<p>Anyone with any info on this. I want to go with the Bear Traditional and see how it is, and if I don't I can easily upgrade however downgrading is a problem and I have only one shot at doing it if I take the Golden Bear. Although a 3 meals a day plan seems pretty normal to me.</p>
<p>LOL.</p>
<p>Dude, I’m on the ten meal plan and don’t even use them all. The unlimited meal plan is just a complete waste of money. I have one friend who is on it, and that is because he eats 2 or 3 (sometimes 4) dinners every night in addition to lunch.</p>
<p>14? Only if you never use your BRBs/actually eat breakfast in the dining hours.</p>
<p>go with traditional, 14 is a good amount.</p>
<p>Several reasons why you don’t need the unlimited meal plan:</p>
<p>(1) You won’t get up early enough to each breakfast on a regular basis
(2) If you have classes scheduled in the hours around lunchtime, you will probably want to stay on campus rather than walking all the way back to a dining hall.
(3) No matter how good Cornell’s dining halls allegedly are, you will get sick of them eventually.</p>
<p>14 meals is a safe option, although depending on how much you eat you could even go with 10 meals, which gives you an additional $100BRBs.</p>
<p>Do 14 your first semester. Then decide if you want to switch to 10 for the second one. You will eat in cafes on campus between classes, and the all-you-can eat swipes are not good at the cafes. You will use BRBs there - Big Red Bucks. In the morning, in a rush, you may grab a drink and a granola bar and rush to class. You are likely to keep a small refrigerator in your dorm room. You are highly unlikely to make good use of the unlimited plan. You can change your mind in the first two weeks in either direction. It will become more clear once you see your class schedule and the location of the classes/dining halls.</p>
<p>Unless you plan to eat 4+ meals a day, the unlimited plan is usually a waste. Dining halls are open for 3 meals a day M-F, and 2 on weekends (brunch and dinner).</p>
<p>That said, if you’re on the 14 meal plan, and want your 7 other meals a week, the dining plans come with BRBs (like dining debit dollars) - which you can use to buy meals and snacks at a la carte locations around campus, of which there are a lot. Especially at lunch, if you’re going to stay on Central Campus and not go over to North or West, the majority of food locations there are a la carte and only accept BRBs. </p>
<p>I had 14 my first year, generally had 3 meals per day, and still had meals leftover - in truth, I probably would’ve been fine with 10. I’d encourage you to start with a lower number, and then if you want more you can upgrade at any time (but after a while, you cannot downgrade).</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I got terrible advice from somewhere else and almost went with unlimited.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, you can always pay for meals with BRB’s and I don’t think there is much savings (if at all) in using meals swipes versus BRB’s. Might be a worthwhile exercise to figure out how much they charge per meal with the meal plan and compare that to the price of meals with BRB’s.</p>