OP update. Thank you to all those who responded - a lot of good advice from many different perspectives. S went with complete plan for freshman fall. He’ll definitely be eating all his meals on campus and probably won’t do much cooking for himself beyond some ramen and easy mac. Meal plan comes with $ to be used at an additional site on campus (other than main dining hall) so he has options - and he can change plans at the start of each semester as need be.
Based on his recent appetite, I would guess that the cost of the meal plan will be offset whennour grocery bill here at home plummets in late August…