BronxBombers7

My brother goes to Loyola and a good friend goes to Providence...both of the meal plans are a JOKE with how much of a rip-off they are. At P.C. they force you to buy a meal plan unless you're off-campus or live in an on-campus apartment. You pay like $7 per meal which are converted to tickets sort of to eat in the all-you-can-eat dining hall...except NOBODY ever uses all their meals . From what I've heard, if you're not required to buy a meal plan, don't.

redwingshockey

I heard sometime similar about PC from one of my sister's friends who goes there...I have a friend at Boston College too and supposedly its a huge rip off -- you HAVE to purchase $2000 worth of credit per semester, and whatever is leftover they keep as a "theft deposit" or something like that...does anyone know why this is mandatory??

das8929

If I could go back I would not have gotten the meal plan. The food was usually very poor quality and it was $7 or $8 depending on the time of day. I would much rather get a nice meal at a fast food place for cheaper.

Avian Maid

In general, No

letmeinnow

You'll really miss the opportunity to get to know your classmates if you decline the mealplan. This is worth a lot more than the few bucks you might save.

tnguyen08

OP: I think it really depends on your school. There are also negative and positive aspects to meal plans. For my school, my meal plan is actually pretty nice and the food is decent (at some locations lol). I pay around $5.50 per meal if I do eat up all 17 meals a week. I'm planning on starting my meal plan with the 17 meals/wk one, and then changing it lower if I keep losing my meals. We also have a point system, like HiWei's school, but we call ours 'dinning dollars'. I'll get $150 DD per semester to use towards vending machines and the like.

Anyways, GL.

Jharrett

Also to the OP:
It really does depend on your school. Personally, I would definitely just opt for the meal plan. Eating out may equate to "better food," but cooking can be a tad time consuming sometimes. Just going to a dining hall saves me time + I don't have to cook. Also, suppose you want to take a meal with your friends who are on the meal plan...best case scenario you'd have to pay the non-meal plan price which is a bit inflated at my school anyway.

Does it save money? That's up for debate. You COULD definitely manipulate your expenses to where you would be spending less, but I am over 95% sure if we gave time and convenience monetary values, you'd probably be better off with the meal plan. And at many schools, the food is not half bad!

But, not going to lie, I am on 21 meals a week and I don't use every single one, especially on weekends. If that really bothers you, then maybe go for a ~14 meal plan. But I am definitely biased: I love dining hall food!

redwingshockey

I guess this is really just personal preference, but if possible i think i will opt out of the meal plan. i've heard its importnt to be oncampus for the social aspect of school and stuff, so i dont want to move off in my first year. but if i have to get the meal plan, then i will just do it, but its not worth moving off cmapus for i dont think.

bsbllallstr8

don't save money in absolute terms -- you definitely save time though (don't have to prepare anything).

PVmember

It depends on the school, the cost of living in the surrounding community and whether your child cooks or not. In our experience, when child #1 moved to an apartment the board portion doubled due to so many items purchased separately, from drinks on campus ($1.50 apiece), snacks, and full meals. In theory, it should be less expensive to prepare one's own food, but for students who arrive on campus in the morning and don't go back home until late at night, and forget to shop or don't have time to prepare two meals to bring along with them to school every day, the costs of prepared food is enormous.

galoisien

Opportunity cost

militarypays

You want to get the school's meal plan if you are in a dorm; pop tarts and microwaveable foods all the time would give you kidney failure by the end of freshman year.

If you live in an apartment with a stove and an oven, yeah of course don't get the meal plan.

militarypays

oh sorry, i am a little biased though, UCLA topped Cornell's cafeteria food this year...

devious swan

At Tulane? Unequivocal RIPOFF.

Not only do they make all freshmen and sophomores go on an unlimited meal plan ($1500), the cafeteria food is terrible and the cafeteria workers secretly deal drugs on the side. It's also crowded, as they built one cafeteria that coud at most fit 400 people for a campus of 10,000. Also, if you wipe any of the glasses/plates/cutlery with a napkin, brown stuff comes off.

The corner market was overpriced and the nearest grocery store within walking distance was a Whole Foods. And for a city obsessed with its food, takeout in New Orleans was also muy expensive. (If you lived in Wall, however, you had kitchens that were cleaned by staff regularly and people actually had food parties in there all the time.)

I actually lost weight at Tulane from not eating the food there. I recommend getting a large fridge, a kitchen, and a car to the SuperWalmart/Sav-A-Center to eat healthily at Tulane. Unfortunately, freshmen can only have the fridge and maybe the kitchen if they get into Wall.

galoisien

0_o

Personally I think anything less than unlimited is a ripoff -- well at least for me where all the plans for first years are the same in cost and "scaling down" doesn't seem to be worth it.