<p>there are healthy choices but they don't taste as good as the non-healthy choices that everyone around you is probably eating after they give up on the gym, in exchange for Louie's Lunch (this will probably occur after your first round of prelims). i find that people spend a lot of time socializing in the dining hall during meals, which leads to like 7-course dinners consisting of curly fries, pizza and belgian waffles topped with Cornell Dairy Barn's uber-fattening (delicious) ice cream.</p>
<p>Get a microfridge- they're legal- and while you're at it, get a coffee maker too (if you're a coffee drinker)- illegal, but who the hell cares, your RA never checks your room anyway unless you're doing something really stupid loudly and he/she is nearby.</p>
<p>Yeah, it seems like a lot of freshmen always go for the 5-hour long meals in Appel or RPU where they just sit around and talk. Which is annoying, since there are 3,000 freshmen all trying to eat in one 3-hour period and it's hard to find more than 2 empty chairs together if most tables are already full of people who finished eating about 3 hours ago...</p>
<p>But I noticed this trend stops after freshman year, probably because the dining halls on West serve food that's nowhere near as good as the food on North and the dining halls aren't as well-decorated or big.</p>
<p>You <em>can</em> find a lot of good food that isn't fattening, especially on North, where again the food is much better than anywhere else in campus (except maybe Trillium). The problem is not so much that people eat crappy food (though you should avoid call-in Wings and DP Dough) but that they don't exercise. As Spanks said, you go to the gym or run loyally in the first couple of weeks, then it all goes to hell once classes really get under way.</p>
<p>Do people buy their own microfridges, or does everyone rent them?</p>
<p>Most people I've known personally have brought their own- I use one that my brother handed down to me after he finished college, and others probably do the same. But I'm sure it doesn't really matter and doesn't make a difference.</p>
<p>the microfridge that my roommate and i rented for 100/yr is crap...it's literally breaking apart...def buy your own</p>
<p>unless you live really far from Cornell and have to pack light, I recommend buying your own fridge. The ones you can rent out for a year are just as expensive as buying a new one. You can't have a microwave unless its rented as part of the microfridge from cornell though. But all freshmen dorms have kitchens on every hall.</p>
<p>You do a lot of walking at Cornell, so freshman 15 isn't as common, despite the yum food. Heavy drinking makes some people add on the pounds though.</p>
<p>As for the gym membership, don't get it unless you can commit to actually going to the gym once a week. I knew sooo many people who got one and rarely/never went. It's only $7 to go per visit if you don't have membership.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. A few more questions.
What are the best places to eat on-campus other than the dining halls (eg-trillium, etc.)?
Someone said something about a two week grace period to change the meal plan. So, they'll only charge us according to the meal plan we pick after the two weeks? Do we pay seperately for those two weeks?</p>
<p>they give out these mini-maps of all the on-campus eateries. but most people like to eat at trillium and ivy room. there's also cascadeli if you like sandwiches. freshmen go to bear necessities in rpu and tatkon center in balch. Collegetown places are off-campus, but have good food - Sangam (indian), aladdin's (mediterranean), college-town bagels, ruloffs, and there's a chinese and vietnamese place. The ithaca commons have a bunch of good restaurants too, but its not walking distance.</p>