in the area that are cheap and really good!