<p>Hi, I'm a transfer looking at the meal plan choices and was just wondering if any current or past W&M students could tell me which meal plan is the most useful/practical? Which do you prefer: block meals or one of the gold plans? How often do you use the predetermined meals versus the flex points? etc.... Thanks!</p>
<p>It depends on the individual. Some people use Gold 19 still, I use Gold 14 because I don’t eat breakfast.</p>
<p>If you live off campus, a block plan is probably better. I eat every lunch and every dinner on campus, so there’s no reason for me not to get the Gold 14.</p>
<p>depends on what you want.</p>
<p>If you want lunch and dinner everyday, you want the 14.
If you want breakfast before class, you want the 19.
If you are going to eat less than lunch/dinner 7 times a week on campus, you probably want one of the block plans.</p>
<p>I had a “gold” plan for my first 2 years (unlimited first semester, b/c I thought I might randomly go grab a drink or something… yea that was a waste). Then I lived in Ludwell (campus apartments) the last 2 years. I went to block plans after moving out there for Junior year because some of the organizations I was involved in would have meals together once a week. Senior year, I dropped the meal plan, and just hung out or brought my own food for sharing meals. (You can do this at the Marketplace… at the other places, you won’t be able to get in without swiping your card)</p>
<p>To eat on campus at a dining hall, you will use a meal. The marketplace is like a food court kinda deal, where you get like… burger/fries/drink/dessert, or sandwich/chips/drink/dessert as 1 meal. The other two dining halls are all you can eat for one meal.</p>
<p>The flex points can be used in place of either type of meal, in dollar value instead of “meal” value. It costs something like 10 flex dollars to get an “all you can eat” meal. Flex points can be used at the Sex Change (er… Student’s Exchange, which is basically a convenience store in the bottom of the UC (but only on edible products… you can’t buy things like tissues with flex points)). And there are a couple other food places on campus where you can use flex points (but not meals)… honestly I didn’t think they were good so I didn’t go there. Oh… the Quiznos in the bottom of the UC (Sadler Center) takes Flex Dollars, but no meals.</p>
<p>The best part of flex dollars is that you can order Dominoes with them… 6 medium pizzas for $30 = excellent for gatherings. Often at the end of the year people will raid the Sex Change to use up the last of their flex dollars.</p>
<p>Some block plans are actually more expensive than paying door prices, especially if you use the meals for breakfast or lunch. Calculate it out before you buy. Block 60 was the worst deal; for the last two years I remember calculating it out and you’d have to buy almost exculsively dinners to break even on it. ($9.50 pre-tax per meal was about the cutoff. Breakfast cost about $6.50 or $7.00+tax at the door.) Ridiculous Aramark…</p>
<p>Just in case you didn’t know, you can select a meal plan and still change to another meal plan 3 weeks into the semester. I’d recommend you start off with a Gold 14 plan and then gauge how often you use your meal plan from there.</p>
<p>thanks for all the advice guys!</p>
<p>Couple of questions:</p>
<p>For freshmen undergrad, what meal plan would be the most advisable? I really have no idea how often I will eat, but the gold 19 seems like way too much with 19 all you can eat meals a week.</p>
<p>Also, do flex points expire/roll-over to next year?</p>
<p>Flex points roll over to the next semester but not the next year.</p>
<p>I had unlimited my freshman year and ate at least 30 meals a week. Breakfast, elevensies, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner, second dinner, and randomly getting root beer floats throughout the day. It was not good for my health.</p>
<p>Gold 19 is good if you want to eat all your meals in the dining hall. It comes out to breakfast, lunch, and dinner every weekday and brunch and dinner on weekends. If you plan to eat out frequently or eat breakfast in your room gold 14 is probably better.</p>
<p>if you’re going to eat breakfast, get the 19</p>
<p>if you’re going to get up 20 minutes before class and go, then the 14 will suffice.</p>
<p>flex dollars carry over fall to spring, but not spring to fall.</p>
<p>If you use a meal at the Marketplace, you get main course / chips / drink / some type of dessert. The UC (Sadler Center) and the Caf are all you can eat though.</p>