<p>Youre right the school does tend to overstate the importance of the JCard. First semester of Freshman year, I had $1000 on my JCard, but second semester I ended up with $1500, which allowed me to eat out about every night for a month or two. I dont think you really need $1225 on your JCard, especially if youre putting yourself on a budget. You can certainly use that money to buy books and eat out and all that stuff, but you can also use credit cards, debit cards, and cash. JCards are really useful for laundry (we estimate $5/week), photocopying (depends on your classes), printing (depends on classes and if you have a printer), and vending machines (they also take cash). There are also machines all over campus where you can put cash onto your JCard, but you cannot take cash off of your JCard. You have more flexibility with your money if you only keep a few hundred on JCard for laundry and stuff, and then leave everything else in your account. </p>
<p>Have fun moving in…</p>