<p>"Recently the University decided to allow first year students to select from the 20 or 14 meals per week options, as well as from the 235 and 190 meal plan options now available to you as a first year student for fall 2006.</p>
<p>Financial aid students should note that 4315 is the board allowance included in your award. This allowance is intended to cover the 20 meals per week plu 50 points plan, although you can choose from any of the options listed below. Note that your aid will not be adjusted based on the meal plan you select. </p>
<p>Most o you have already returned the selection form included in the matriculation packet for one of the Block plans. The Block plans offer flexibility by allowing unused meals to be carried over to subsequent weeks, but if you plan on taking 3 meals per day in the dining hall, you may find the 20 meal plan more practical."</p>
<p>Does anyone know if this means they'll keep late-meal? It seems like the block plans wouldn't work with late-meal too well, but now that they're reinstituting meals/week, does this mean they're keeping late-meal? If so, I think I'll go with the 20 meal/week plan. If no late-meal, I think the block's better...</p>
<p>What do you all think?</p>
<p>I think they're going to keep late meal. They are getting rid of double-swiping, which is using two meals in one late meal. On the other hand they're increasing the dollar-equivalent of each meal point, but not as much as 2 meals would have been.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how late-mealing would work if you did a block meal plan? (that is, if it's even possible at all)</p>
<p>I'm still a bit confused on how late meals and Frist center purchases work into your meal plan.. How is it different in a block plan and a per-week plan? Can anyone make a quick explanation?</p>
<p>what are the "points"?
also what do you mean by late meal? does the 20meal plan allow late meal?</p>
<p>It took me half a semester to figure all this out ...</p>
<p>"Points" means money on your dining plan account. One point is one dollar, so think of it as "one dollar in points." You can use points at any time in Frist, Cafe Viv, or any other cafe on campus. It's the most flexible form of funds in a dining plan. You can add points to your account, and some meal plans come with a certain number of points. Points can also be used to make up shortfalls when you use late meal.</p>
<p>Late meal refers to either a meal taken in Frist after the dining halls are closed, or to the "meal" that you use when you eat said meal. The "meal" (in quotation marks) in the previous sentence refers to one of the 20 "meals" you get in the 20 meal plan. So think of it as a unit. You use up one "meal" in your meal plan every time you swipe your card to get into a dining hall at regular meal times, but you also use them for late meal in Frist. When a regular "meal" unit is used for late meal, it is designated a "late meal," so to "use two late meals" means to use two of your "meal" units in a late meal. Now, the dining halls are buffet-style, while in Frist all the food has a dollar value, so each "meal" (or "late meal") is worth a certain amount of money in Frist. The amound each "meal" is worth changes depending on the meal (as in the time of day). For the past few years, breakfast has been $3, lunch $3.75, and dinner $4.75. You could also "double swipe" at late meal, which means to use two "meal" units. So for dinner, that gives you $9.50 to spend. What they're proposing for next year is to increase the amount each "meal" is worth, but getting rid of your double swipe option, so the maximum you can use for each meal is reduced.</p>
<p>Confused yet? :)</p>
<p>very helpful, tyvm armavirumque!</p>
<p>i wish princeton had given us an overview like that in the revised meal plan letter...</p>
<p>sorry, but i have no idea what you are talking about. can someone explain the pros and cons. i currently am signed up for 235 meals - how many meals per week is that? i think maybe the 20 meal plan might be good if there is flexibility (ie. eating a meal after the dining hall closes). However, please explain as I still don't understand the explanations. definitely, princeton should have sent home a memo that explains what each of the options is. but to just say, here are 7 options - pick one; i remain clueless. any help is appreciated.</p>
<p>There are twelve weeks of class per semester, plus about 4 weeks of reading period/exams, so I'm guessing sixteen weeks of meals, give or take a few?</p>
<p>You'll be able to change your meal plan after the semester starts, so you could go a few weeks on your current plan and figure things out. It's so much easier to understand when you're on campus.</p>
<p>Does anybody still have the envelope that came with the letter? I lost it and I don't know where to send the form.</p>
<p>Send it to:
Phyllis Rodill
Princeton University
Undergraduate Housing-MacMillan Building
Princeton, NJ 08544</p>
<p>Thanks! All of my things have been vanishing lately, somehow.</p>
<p>Are you guys changing your meal plans to the point system? Is anyone going for the 14 meals/week + 230 points deal? I think I prefer eating at Frist, etc. more than the residential dining halls, but I'm not sure whether the 14 meal/230 points plan or the 20 meal/50 point plan is more convenient or worth it.</p>
<p>i did 14 meals/week + 230 points cause i was like...honestly.....i'm not going to go to the dining hall for breakfast or anything</p>
<p>did you all get a separate mailing about all the new meal plan options? I only got the original one on the housing form with the two choices...</p>
<p>Rising sophomore here - personally I was going to do the block meal plan, but after doing the math I realized that it didn't seem to be worth it. The 235 meal plan costs the same as the 20/week plan, but 235 meals a semester divided by ~16 weeks gives only ~15 meals per week! I'd rather have the 20/week - even if I lose some because they don't roll over, I get ~320 meals a semester!</p>
<p>Anyone else decide on 14 meals/week+230 points plan in lieu of the 20 meals/week+50 points plan? (Or trying to decide)</p>
<p>I did the 20/week + 50 points plan because I figured I'd get more meals than the block plan, like cball05. they're the same price, too! You just get more food :)</p>
<p>I figured that since I stay up really really late at night and usually get midnight munchies, that I'd better get the 20 meal + 50 pt -- I expect to miss breakfast, but at least I can use the extra Latemeal at Frist and put some of it aside to grab in the morning.</p>