Texas A&M On Campus Meal Plan

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
1

I am going to be a freshman living on campus at Texas A&M this fall. Does anyone have any suggestions about meal plans? I am trying to make the most of my money by not eating off campus much. Does anyone have experience doing this? What meal plan did you buy? Which plan is the best deal?

Gig’em and thanks,
AggieChemist

2

I just looked at the new ones for next year. I would do the smallest plan which is 90 meals and add the dining dollars. My son thought dining dollars where a better value than meal swipes. Meal swipes for the 90 meal plan are about $11 a swipe. He could use dining dollars and eat for cheaper. If you really think you are going to eat on campus I still wouldn’t go above the 120 plan. You will probably eat off campus more than you think or plan for.

3

Agree with kldat1, smallest plan is always the best. You can add more if you need it near the end of the semester, but normally everyone is trying to give away their extra meals. You could only rollover extra plan amounts up to a certain limit & only if you purchased another plan. You can add to plans but can never get your money back. Wait a full month before you decide to up your plan - the most anyone ever eats at a dining hall is the first two weeks of school, then you’ll find your routine. You can cook/ make meals in your dorm room, most people do that since the idea of getting up for breakfast becomes a chore.

4

For me I chose the largest meal plan. I ate two meals a day almost everyday on campus and ended up with ~11 meals left.

5

It is sounding like the best way to save money is to cook on your own. Am I correct? How can this be done in a dorm?

6

Some dorms (like The Commons) have community kitchens.

7

My son just finished his first year at TAMU and lived in Lechner hall. I remember reading a post AGmomx2 posted last year saying “resist the feeling that your child will starve without a major meal plan”. This is SOOOO true. We bought my son the plan that is now called Block 90. This gave my son 90 meals in the dining room and then $400 to use anywhere on campus. He decided to buy milk and cereal and eat that in his room along with some snacks and even bread and peanut butter. He normally would eat out once a day if he went to the dining room and may twice if he used dining dollars. For the second semester, we bought 90 meals but much fewer dining dollars as he had some that transferred. He found it very difficult to use his meals and even gave away several to friends. Keep in mind, you can always use cash/credit at any on campus restaurant and dining hall. If you buy more meals than you need, then you loose them at the end of the year. In my opinion, the plans are a waste of money and come with a lot of risk that you may not be able to finish them. This next year, we are giving my son a credit card and only buying what he eats. There is little savings with the plans, but I realize they are required for freshman.

8

When I visited A&M last year a parent told us to choose the cheapest meal plan because her son/daughter never used all the meals.

9

As far as dining dollars go you can always buy more. Dining dollars do rollover from fall to spring but not spring to the following fall. So while you can always find stuff to buy with them it’s better not to buy more than you need. We learned this the hard way when our son had to withdraw early in the spring semester due to illness and he had $400 that it didn’t occur to us to try and spend while we were moving him out. After that S went to buying them as needed during the semester.

10

Get the smallest meal plan possible. Trust me. But if you want to see my extensive reasoning…

  1. Meals are overpriced. On the smallest meal plan, meals are $9.82 a piece. Even on the largest, "best value" meal plan, meals are still $7.52 a piece. Most meals that you can buy on campus, aside from the buffets, cost less than or around $7.52. Thus, purchasing a larger meal plan is just obligating yourself to overpay for the same exact meal that you could have paid real money or dining dollars for more often.
  2. The buffets, Sbisa Dining Hall and Duncan Dining Hall, are the only meals that make "economical sense" to purchase with meal plan meals because they charge a lot if you're paying with money or dining dollars. But 90 meals will be more than enough to cover your dining hall adventures for a semester because you will get tired of Sbisa and will not want to eat there more than 90 times.
  3. You can always upsize your meal plan later but you can't downsize it. If you find that you do fall in love with Sbisa or you blow though your dining dollars and want to add more because they are slightly cheaper than using money (you can add on 100 dining dollars for $95), there was no harm done by starting off with the smaller meal plan.
  4. You can mooch off your friends. A lot of my freshmen friends bought meal plans that were way too big for them and were giving meals and dining dollars away at the end of the semester because they couldn't use them all.
  5. You may want to eat out with friends, especially after a long night of studying when all of the restaurants on campus have already closed. Unless we're talking about cooking in your dorm, meals on campus (Chick-Fil-A, Papa John's, and such) aren't inherently cheaper than off campus restaurants so free yourself to eat where you want. Buying a larger meal plan is a commitment to the handful of on-campus restaurants.

I bought the smallest plan both semesters. I spent my meals at Sbisa and my dining dollars on entrees and sides (never bought drinks to save money). this combined, with eating out pretty regularly, lasted me until the end of the semester.

11

Another item to mention, since you do obtain friends outside of your dorm - those people do not have meal plans. Eating is a social activity as well, you will need some funds NOT allocated to on-campus eating unless you plan to always skip out on off campus invites. The theory that on campus eating is more convenient, is also not always true - your meal cards are not valid on all of the on campus venues and the border of the campus is filled with eating establishments that actually might be closer/quicker than going to a dining hall.

We gave our kids credit cards to use for eating with cash back benefits - you can then figure out how much they spend, and create a realistic budget since it is all documented. Now with daily online access, credit cards are not the same high risk as they use to be - out of control spending can be curbed quickly- one day of ‘lesson learned’ is now the risk vs. one month in the old days. It also teaches responsible use of credit.