I would definitely not make the characterization just because of the choice of dining options, but MIT students as a whole are opinionated, independent, and incredibly stubborn. The dining and housing options available are available as a direct result of student stubbornness in response to administrative decisions, both in aggregate and because of the dedicated actions of a number of student representatives.</p>
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Yup. Anna’s has breakfast burritos, Dunkin Donuts has breakfast sandwiches, coffee, and donuts, and LaVerde’s has breakfast sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal, and pastries. There are more options, of course, but those are just the ones in the student center on the first floor.</p>
<p>MIT’s meal plan is really pretty much like the real world – the student/parents put money into an account that’s linked to the student’s ID, and the student pays for individual meals as if with a debit card. It can get expensive, but no more expensive than meals will be post-MIT. It also avoids wasting money on meals not eaten – the Harvard undergrad who works with me in the lab often has to miss dinner, because he has class during the time his dining hall is open, and he says it’s about $10-15 in wasted money (plus whatever he has to pay to eat something) each time he misses dinner. That is quite a bit more than most students at MIT pay for dinner each night.</p>
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The dormitory (residential) dining halls are only open for dinner. Other places around campus are open at various times – many are commercial chain restaurants, and those are open during the times that their national chains are open.</p>
<p>Fogfog:
I’m the parent of a sophomore, and also of a senior at the University of Florida; UF was our reference when our son started at MIT last year. At UF, there are all of the fast-food options at MIT and more, but also a variety of dining halls offering up to 21 meal a week; these halls are amazingly unique with ethnic foods, very healthy options, and incredible variety. We were quite disappointed with MIT’s food situation, but talking about this creates lots of controversy with students, who fiercely defend the status quo - mainly because they don’t want a required food plan forced on them (many have said that if there was a multiple-meal optional plan with more than five dinners a week available, they would consider it). This year, our son lives in a fraternity (with a chef) and we are happier about it.</p>
<p>I definitely disagree with this. It’s not just the dining option choice; it’s the whole dogma of choice-in-general here, in dining, in housing, in activities, in advising. One example that I found particularly telling happened when I was trying to figure out which school to go to after I’d been accepted. I went to a bunch of those visit-the-campus-and-see-if-you-like-it things, and at all of them, we were given a sheet of paper that told us what the schedule was for the day. It was all administration-run activities that segregated you from the current students, for the most part, and were designed to give you a well-structured picture of the university. At MIT, however, I was given a 100+ page booklet with thousands of events, most of them student-organized and student-run, that I could go to over CPW. Not only does MIT trust its prefrosh to figure out whether they like MIT or not on their own, they also trust their students to present a good and accurate picture of MIT to the incoming students, which is definitely more than can be said for the other schools I visited. </p>
<p>That’s just one example, but it illustrates an important aspect of MIT: we <em>are</em> independent. Or at least we’re given the freedom to be, and from what I’ve seen people take advantage of it.</p>
<p>I agree with most of what has been said previously. One thing that I thought I should point out is that the cafes and student center places are, at least for me, much cheaper than dining halls. I’ve never been to a dining hall, but apparently a dinner there costs $8-$9? I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $6 on a meal, and usually spend more like $3-$4. </p>
<p>In any case, the only people I’ve personally talked to here who are really unhappy with their dining arrangements live in mandatory meal plan dorms.</p>
<p>Having looked at several excellent schools with great meal options I hope MIT will find a healthy solution that’s also financially feasible. It seems the discontent regarding required dorm dining participation is high, and the paid down membership for 50% off isn’t worth it unless you eat all dinners in dining (which is still a la carte). Yet, while learning to cook is a happy outcome for some, the freedom to choose and opt into a better meal plan would be a nice addition. Many many schools have found a way to make this work. </p>
<p>Is the closest good supermarket the one on Sidney next to Le Meridien? We were there last week.</p>
<p>Many many schools also force their freshmen into some form of a dining plan and restrict their students’ ability to cook for themselves to finance their larger, more encompassing and therefore more expensive dining plan. Dining is what it is at MIT, and learning to deal with it is a whole part of the experience. Students here like it; if you can’t handle not having a AYCE buffet style meal plan, I suggest you reconsider what you think you need or perhaps reconsider what MIT has to offer.</p>
<p>And yes, the closest market is Shaws next to Le Meridien. There is a trader joe’s on mem drive as well, about 10 minutes farther, but it is trader joe’s hence it is totally worth the extra walk!</p>
<p>I do have to point out here that UF has a student base that is 5x the size of MIT’s (I am including grad/professional students here, since they eat too). A school with more students is going to be able to support more dining halls. If MIT had the same number of dining halls as UF, the average number of people eating at each would be extremely low.</p>
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<p>Fogfog, you didn’t offend me, I just feel strongly about this issue - and I found, when I was a student rep on the Campus Dining Advisory Board, that many administrative pushes for dining changes that students didn’t want (and believe me, I asked for feedback), were parent-instigated, and usually reflected a lack of understanding as to how students use the current system and what they like about it. I worry, when parents start knocking the dining system, that those are going to be the parents who push for changes that students then have to spend a whole bunch of time and effort fighting against.</p>
<p>The “closest good supermarket” depends somewhat on where you live. The MIT campus covers a lot of space. The closest good supermarket for a Random Hall resident is not the same place as the closest good supermarket for a Next House resident, for instance. Shaw’s/Star, Whole Foods, Harvest Co-op, and Trader Joe’s are all within easy walking distance of campus, as are a few smaller and specialty (e.g. East Asian, Indian) markets.</p>
<p>There’s also the LaVerde’s, which is actually ON campus and centrally located, but not everyone would consider that a “good” supermarket.</p>
<p>A misconception that I would like to correct - students arranging their own food does not mean that they are eating unhealthily. This misconception came up all the time on the Campus Dining Advisory Board, where it seemed like they assumed that “cooking” meant “ramen and easy mac”, and it is so out of touch with what I actually witnessed as a student.</p>
<p>The Harvest Co-op rocks! And by rocks, I mean it’s super fun. I like stores that let me buy things in bulk out of bins and such.</p>
<p>I’d still really, really like someone to explain to me exactly <em>why</em> an all-you-can-eat option is 1. healthy or 2. cost-effective and why we should have it at MIT…unfortunately the vast majority of proposed changes to our dining system seem to be due to parents saying ‘but this wasn’t how it was back at <em>my</em> college, so clearly my kid will starve!’. Funny how no one really wants to change our housing system, even though it’s arguably significantly stranger - at least our dining system mirrors the Real World.</p>
<p>Would MIT students enjoy having great dining halls with high quality food, 21 meals a weak, healthy options and a large variety?</p>
<p>Of course.</p>
<p>But we can’t have it without getting rid of the ability to choose how we get our food, so it’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make. If there’s a way to have all that without getting rid of student kitchens, no one has figured it out yet.</p>
<p>I’ll also echo what Jessie said, that student prepared food is not necessarily unhealthy. I actually ate far more healthily at MIT than at home. For one, I controlled what went into the shopping cart, and for another I acquired cooking skills that allowed me to make a greater variety of things (and therefore less likely to order pizza as often). I also shared kitchen space with a variety of vegetarians and vegans who were glad to share food and cooking ideas.</p>
<p>These are all good thoughts…
but I sense some snarkiness from some younger voices. </p>
<p>This question wasn’t meant to threaten you and your pursuit of independence as you know it as this time in your lives…</p>
<p>Certainly parents asking questions cannot change and adminstration’s policies…unless of course ALL of the parents who pay their students bills had the same opinion as the Administration. Then something might change…but not a parent asking a question on an obscure thread here. roflol…like THAT would ever happen.</p>
<p>I keep re-reading that post of mine and trying to re-phrase it and edit it–because it sounds snarky–and I didn’t mean it to sound that way</p>
<p>BUT
this pain in the #$%^ platform isn’t letting me edit my own posts…and I keep having to login in…</p>
<p>something is still wrong with my membership or something–because if trying to edit a post–I lose the site…same thing happened while trying to preview college visits…
arrrrgggg</p>
<p>It’s not so much that parents are asking questions. It’s more that parents are complaining, and a handful of loud parents could, in fact, make the administration reconsider what they’re doing, especially since the current system is losing the institute money.</p>
<p>Exactly, do not underestimate the power of a few very vocal people (look at politics, 'nuff said), especially when these are the people paying the school some 52K a year…</p>
<p>I’m definitely in the minority here, but I eat out 80% of the time, and although I can tell you that you’ll have to usually “go out of your way” a bit, there’s also plenty of options near campus if you know where to look. </p>
<p>And yes, $8-9 for dinner sounds about right. Lunch is more around $5-6. You can do the math and it comes down to ~$65 per week w/o weekends.</p>
<p>A big reason for me is that I don’t like studying in my dorm (too distracting), so I usually return well past dinnertime, and since I live so out of the way and without a bike (New), it’s usually easier for me to eat out, study, and then come back. Also, I must be a picky eater or something but eating the same dinner (cooked on Sunday) for every night doesn’t appeal to me (even if you can mix it up and have variations on the thing that you cooked). =p But just throwing it out there that there’s plenty of choice for all kinds of students here…no one is going to force you to do anything if you live in one of the dorms w/o a dining hall, and no one starves either. =)</p>
<p>But on a side note, you know the issue of dining has came up at least 3 or 4 times just in the past few months. Perhaps someone should make a sticky so we don’t keep reiterating these things?</p>
<p>If somebody makes me a list of threads on common topics, I’ll add it to the FAQ. </p>
<p>Strictly speaking, though, I’m not totally sure that anybody reads the first page of the FAQ, as the same frequently-asked questions that are answered in the first page of the FAQ continue to be asked later in that thread…</p>
<p>I’ll make one later today because It will get my mind off things. And a solution to that would just be to make a thread entitled “Read this First” or “See if your question is answered Here”, add the list, and lock and sticky it.</p>
<p>Heh, ‘Inquiries about the dining plan or housing? Find our counterargument to all your points inside!’</p>
<p>Also, Mollie, can we have a ‘questions and / or concerns about standardized testing’ thread where we write that as long as you get a 700 or above, you can stop taking the SAT, and that no, really, the SAT is only used to make sure you can do the work?</p>
<p>To the OP: I’m a parent, and I think MIT’s flexible system is great. My daughter lives in Burton-Conner and so she cooks quite a bit, but there are also good dining opportunities on and around the campus. I flew from California on business to Boston last week, and she and I walked a couple of blocks from MIT to have lunch at Luna’s, a little cafe on Mass Ave that serves delicious salads, soups, and salads. Yum.</p>
<p>Parents are always concerned that their sons and daughters eat well, but having a traditional dining system doesn’t ensure that will happen. I’m a professor at a liberal arts college that uses the same catering service MIT uses, and frankly, the food is just okay, not great. Many times I’ve stood in line at the cashier behind several athletes at my institution who have loaded up their trays with meals that consist entirely of french fries, sugary sodas, and dessert. If their parents knew, they’d be shocked.</p>
<p>The bottom line here is that we need to teach our children to eat well. Teaching them to cook will help them live independently; it’s an important skill. Once they’re in college, they’re on their own. Students at MIT have a wider range of choices, and those capable of making healthy choices will find ample opportunities, in my opinion.</p>
I worry, when parents start knocking the dining system, that those are going to be the parents who push for changes that students then have to spend a whole bunch of time and effort fighting against.</p>