guitars101

Can someone please simply explain the meal plan options at Harvard. I tried googling meal plans, but didn't get what I needed. Thanks in advance!

marite

I don't think there is a choice. All freshmen eat at Annenberg. Upperclassmen eat in their Houses. For students who cannot return to their Houses for lunch, there are box lunches available.

Jen98

According to my tour guide when I visited, freshmen usually eat in Annenberg, but they aren't necessarily banned from the other halls. She said there's an "unlimited" meal plan that supposedly translates to 99 meals a week, though the closest anyone came to eating that much was somewhere in the range of 57ish.

Also, you can use Crimson Cash (like a debit card) at many of the local restaurants.

ETA: I found confirmation of the unlimited meal plan here: Harvard College Admissions Office: Prospective Students

guitars101

Jen,

Wow, thanks so much!

twinmom

Many freshmen who are housed in the Union dorms (right outside of the Yard) choose to eat in the Houses instead as some are closer in proximity than Annenberg.

stevezilla1088

I think tour guides tend to make things up, like that 57ish bit.

gadad

Yeah, I suppose the JH statue tends to infer some degree of poetic license for the tour guides. My favorite tour guide line: "Some people say we don't get along with Yale students because we have absolutely nothing in common. But that's not accurate. After all, we all got into Yale!"

transferapp07

everybody has the same meal plan:

you get 21 meals / week (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner every day). you swipe in at the entrance to the dining hall and it is all you can eat. this is used at the dining halls - annenberg for freshmen.

in addition, you get somewhere between $57-$62 in "board plus," which allows you to use your card to buy things a la carte at approximately 4 or 5 locations scattered throughout academic buildings on campus. you can add more money to this if you wish whenever you exhaust the initial $60 or so.

guitars101

Good to know. I appreciate the explanation of how the meals work in Annenberg. Do the parents put $ into the "extra" card? how does that work?

stevezilla1088

You cannot add money to board plus, only to crimson cash, which can be used at harvard establishments and local restaurants as well. you can also use it for laundry and printing in the library, both of which are extremely helpful. Parents can add money to to this online, or you can add crimson cash with cash at the science center's automated machine. Also, you can swipe in multiple times for each meal, so it's more than 21 a week. For example, you can have lunch at Adams at 11 then lunch at eliot at 2.