I’m most likely attending Pitt next fall and I’ve been looking at the expenses for room and board. So from what I can gather, there are Panther Funds which are funds directly deposited to be used for laundry and food on/off campus but I was just confused about the use of Panther Funds for food when you have a meal plan. Can anyone explain that? If I got the unlimited meal plan, would I still need to use Panther Funds to buy meals?
Unlimited plan means unlimited swipes - and you don’t want that. When you select your meal plan it includes swipes (all you can eat swipes into the two dining halls), and dining dollars (use at coffee carts, quick zones…). From experience, choose lowest swipes, most dining dollars on cheapest tier. You will use Panther Funds for laundry. Set up some free cash funds - atm card, whatever -
because you will eat at the many places near and off campus. Dining Hall is not the only place to eat, you’re in a city!
I remember wondering about that last year. D sat down and figured that she would at most eat at dining hall (swipes) 1-2 times a day.
So figure meal swipes a day7days15 weeks in the semester
We chose the 130 swipes, $625 DD plan (Tier 2), it was $2000 versus the all you can eat and Tier 1 plans which were more expensive. I figured if she runs out of DD we can add it. She didn’t even end up using all of her swipes or DD and for second semester she switched to the 100 swipes/$825 DD (lowest one for freshmen).
You can change your meal plan during the drop/add period every semester if you want. From fall to spring the DD balance carries over if you remain in same Tier plan or higher. At the end of spring semester anything left expires.
The Panther funds can be used for food at places that don’t accept swipes or DD, but D mostly used it for laundry, to pay for exercise class. I think I put on $200 for first semester and she had some leftover.
@mommdc @amandakayak Thank you for your help! I was also wondering how I pay the housing deposit, if you guys know. I just paid my tuition and haven’t found where to pay the housing. Is it to early in the year or since I only just paid tuition? I would just like to get everything set know if I could.
You pay this when housing packet comes out after 4/1 I believe. You just paid tuition deposit to hold your place - tuition won’t be billed and due until after
you’ve attended PittStart and selected all your classes.
Yes, last year D paid tuition deposit in March I think. Then a few weeks later the housing packet arrived and we paid the housing deposit in April.
But we did know that we could afford to pay for room and board and fees (D had a tuition scholarship) before the financial aid information came out in middle of April, so we were not dependent on that information to commit.
@mommdc Yes I’m in the same situation. I’ve been offered a full tuition scholarship and have decided to commit before hearing from fafsa. Thanks for the info!
That’s great!
I think for a double room with shared bath at Sutherland West, the Tier 2 meal plan and mandatory fees (plus some lab fees for bio and chem) it cost about $12,000 last year.
Of course those costs can go up every year, ecpecially for upper campus housing.