<p>I'm pretty sure I've read something about this before, but I can't seem to find it again. Anyway, I was looking at the meal plan prices. I know that freshmen are automatically signed up for Plan C, which is $2,104. </p>
<p>I was wondering if the meal plans are only for one semester or for the whole year. I figured it was per semester, but I wanted to make sure. </p>
<p>Also, for any upperclassmen, how has Plan C worked out for you? Do you have a lot of money left over? I'm not a big eater, so I was thinking of going down to Plan D or E later on.</p>
<p>you really don’t have to worry too much about the meal plan for first semester freshman year.</p>
<p>the plan is for one semester. the only difference between the plans is the amount of spending money you have – they deduct the SAME amount for overhead from each of the plans – so every dollar of cost difference in the plans is the difference in how much you have to spend.</p>
<p>how much you will spend will simply depend on your personal habits – will you eat breakfasts? will you eat mostly in the dining halls where the food is cheaper or will you hit the food court regularly? will you go off campus to eat on weekends? etc. quite honestly, you probably won’t even be able to answer those questions until you are there and see what you end up doing. </p>
<p>but there really isn’t much “risk” of choosing a wrong plan. if you run out of money – you can add money – dollar for dollar. so you don’t have to worry about having too little. if you have money left over at the end, of the semester, it is added to what you have available the next semester – AS LONG AS you are still on a meal plan. so if you have a lot left over you can adjust down the next semester.</p>
<p>in general, it is always safer to go with a cheaper plan since you can always add. the only risk with having money left over is if you don’t expect to be on a meal plan the following semester. </p>
<p>so for your first semester, it really doesn’t matter that much – you can see how things go and then adjust for second semester if you have money carry over. you can go down to D or E if you are concerned about having too much carry over – there is no downside risk to doing so, since you can always add more money if you find you are running out of your available spending balance.</p>
<p>I have to say that I ended up with nearly 300 dollars extra at the end of the year. I will be downgrading to the next lower plan. If you eat a lot or buy a lot at the night owls, it will cost more. I don’t so having the larger Plan C doesn’t pay off for me.</p>
<p>This is just my opinion and anecdote, but if you’re a guy, i suggest getting the meal plan one step above the standard plan just to be safe. Most of my friends and I have run out of our meal plans both semesters with the standard plan. However, as the previous two posters have said you can always add later on in the semester if you run low on funds.</p>
<p>since you can always add money if you run low, i really can’t see much reason to try to “be safe.” the only reason i can imagine for erring on the side of a more costly plan would be if it will be harder for the student to get the money later on than at the beginning of the semester – eg, their parents won’t give additional money later on or it has to be covered by a loan taken at the beginning of the semester.</p>