Which meal plan is best?

<p>Plans and terms aren’t clear. Please help me and future LSU Tigers by answering here.
The last question is the most important.
The Tiger Max plan says you get 4 meals each weekend at specific places. The other plans for students living on campus talk about Meal Transfers that can be used outside the dining halls and about Paw Points for retail locations all around campus.
Is a Meal Transfer a debit of one meal from the number of meals you bought on your card for use outside the dining halls at a restaurant such as Panda Express?
If you eat at Panda Express on a Wednesday for lunch, do you pay in cash/credit, Paw Points, or either one?
Are Paw Points the equivalent of cash, such that if you want to buy just a coffee from Einstein Brothers, and it costs $2.25, they deduct $2.25 from your card?
If Paw Points are the equivalent of cash, at what point does a restaurant outside a dining hall say your food is a meal qualifying for a Meal Transfer? For example, at Einstein Brothers, people typically get a bagel and a drink. Would that be Paws Points and not a Meal Transfer? If you make it a typical meal by adding a bag of chips, does that make it a Meal Transfer and not Paw Points? And can you say “use my Paw Points and not a Meal Transfer” in that case?
If you get a meal plan and run out of meals before the end of the semester, do you have to pay cash/credit and/or Paw Points for the rest of the semester?
Which plan is best/cheapest/most common for a typical freshman living in a dorm? I suspect a typical freshman living in a dorm misses breakfast two weekdays each week and eats no breakfast Saturday or Sunday. They buy non-meal snacks two weekdays each week and two times each weekend. They want a late-night meal once every other weekend.</p>

<p>The only LSU worker so far to answer an e-mail from me answered. Here you go:</p>

<p>Meal Transfers are for use for late-night, weekend or Grab and Geaux dining at participating on-campus locations.</p>

<p>On-campus locations other than dining halls won’t take meal transfers on weekdays, basically. Instead, you would have to use cash/credit or Paw Points.</p>

<p>Paw Points are the equivalent of cash, such that if you want to buy just a coffee from Einstein Brothers, and it costs $2.25, they deduct $2.25 from your card.</p>

<p>In a restaurant outside a dining hall on a weekend, basically, a meal transfer is only for noted combo meals and not other stuff, such as just a coffee and bagel at Einstein Brothers.</p>

<p>Run out of meals on your card before the end of the semester and you must use Paw Points or cash/credit for the rest of the semester.</p>

<p>Tips on how to choose a meal plan:
Three meals a day seven days a week over 15 weeks is 315 meals.
But students skip some meals and eat elsewhere for others. Plus they want snacks and extra meals.
The real question is how many meals in a normal week would she eat vs. getting a meal outside a dining hall with Paw Points.
Note 300-400 students eat breakfast, 1000 eat lunch, and 1000 eat dinner.
You have 14 days into each semester to change your plan – 14 days to decide if it’s right for you.</p>

<p>No such thing as 7 days a week with meals there. My brother goes to LSU-he transfered after freshman year in our state. The biggest problem he has there is meal plans and food. Out of state and the dining hall close on weekends VERY early on Fridays. It’s just nuts for such a big school. They eat lots of fast food. Many of his other OOS friends just complain constantly about the food situation there.</p>

<p>Meal Transfers are available to cover weekend, late-night and grab 'n geaux service.
On weekends, the following are available: Smoothie King, Subway, Einstein Bros. Bagels, McDonald’s, Bayou Bistreaux, CC’s Coffee House, Chick-fil-A, Jamba Juice, Panda Express, Papa John’s, Quiznos, Salsarita’s, and a number of restaurants off campus.</p>

<p>Oops! Restaurants off campus don’t take meal transfers, only Paw Points.</p>

<p>Looking at the fact that none of the meals roll over, and paw points only roll from fall to spring. Can you just use Tiger Cash for all your meals? Seems better than getting the commuter plan and skipping a few meals, thus making the cost per meal rise.</p>

<p>You can use Tiger Cash for all your meals. Tiger Cash is basically a debit card good at most every place on campus that requires money.
If you don’t buy the Tiger Commuter meal plan, but eat like the plan allows (5 meals per week), eating just lunch because you are a commuter, you will pay about $773 over a semester. That is more than buying the plan, which costs $720 and gives you an extra $100 in Paw Points (money good for food on and off campus seven days a week).</p>