To current/previous students and parents. What are your recommendations and experience with the meal plans? I don’t want my kid worrying about points, but I don’t want to worry about having to use up points.
We got my son the silver plan. He just barely had enough first semester and will probably be about the same this. The only thing I will add is that they go out to eat every weekend, so I am positive he would have run out. But then again, they ate at Ibby’s a few times and that uses more points. Lots of choices!
My d is a freshman. D and her friends all bought the smallest meal plan and all of them are going to eat a good deal of points at the end of the year. Yes, they are girls and quite possibly do not eat as much as some of the boys but I would strongly advise buying the smallest meal plan. My understanding is that if your child were to run out early you can always add via bear bucks at no increased cost
For freshmen, Silver is the mandatory plan. My advice would be to use Bear Bucks if your student runs short since they are based on a monetary value. Meal points do not correspond to an actual monetary value and can get expensive.
The rule of thumb is to put about 200-250 dollars on Bear Bucks to start out. They do not expire until the student graduates from WashU, unlike meal points which expire at the end of second semester.
If you are short of meal points, students will sell them at a discount.