<p>Son lives in Birnkratz. He had cardinal plan last semester. He wants Trojan Plan? so he can eat at other places. He said EVK or EBK was demoted to B rating and the food is boring. Any input appreciated. He also ran out of dining dollars.</p>
<p>From my experiences and my own, Trojan Meal Plan is fine if your son eats a lot. The dining dollars allow for more flexibility. EVK food can get a little boring, but it is a lot better than it has been in the past. It did get a B this year- I don't know why. I know that I personally don't eat enough to make Trojan a good idea.</p>
<p>tell him to go to Parkside...his meals will work there. yes, it's a bit of a trip from Birnkrant, but worth it. i remember when in the middle of last year they just started rolling over meals and taking meals from both Cardinal and Gold meal plans at Parkside and EVK, respectively. my floormates in Marks Tower last year would almost always walk or skate/bike to Parkside for dinner instead of going to EVK, time allowing.</p>
<p>My s said the same thing. He lives in New but walks to Parkside to eat because they don't like EVK. He's actually lost weight because he doesn't eat much. What happened to the freshman 15?! We'll probably switch plans to the Trojan Meal Plan also.</p>
<p>My D, who is somewhat melodramatic, says that the food in EVK is "disgusting." I wasn't quite sure if that was correct so I'm interested to see that others are also unsatisfied. My D had many, many left over meals at the end of fall semester. She has suggested a change to the Trojan Plan so she can avoid going there but that seems absurdly expensive, particularly since she doesn't really eat that much and never more than two real meals per day. I did the math and the Trojan plan is $2934 per semester which works out to $26 per day if you figure there are 113 days in the spring semester (I subtracted Spring break). It seems unfortunate that freshmen cannot simply opt out of the meal plan and pay as they go.</p>
<p>The main problem with dining halls is that they get old after a while. By the time my freshman year was over, I was sick of both Parkside and EVK. I'm a junior now and a couple of times per semester my friends and I drop by EVK and Parkside for dinner and we love it. If you have it every day, it's fairly easy to see why people can get sick of it or think it's disgusting. </p>
<p>I did have Trojan Plan freshman year (2 years ago it was $2700!) and even then it was a ridiculous amount of money to have for food. By the end of each semester, I found myself stocking up on cases of powerade, powerbars, and buying food for friends. But it was very nice being able to eat anywhere I wanted on campus without having to worry about running out of dining dollars or meals (meals did not roll over back then, only 10 per week on cardinal plan).</p>
<p>In many ways you are better off giving straight cash than using that money to purchase a Trojan plan. The plan only gives you dining dollars, which carry some peculiar restrictions and, as some other posters have mentioned, can leave you with a glut of dining money at the end of the semester. I've had classmates who literally could not spend the money fast enough, and would treat friends to meals every day and stock up on $2 bottles of drinks. Talk about a waste of money.</p>
<p>Setting aside just some extra cash would let you purchase food anywhere on campus anytime, and when the overpriced USC food gets old, you can go to supermarkets or restaurants nearby. There is absolutely no advantage of Dining Dollars over Discretionary funds or plain cash.</p>
<p>I pretty much lived off of Cafe 84, Upstairs, and Parkside with my plan last semester. EVK is not very healthy, nor is the food very appetizing. On the other hand, though, cooks at IRC are immune to salt or something because everything there is reallllllllly bland, but healthier. Both places have decent salad bars. Fruit is so-so. One of my suitemates had trojan, so we went to Upstairs A LOT all through November until end of semester. Several of my other suitemates are now planning on switching over to Trojan, too, so there will be plenty of people to treat me to meals there without me having to switch myself :)</p>
<p>However, Upstairs (esp. for dinner with the limited menu) was getting old too! It's hard when you have to eat the same stuff day in and day out, esp. if you don't have a kitchen/sufficient refrigerator space. Weekends are especially hard since like nothing is open. I wish Cafe 84 stayed open longer. I miss Upstairs sometimes when I'm at home, but everything at school got so boring to eat all the time!</p>
<p>I had Cardinal and spent all but one dining dollar (didn't go over!) and had approx. 104 meals left unused. It's a waste of money, for sure, but is still less than Trojan. Parkside and EVK just need to change it up a bit. Also, I heard EVK's B is currently an A, but they haven't changed the sign yet. I think I read that on CC somewhere...</p>
<p>I stick with Cardinal Meal Plan, and then just pay any extra with discresh. While I do waste some meals, at least I waste less money.</p>
<p>I hate EVK food, too. It is totally disgusting. It would be what I imagine prison food be like. Parkside is better. But the food there is nearly identical every single day.</p>