OKgirl

The school I'm going to has a required meal plan for all freshman. I ate there once and I really wasn't impressed with the particular item I ate (I've heard other things are good, but they all have meat). Recently my taste buds have changed and the thought of eating/feeling meat makes me feel sick and I've been very picky about everything I eat. Almost everything at the school has meat in it and I am dreading it. I've kinda became a vegetarian recently (not by choice). I see it pointless to spend $4.50 a meal to just get fries or something (not to mention it wouldn't be healthy!) because you are charged $4.50 whether you get a $1 item or a "combo meal".

Is there any way to get out of the meal plan? Would a doctors note really work? Could it be by a regular doctor or would it have to be by a dietician? Any tips for getting out of it?

nontraditional

All your doctor has to do is produce a report explaining (a) that you have a medical condition that requires a particular diet and (b) how she knows that. (Well, I say that generally. You may want to check to see exactly what documentation they are going to want for something like that.)

Then you take it to the disability office, where they attempt to figure out whether there's a way to give you an adequate diet through the dining hall. It very frequently is. Dining halls regularly provide adequate food for people with metabolic disorders like diabetes, food allergies, and so on.

But if it isn't, they'll probably let you prepare your own meals and not make you pay.

Thinking that you will not like the food provided is probably not going to get you out of the contract no matter what documentation you provide. If they were going to let people out of the contract for thinking that they wouldn't like the food, the plan wouldn't be mandatory in the first place.

apumic

nontraditional is right, although to be honest, if you refuse the mandatory meal plan, there are ways to beat it. One would be to simply try slipping through the cracks by "neglecting" to sign up (and pay) for it. Just sign up for housing and don't fill out the meal plan forms and/or put in a request to not have one. Depending on your school, things would look different, but there are usually ways to exploit the red tape...

Cards4Life

At my school, if you live in a dorm that requires a meal-plan (all on-campus dorms except the student apartments) and you "forget" to sign up for a meal plan, they automatically place you on the "standard" plan of I believe 14 meals a week + a set amount of dining center money. If you don't pay it, it's just like not paying your tuition and they can put a hold on your registration (preventing you from taking classes) until it is paid.

burgler09

cards4life, are you by any chance a poker player?

Cards4Life

Nope. STL Cardinals fan

kelseyg

You have to be flexible, but I'm sure your college has vegetarian options. I mean, omnivores need to eat fruit and vegetables too... unless your entire school is just full of people who are terribly unhealthy, there must be more options that just fries.