<p>S will be a freshman in the fall, and I've been perusing the UD website. Can any of you experienced parents/students tell me the pros and cons of the different meal plans? Can the kids use their points at off-campus eateries?</p>
<p>Hey Booklady! We asked the question about off-campus food yesterday and were told that UD points/Flex can only be used on campus.</p>
<p>Your son will have a couple weeks to adjust his meal plan. So he can just pick one and then see how many meals he actually eats in the dining halls and adjust his plan accordingly.
How often he gets to a dining hall may depend on how close his dorm is to one. Breakfast is probably about the best meal but if a dining hall isn’t en route from dorm to first class, a student is unlikely to use a meal for breakfast.</p>
<p>My daughter prefers the least meals/most points options. She is not fond of the dining hall meals. Points can only be used at the on-campus eateries (Trabant food court, POD, Scrounge etc) not at the restaurants on Main Street. There is an OCMP (off-campus meal plan) you can purchase for the Main Street eateries. But, it’s not very practical when you have to buy a meal plan from the UDel also. We had looked into it to supplement the campus meal plan, but there is a not so small activation fee charged each semester.</p>
<p>Definitely one of the questions for this weekend. Read the website. Will try to talk to students to get real-life opinions.</p>
<p>The points can be used in the student centers (Trabant and Perkins), bit not at local non-campus eateries. You can also use points to buy a meal in the regular cafeteria. My son eats both meals at the cafeteria and in the students centers. Sometimes it’s easier to grab a quiznos @ Trabant in between classes then go to the cafeteria. He also likes to sleep until the last possible moment so he frequently skips breakfast and keeps some cereal bar type snacks in his room. </p>
<p>That being said, this semester we went with the 10 meals/week plan + points. He always eats all his 10 meals, and the rest he uses points. If he goes over the 10, he can use a guess pass (the plan comes with 5) or his points. This seems to be the best plan for him given his eating habits. </p>
<p>First semester he had one of the plans with a bunch of meals for the semester (instead of by the week) and points. He ended up with leftover meals and ran out of points. That’s why we switched to the 10 meal/week plan + points (this has more points then the 1st semester plan). He also likes to grab a meal on Main Street sometimes during the weekends just for a change of pace, unfortunately points don’t work for that.</p>
<p>One bit of advice he was given when we first toured, was that in the beginning of each semester, attend Greek rush events (even if you’re not interested in pledging). They are free and provide lots of food. Most are at nearby eateries.</p>
<p>I just also want to add the you can use the points to buy food at the food concessions at football games and other school events.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, this is very helpful!</p>
<p>My son was on the 175/semester meal plan the first semester but switched to the plan with less meals (120) but more points this semester because he wanted to eat elsewhere than the cafeterias. He’s been getting breakfast at Dunkin Donuts at Perkins most mornings, he gets an egg and cheese on croissant and a hot chocolate, which is pretty cheap (and less than the cost of a breakfast at the cafeteria if you paid in points). Then he gets sushi from Trabant for lunch a couple of days a week or a quesadilla at Perkins. Dinner is typically at the cafeteria and Hillel on Fridays. He had extra points from last semester so it is working well. Not sure how well it will work next semester when he has no points in the bank to use.</p>
<p>Things have certainly changed since I was there back in the 70’s!</p>
<p>My S will be a Music Ed major there starting this fall, and I was wondering about the meal plan as well, as I’ve heard that their courseload is so heavy with 1-credit courses, etc., that it’s not uncommon to be scheduled thru meals or not have enough time to hit the dining hall lines between classes.</p>
<p>So I started figuring… most plans are approx $1800. If you subtract the “points” each gives, you can figure out the cost per dining hall meal for each plan. The 19/week works out to be the cheapest option at a little over $6 a meal, I believe. Some other options go as high as $10/meal.</p>
<p>If you can make all meals, it would seem to be best to at least try to start out with the 19/wk, especially if you are a “volume eater”. Otherwise, if you’re stuck paying approx $1800/semester for a mealplan & go heavier towards points, at the prices I see for “a-la-carte”, wouldn’t you be adding a lot more expense as well if you exceed your points provided?</p>
<p>At least they let you modify your plan midstream, but how do they calculate what you are entitled to at that point?</p>