<p>I called and if you do not decide your meal plan by August 1st they will choose the Good Bull plan for you.</p>
<p>My son is starting this fall and we are having a hard time deciding which plan to purchase. He plans to eat his breakfast in the room and only eat out for lunch and/or dinner. He is an average eater and plans to have snacks in his room. We are thinking about the Non-Reg plan with 90 meals and adding 400 dining dollars. Are there enough places on campus to eat with the dining dollars? I suspect he will venture off campus occasionally and won't need on campus meals every day.</p>
<p>Anyone with someone at TAMU in 2013 that can shed more light on what meal plans are best for on campus students. I've read the past threads, but the meal plans have once again changed for 2014. </p>
<p>We have debated the same thing. There are approximately 330 meals per semester (16 weeks * 7 days * 3). The biggest plan only covers 200 of the 330 meals so he will need to make up the remaining 100+ meals by having some breakfast in his room, eating off campus a couple of times a week, catch some free meals, come home a couple of times and eat out when we visit. I think we will do the 200 meal/$300 plan the first semester and see how it goes. Even that plan only covers about 12 meals per week. </p>
<p>I expect the dining plan to decrease next semester after he gets a good feel on how and where he eats. Also since we can add dining dollars at any time and they rollover to next semester it is an option for when he tires of the dining hall food.</p>
<p>This is really hard because the plans change every year! Just when you get your kids eating habits figured out, the plans change completely. Honestly, most families find out the biggest meal plans don’t get used nearly as much as the parents think they will. I would choose a smaller meal plan and add dining dollars as necessary along the way. I haven’t analyzed the new set of plans for this year( my kid moved off campus), but in the past this has almost always been how things go. Every kid is different so YMMV. Some kids tend to go to places and want to order things that “meals” don’t cover so they need more dining dollars. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you are allowed to upgrade any time if you run out of meals and also that you can change your plan up or down in the first 4 weeks of school. This could be an advantage if you want to start out conservatively with your selection.</p>
<p>The non-reg plan is fine. If it’s not enough you can always add more to it later but if you get a big plan and don’t use it all you just end up loosing all the meals you didn’t use. </p>