<p>We would be interested in experienced AU parents sharing how they determined the “right” amount of money their student might need per semester, in combination with Meal Plan, Eagle Bucks and Dining Dollars. Our D will be living on campus and we have signed her up for the 175 meal plan, which comes with $200 dining dollars, I believe. She is in University College, so she will have her Wednesday’s out and about. Thinking ahead about metro money, occasional entertainment, additional food, and other essentials. She has a bit of money saved from graduation presents and outside scholarships, but just wondering how to “guess” how much we may need to supplement. We live in the area, so we know how expensive DC can be!</p>
<p>Obviously, this is our first in college Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>For my daughter’s first semester as a freshman last year, she was in a program that required her to take the metro three days a week. This cost her approximately $100 a month. I estimate she spent a total of $400 per month during those first few months since she had to buy appropriate cold weather clothing. She used the Eagle Bucks mainly for laundry, some books and snacks from the vending machine/Eagle’s Nest.</p>
<p>She did better for her second semester and managed with only $200 a month. However, she does not go out much and hangs out with friends who are homebodies like her.</p>
<p>On the advice of parents here last year, we put her on the minimum meal plan for freshmen–150–and she did better than most with only 20 swipes left. Many others could not give their swipes away at the end of the semester. For her second year, my daughter is signing up for the 75 meal plan.</p>
<p>Chris Moody (head of housing & dining) told us that students typically go through $900/semester on their ID cards. I <em>think</em> that he said that was $500 on top of the pre-loaded $200 Dining Dollars and $200 Eagle Bucks.</p>
<p>That sounds like so much, but it works out to less than $8/day, to cover the 10 or more meals/week they don’t get on swipes, laundry, a few things from the bookstore… </p>
<p>I’m thinking we have to add several hundred/semester for books, and then figure in the metro and entertainment budget. </p>
<p>I feel a little bit faint all of a sudden.</p>
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<p>Where do the students typically eat, if they aren’t using their swipes? Is it logistically difficult to get to the venues that take swipes, or do they just prefer to eat elsewhere? My daughter seemed to think she would LIKE to go to the TDR for breakfast (rather than eating a bowl of Cheerios in the dorm for pennies a day, which is what she ate for breakfast when she lived at our house!), and she was thinking she might not have enough swipes!</p>
<p>My D has never been much of a breakfast eater, but she had to get up before 6:00 a.m. for high school. Next year, she doesn’t have a class before 10:30, so all that could change. We are telling her not to use meal swipes (at $10-$11 a piece) for just a bagel, so I imagine she will use dining dollars for that. That leaves 10-11 meals a week on the 175 meal plan…still less than 2 a day for the week. I keep hearing 150 is plenty also, but it just doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m not interested in her “throwing away” meal swipes and running up thousands of dollars ordering pizzas. Maybe we should switch her to the 150 meal plan? </p>
<p>Which meal plan is your D doing, Desk Potato?</p>
<p>My D has never used all her swipes and she has always been on the minimum plan. She just has coffee and a granola bar in her room for breakfast (who wants to get up, get dressed and trudge across the campus just for a bagel or bowl of cereal?). As a theatre major, she often missed dinners in TDR and just went by the Eagle’s Nest for a sandwich or snacks after rehearsals. I suppose some kids like eating in TDR, but mine never did. </p>
<p>Spending money? I think my D spent about $200 a month - Metro rides, theatre tickets, pizza runs, etc. Books depend on major - as a theatre major she never had more than $200 a semester.</p>
<p>My D only had breakfast at TDR on weekends. Other days she grabbed a bagel at some other place on campus (sorry, don’t know the name) or had a bowl of cereal. She had 200 swipes the first semester and went down to 150 the second semester. She had plenty of left overs both times. She really did not like the food in the TDR and felt it was ridiculous to waste a swipe on a slice of pizza which, unfortunately, is what she usually ate. She refuses to have pizza while she is home this summer! She is very grateful that Paneras opened in Tenleytown. She went there at least once a week. Dinner there is less than a swipe at TDR.</p>
<p>My daughter went for the 175 plan. Even though the cost per swipe is quite a bit (about $14?), the incremental cost of adding 25 more swipes is only about $5-$6 per swipe when you go from the 150 to the 175, so I didn’t argue much with her. I know she could make a cup of tea and have a bowl of cereal in the dorm for, literally, pennies a day, but she probably can’t buy breakfast at Einstein’s or Subway or whatever for much less than $5.</p>
<p>I also didn’t want to limit her too much because I remember the dining hall being such a central part of socialization at college–if she winds up with friends who want to swipe into TDR, I want her to be able to. But if she winds up with friends who are frugal enough to eat cereal in the dorm, I guess we’ll switch her to a lower plan. She’s also planning to eat at Hillel on Friday nights, so that’s one meal/week that we pay for separately anyhow…I really think she would be fine with 150.</p>
<p>She was reluctant about the idea of eating in the dorm–I think she did not realize there is literally a KITCHEN on each floor where she can wash dishes and whatnot. </p>
<p>I will say, I did not care much for the TDR food and could easily see finding myself at Subway instead unless I had a social reason to eat in the TDR. And can it really accommodate the entire student body? I think the undergrad population alone is the size of my own college undergrad population, and we had a dining hall for just the freshmen and then twelve different upper-class dining halls!! If TDR is super-crowded and noisy, I’m sure she will wind up avoiding it. Where else can the kids use their swipes?</p>
<p>Yes, my daughter, her sister and her boyfriend did a field trip into the city this weekend to see if they could figure out how to get from our house in NoVA to AU on the metro (they did!) and the big news of the day was that there is a Panera right by the shuttle stop in Tenleytown! In fact, she has mentioned it several times, so maybe I should just factor in a Panera fund and reduce her to the 150 meal plan </p>
<p>My D is a theatre major too and I hadn’t thought about missing meals because of rehearsals. What are the hours of TDR? </p>
<p>By the way, thank you all for your input. I do think the spending money issue is getting clearer…knowing, of course, that every kid is different and we will likely have to make adjustments as we go.</p>
<p>My D is going to try the 150 plan. She is more excited about Chipotle (also in Tenleytown), Panera and Starbucks. She plans to have breakfast in her room. I think the Eaglebucks may go quickly with all the options available.</p>
<p>New Jersey Mom, you said your daughter ate breakfast in TDR on weekends, but I was under the impression that TDR doesn’t open on Sat. & Sun. until 11am (for brunch). Do they actually serve breakfast on weekends during normal breakfast hours? My son could never wait until 11am to have breakfast.</p>
<p>As for the meal plan, my son is currently signed up for 200 blocks but we’re considering having him drop down to 150 or 175. At Eagle Summit, Chris Moody mentioned that if you run out of swipes then you can buy more in blocks of 25. I’ve been trying to find out how much the additional 25 swipes would cost, but I haven’t gotten an answer. Does anyone know? If the 25 swipes are cheap enough, then it would make it even more sensible to start with the minimum 150 swipes and not risk having extra swipes left over at the end.</p>
<p>Several months ago, a student at AU on the “Eagle Rants” page of the student newspaper’s website, wrote the following statement: “TDR won’t tell you this because they want you to spend much more money than you need to, but you can actually just forego buying a meal plan (after freshman year) and just use your credit card (or cash) to pay $6 each time you want to enter TDR.” At the time, I found it hard to believe, because the price of even the unlimited swipe plan comes to more than that per swipe, unless kids swipe in more than 3x/day. So, when I was at Eagle Summit, I asked the cashier at TDR and she told me that for students, it’s $14. She didn’t seem certain, and noted that the prices varied for faculty, staff, visitors, students, etc., so maybe that was not the correct number. </p>
<p>It would be nice to know the price of the 25-swipe block. If it’s more than it costs to just pay cash at the door–not a good deal. You’d hope it wouldn’t be, of course! BTW, the 75 block plan is $14/swipe.</p>
<p>I know this question was geared toward parents, but I was a Freshman at AU last year and thought I could offer some input. Washington, DC is generally an expensive place to live with a high cost of living (This site is a helpful tool to gauge the cost of living in DC to your current residence: [Washington</a>, DC City Reviews](<a href=“http://www.areavibes.com/washington-dc/reviews/]Washington”>http://www.areavibes.com/washington-dc/reviews/)). </p>
<p>I was generally a homebody. I did not go out to clubs like most people in my dorm, but I did go off-campus to work or to go out to eat at restaurants. Eaglebucks and Dining Dollars can run out fast, mainly because you can use them for many different things. After calculating what my parents sent me throughout the year and what I spent from paychecks, I found that I spent about $1400 over the course of the year, which is around $155 a month. If your student likes to go out dancing or goes to the movies often, it would be best to tack on another $30 or more per month for entertainment purposes.</p>
<p>Concerning the number of swipes in TDR, it depends on your student’s major and many other factors. I had the 150-block, and I eat 3 meals per day. By the last week of each semester, I ran out of meal swipes. However, if you are worried that will happen to your student, I guarantee one of their friends or someone on their floor will be left with at least 20 swipes or more and will be willing to get rid of them.</p>
<p>I just called Housing & Dining and I was told that if a student runs out of swipes, they can simply send an e-mail to Housing & Dining from their AU e-mail account, and they will then be “upgraded” to the next meal plan (i.e. 175 instead of 150), and the monetary difference between the two plans will be billed to the student’s account (the difference between the 150 & the 175 is $130.00, which is $5.20 per swipe, and then if you need still need 25 more, the difference would be $83.00, which is $3.32 per swipe - a real bargain!). </p>
<p>So if the info I got over the phone was correct, this makes the decision a no-brainer. Just start with 150 and then upgrade to 175 if you run out of swipes before the end of the semester. The person I spoke to (she sounded like a student) said that there were several students last semester who did this, and she seemed to know what she was talking about.</p>
<p>Thanks beforeandafter and LR4150. This is all useful information. I think we will try to come up with a weekly budget to help keep spending at a reasonable amount. I know it’s expensive in DC and I don’t want to limit my D’s opportunities, but I also don’t want to pay for daily Starbucks (something I certainly cannot afford). Maybe this will be a good life lesson.</p>
<p>beforeandafter, first of all, I think the student’s first-hand information is incredibly helpful, so thanks for your input and don’t be shy about chiming in again.</p>
<p>$1400 is not that bad…did that include your books? </p>
<p>If not, what was included in that total–toiletries, office supplies, metro fare, groceries, laundry? Or just meals outside the dining hall and some entertainment?</p>
<p>I echo deskpotato…great to have your input beforeandafter! </p>
<p>In addition to the other questions from deskpotato, I am wondering if the $1400 included any additional money you or your parents may have added to your Eagle Bucks or Dining Dollars accounts or was that just the “cash” you spent outside of those accounts?</p>
<p>Looking more and more like the best idea is to start with the minimum meal swipes and then add to it, if necessary. Really appreciate all the help everyone!</p>
<p>Speaking as the parent of an AU rising senior, DC is an expensive city to go to college in…it costs a lot of $$$$ for the students to take advantage of all the things that were part of their decision to go to AU.</p>
<p>The Metro is not cheap, but my son did not go to school in DC to stay on campus all the time…and metro fares add up. Even when students do things for free (concerts at the Kennedy Center), it costs money to get there and back, and often once the kids have gone to the 6pm concert, they want to go out and try the restaurants, go to a club, whatever.</p>
<p>Many museums are free, or have student rates, but again, it costs money to get there…</p>
<p>working internships is essential…and most do not reimburse transportation. Work clothes, and maintaining work clothes, can add up. Social activities associated with work can add up…the drink after work on Friday, the once a week or so lunch with co-workers.</p>
<p>For those with sons who want to date, it can get expensive quickly…even inexpensive dates add up (my sons generally pay in the beginning, and things move more 50/50 more into the relationship…and are very interested in fun things to do that are free)</p>
<p>joining clubs on campus, and club activities… not free…</p>
<p>My son tends toward the frugal side, and his general spending after meal plan/eagle bucks has been $200-400/month.</p>
<p>Hi boysx3, based on your comments, I’m glad that my D is also on the frugal side and has been able to stick to the $200/month amount. She’s working two jobs this summer so that she can cover some of her expenses.</p>
<p>LOL about dating. She’s only been on two dates and I believe the boy paid… I understand he was pretty well off. Some of these kids are insanely rich. One international kid would literally throw his change on the ground because he didn’t like coins!</p>
<p>Question: Do these figures include cell phone service?</p>
<p>Second question: What phone service do students have/recommend? We’re thinking of spinning our daughter off our Verizon family plan to get better service. It costs us about $15/month to have her on the plan with unlimited text, unlimited Verizon-to-Verizon calls, unlimited calls to our land line, but no data. I’m sure we can’t get that on a stand-alone plan.</p>
Thanks for your help!</p>
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