<p>if you are dorming.....do we have to get a meal plan....cuz i want to eat wit my own money at other places.....so i dont want to pay an extra 1000 bucks to eat in the dining area.</p>
<p>I think a meal plan is included in the cost of on-campus living. I think you're required to get one, but I could be wrong. Believe me, if you're living in the dorms, you're not going to want to walk all the way downtown to get breakfast while all your friends are shuffling to the pancake buffet in their pj pants.</p>
<p><3,</p>
<p>Izzie Bear</p>
<p>IzzieBear is right, at least for me (a first year) it is definitely already included in the costs.</p>
<p>Sean, just get the standard meal plan. You're probably going to appreciate the dining halls at some point. The food is probably not going to be the best, but it will be convenient when you're too sleepy to make a trip downtown. Luckily, good food in downtown Berkeley is pretty cheap. I'm sure you will be able to comfortably afford a few meals out a week. Besides, I hear that with the Bear Market opening up this fall, students will be able to use their meal points on grocery-store like items. I also hear you can use meal points to buy stuff at the student store, such as school supplies, but don't hold me to that one, because I could be totally off.</p>
<p>oh ok thanks....and yes that will be awesome if we can buy our groceries with meal plan money...</p>
<p>They run a place called the Den that sells all kinds of basic necessities that you would get at a place like Long's Drugs or a grocery store, any place like that. Its certainly not huge but it has most of the stuff that people need and are bound to run out of, and the meal plans work for anything in there. Plus theres a farmers market so the nutritionally cognizant can pick up some better items. That one i dont know if it works with the meal plan but im inclined to say it is. Most of the people ive talked to who are going there now say that theyve never used up all the points and one person said she used her points to stock up on toilet paper for next year when shes in an apartment :) her advice was to get the standard plan cause the food, however bad at times, was convenient to have access to, and the points can be used to buy all kinds of stuff.</p>
<p>yeah, i read in a cal dining services pamphlet that you can use your meal points at the farmers market, which opens shop twice a week. </p>
<p>i like the idea of being able to stock up on non-food items with my meal card, which is why i'm trying to convince my dad to buy the more expensive one. he doesn't think i'll be needing all those points, especially since he'll be giving me some money to eat out (rather cheaply, of course) a few times a week, thus not being in the dining halls for every single meal. do you think that even if i get the standard meal plan, i will be able to get a few extra things once in a while?</p>
<p>The standard meal plan was MORE than enough for me to eat most of my meals on-campus (not always from a dc, but sandwiches or salads or bagels from gbc or ramonas) and stock up on ridiculous amounts of stuff for my apartment next year. I'm set for cleaning supplies, candy, pens, paper, pencils, soup, wheat thins, etc, etc for next year, and I left Berkeley with 70 points leftover which I ended up allowing my roommate to spend so that I didn't waste any! :) Believe, extra money for a larger plan is not worth it. You probably won't use it all (though my roommate, who swiped a lot of people into the dc, did), but if you do, you'll know plenty of people who are trying to get rid of their points who'd be glad to swipe for you.</p>
<p>thanks calbear, that pretty much made up my mind then. standard plan it is.
anyway, if i'm really that low, ill just have the parents add some more to the card...don't think i'll be needing it though.</p>
<p>how much do they charge you for things like sandwhiches and smoothies? i know a swipe into the dc is like 7 or 8 points..but what about everything else? </p>
<p>Thank youuuuu!</p>
<p><3,</p>
<p>Izzie Bear</p>
<p>can the card's meal points be used for everything - like, at every place that accepts the cal 1 card, could you use that meal/standard plan's points? i wasn't sure if there was another thing on the card that you deposit money into for things that aren't food.</p>
<p>If you want to do laundry, you need to deposit money into your Cal1 card. Also, I think there are food places on campus that accept Cal1 but are not affiliated with the Dining Services so they dont accept the meal plan points.</p>
<p>The Cal 1 Card and meal point dollars are two different things. Confusing? Probably, but not hard to grasp. Unless they've changed things for next year. Let's hope not.</p>
<p>The meal plan points can be used at the the DCs and the food establishments around campus (Ramona's, GBC, Pat Brown's... i may be missing some), with the exclusion of the Free Speech Movement Cafe at Moffitt library (which i highly reccomend 'cause its frickin' AWESOME!!!!!). The points cannot be used at the student store, the Bear's Lair, and other places around campus, if there are others I am missing.</p>
<p>However, you can use your ID card (your 'cal 1 card') as money... think of it as a debit card, 'cause that's essentially what it is. You.. or your parents, in my case :p... put money on the card with a credit card online, or any form through snail mail, but who uses that anymore? This cash can essentially be used anywhere on campus: the student store, the FSM cafe, and, if need be (and hopefully need will not be for incoming freshmen), at the DCs and Cal dining places. Furthermore, instead of using heavy and burdensome quarters to do laundry, deposit money on your Cal 1 card you can use that instead. It's $1.50 to wash and $1 to dry.. steep.</p>
<p>As far as prices go, I never really paid attention to them throughout the year. For Crossroads, i believe prices were 5 for breakfast, 6 for brunch/lunch, and 7 for dinner (though prices may be one point higher.. i forget). Smoothies are around 3 points, and a sandwich (get used to sandwiches, omg..) is about the same. It is actually cheaper to buy a sandwich made at a food place then a pre-wrapped one, but some of the pre-wrapped ones are really good, and more convient 'cause lines get insanely long to get one made. The prices of retail items are comparable to the dollar value of these goods in a grocerey store.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>