<p>How does the NYU trolley work, is it convenient?
Also, on a lot of the NYU Housing guides, they say that a particular dorm is ____ minutes away from the Washington Square Campus. Does that mean by walking or by trolley?
My first choice dorm is 12th Street, I’m just wondering how long it will take me to go take my academic classes.
I’m thinking of doing explorations, is this a good idea?</p>
<p>And I’m now deciding between the 14 meals a week plan and the 19 meals a week. The thing is that I have to have breakfast everyday and it can’t be cereal or fruit lol . But I think that it would be a hassle to go to a dining hall every morning and sit down and eat a full breakfast meal. Plus I’m sure that there are a lot of quick breakfast areas in NYC that offer like breakfast sandwiches, etc (correct me if I’m wrong) and if I need to I can always eat breakfast at a dining hall and get a burger or hot dog for lunch.
I also have a tendency to have a late meal in addition to dinner (I get hungry a lot). But I’m afraid that the 19 meals a week plan will be too much.</p>
<p>Also, can I change meal plans 2nd semester?</p>
<p>I can’t necessarily answer all of your questions but will make a stab at some of them.</p>
<p>My D has never taken the NYU shuttles. They are a nice service between many campus buildings and dorms. I’m sure you have to wait a little bit, like with anything, including a subway train. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the housing guide is referring to minues by foot or by trolley but if you use a map to find where each building is located, you can count blocks and figure it out. </p>
<p>If you live on 12th Street, it should take you 5-10 minutes to walk to Strasberg and 10 minutes to walk to academic buildings around Wash Square or to the Tisch building. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you if Exploration is a “good idea”. My D never did it but if you like the idea of having a small close knit community within your living area, it would be a plus. My D had her studio as one “group” and was in an a capella group and also in Tisch Scholars. Explorations may give you a group right in your dorm. </p>
<p>You could start wtih 19 meals and yes, you can change meal plans second semester. My D had 19 meals first semester of freshman year but changed to 10 meals second semester and then changed to no meal plans after her first year. Frankly, 19 meals is a lot and you’d have to see if you could go to a cafeteria for lunch on studio days (her studio was a bit farther away than your studio and she never went back for lunch and often dinners were on the go if she had rehearsals or crew at night. She was in an apartment style dorm and had breakfast at home. Thus if doing a meal plan, 10 meals was more realistic. In your case, if you are in a traditional dorm, you could get a dorm sized fridge and a microwave and buy breakfast food to eat in. Many do that. Also, being in NYC, you might tend to eat out, such as on weekends. There are many quick pick me up type places on every block. For example, my D often goes to places that will custom make you a salad with what you want in it. You could start with 19 meals but my suggestion is to get 10 meals so as not to waste meal dollars and ask your parents for the difference in cost and use that money for the food you buy off campus.</p>
<p>My D has never used the NYU trolley, either. (And here I was, back in August, seeing those buses and feeling good about her taking them from Washington Square back to Union Square when she had to be in Wash Square for classes later into the evening!) She either walks or uses the subway. clay, you will be surprised at how quickly you get used to walking everywhere, and it’s great exercise, to boot!</p>
<p>My D did not choose to do Explorations, so I can’t address that. If you think it’s something you would like to do, well, apply and see what you think!</p>
<p>Re: the meal plan. My kid is in Third Avenue North, so there is a dining hall in the basement of her building. When she was on a meal plan, she would just take the elevator downstairs in her sweats or pjs and pick up coffee, fruit, yogurt or whatever else she wanted for breakfast. (She told me that they have waffles with the NYU insignia on them if you want them! LOL!) But her dorm also has a little kitchen, so now that she doesn’t have a meal plan anymore (it was a waste for her, as she only used it for breakfast mostly) she just keeps yogurt, etc. in her fridge and eats it in her room. </p>
<p>I agree with Susan to start with 10 meals a week and see if that suits. You can actually change the plan (I think) a few weeks into the semester if it is not enough.) As I have said before, my kid chose not to have a meal plan this semester and it has saved us money.</p>
<p>The only time that I knew that my daughter took the NYU trolley was late one Saturday night after visiting friends at Water Street. As it turned out there was only one other girl on the bus at the time who was an intern for Saturday Night Live. The two struck up a conversation and my daughter was invited to the SNL after after party.</p>
<p>My son also went to NYU and I think he used the bus/trolley frequently. He went from Lafayette to classes on campus. He was a CAS student.</p>
<p>My daughter has used the bus service a few times and has found it convenient. As far as the explorations go, she also chose to do an exploration floor. As it turns out, they don’t do a huge amount together, but it allowed her to be in the exact dorm she wanted with fun people. I think I remember her saying she has done one of the activities so far, but I’d have to check on this.</p>
<p>I know from my older D’s experience that the more expensive meal plans went to waste. So I agree to start with the cheapest one available–you can always upgrade if you need to.</p>
<p>the bus goes about every half hour from right by tisch. it’s great if you live in a further away dorm such as water street but doesn’t go to the closer dorms. you can walk anywhere you’ll need to go from 12th st in like 10mins. the explorations are great if you want a community of nice friendly people who like to get involved in group trips and activities, there might be the occassional discussion or academic activity involved depending which exploration. its a great sense of community but you’ll get that in tisch anyway. it’s a nice living environment if your floor really gets into it and participates. depends on your individual floor.
meal plans - if you are in tisch you’ll probably be too busy to get full use of your meal plan. most dining halls shut earlier than you’d probably want your late meal. and studio is so early that it’s hard to have time to go for breakfast every day unless you’re great at getting up. i found i was only able to use mine about once a day and it was a waste but some people love the mealplan.</p>
<p>I think alot of people use explorations as a way to get into the dorm they want.</p>
<p>Meal plans: like NMR said, you have several weeks into the semester to change it for that semester. I think this past year it was around Sept. 12 or so. You’ll have several weeks to see what works for you.</p>
<p>Since D is in a traditional dorm, she had to get the meal plan. With the min. plan of 10 meals per week, it worked out to about $11/meal. But as you increase the number, the incremental price drops alot, to around $4/meal. So for a relatively small amount, you get lots more meals. They have a thing now for carry out. They give you a container and you can fill it to eat later. You can eat dinner AND get the carry-out box to fill for later. They are supposed to charge you for two meals when you do that.</p>
<p>Some places stay open late. I think Weinstein stays open to around 10 or so.</p>
<p>I think 12th Street is a traditional dorm, so you’d have to get a meal plan. Food is kinda important to D (she gets awfully edgy/irritable if she hasn’t eaten), so I got her one of the bigger flex plans and checked out where and how she could use it.</p>
<p>The meal plan comes with three things:
Meal allowance - meals/week or flex meals/semester
Dining dollars - like a debit card, they give you around $150/semester to be used at places close by
Meal exchange - I had to email the meal people to find out exactly how this worked. There are around 8 places listed (Weinstein Food Court (has Chick-fil-A, Quiznos and others), Kimmel’s Market Place, etc.) You can "create a meal (an entr</p>
and pick up coffee, fruit, yogurt or whatever else she wanted for breakfast. (She told me that they have waffles with the NYU insignia on them if you want them! LOL!) But her dorm also has a little kitchen, so now that she doesn’t have a meal plan anymore (it was a waste for her, as she only used it for breakfast mostly) she just keeps yogurt, etc. in her fridge and eats it in her room. </p>