Best Dining Option for Transfer Student (help please)

2chanceC · May 25, 2011, 4:29pm

Hello,

Thanks for reading this and thank you for any help you can give me:

I am a transfer student who has recently been accepted into Columbia University. I will be apart of the class of 2014 and am coming to you all because you will have been in my situation not too long ago. I’m really excited and have committed and paid my fees, sent the forms, course descriptions etc. I haven’t been able to apply for housing because my ID has to be activated and while I wait I thought I’d get some advice on the dining plans.

The plans I have to choose from are

Meal Plan A - 14 meals per week plus 15 floating meals, 6 professor/advisor meals, 200 Dining Dollars per term, $2,100.00
Meal Plan B - 175 meals per term, 6 guest meals, 200 Dining Dollars per term, $1,975.00
Meal Plan C - 100 meals per term, 4 guest meals, 125 Dining Dollars per term, $1,225.00
Meal Plan D - 75 meals per term, 2 guest meals, 75 Dining Dollars per term, $945.00

(<a href=“https://housinganddining.columbia.edu/dining/signup/[/url]”>https://housinganddining.columbia.edu/dining/signup/</a>)

Things to consider:
I do want to save money so that the cost is not as great
I do have a bit of an appetite, but do not always eat a lot or regularly
At my old school I did get tired of the dining halls by the middle of the first semester
I would like to go out and eat in the city but am worried about the cost of that…

so I guess my questions are:

1) How often do you eat at the dining halls, cafes?
2) How much do you spend on meals outside of the University?
3) What do you think my food cost would be per semester without a dining plan?
4) If you run out of meals for the week can you still eat at the halls by paying cash?
5) Any other helpful tips?

Thank you again for your help, I really appreciate any help you can give to a newbie at Columbia :)

Malapropism · July 12, 2011, 5:56pm

Hello, fellow transfer.

Naturally, as a transfer, I can’t provide any personal experience as to meal plans at Columbia, and in fact I initially was watching this thread and hoping for a response (consider this a bump).

Personally, though, I haven’t heard the best about meal plans at Columbia, and thus decided not to opt into one. I figure that if I wind up needing one later, I can probably get one then as I see fit (after all, what school would willingly refuse more money?), but for now I’m going to stock up on Flex and Dining Dollars. Of course, I’m also planning to cook some bit (taking advantage of the market across the street), and I generally don’t eat all my meals (rather, I snack a lot), so it’s really dependent on your eating habits. On at least one of the two tours I took, though, I was told that students usually opt out of dining plans after their (required) freshman year.

karot · July 31, 2011, 6:38am

Malapropism’s line of reasoning is entirely correct. In the past, housing and dining even offered discounts (in the form of extra meals) if you signed up for a meal plan within the first week or two of the new semester.

As for your questions:

1) After first year (when everyone has to have a meal plan) I ate in the dining halls 1-2 times a year on average, usually towards the end of the semester when the friends who had bought meal plans realized that they wouldn’t finish the remaining number of meals before they expired.

2) I think the cheapest prepared meal to be had in the area is a slice of pizza from Koronet’s or Chicken and Rice from one of the Halal food carts (I’m not suggesting that you do this though). After my first year, I spent on average $10-$20 dollars on food per day when I wasn’t cooking.

3) Depends on your tastes and habits. I know someone who spent $30 bucks a day on food and others who spent $5. I spent a few weeks spending only ~$3/day when I cooked (not including initial outlay for equipment and basic ingredients like oil, salt, etc.) I’d say that if you ate prepared food for every meal, $20/day should be enough for 90% of people.

4) Yes but it’s very expensive. I’ve never done it but from what I remember, the number is like $14/meal? Someone check me on that. If you are out of meals, it’s more economical to just get a sandwich from Cafe 212 or any of the gajillion sandwich places on Broadway or Amsterdam.

5) Don’t overestimate how much time you’ll be able to dedicate to cooking. When done properly, cooking for yourself can be a cheap, fun and social way to take care of a basic need but isn’t always feasible when you’re low on time. If you are planning to cook for yourself, make friends with like-minded people and try and share the cost of the initial outlay as well as the time burden in prepping, cooking and cleaning. There are a few clubs and organizations on campus that ostensibly facilitate this like the Culinary Society or Potluck House.

Dining hall food can get VERY boring and you’ll find that after freshman year, very students purchase dining plans. What this means is that if you do have a dining plan, you might end up eating by yourself for every meal (unless you make friends with some first years). Now, you can also do take-out boxes but this means that basically you’re giving up the all-you-can-eat benefit of the meal plan for the freedom and convenience of deciding when and where to eat. This isn’t so bad but you’re still paying the all-you-can-eat price.

Finally, I don’t know ANYONE with a meal plan who was able to finish all of their meals before the semester ended. Even my RA friends (who get something like 40 meals / semester if they are in a first-year dorm) were struggling to finish all their meals by the end of the year.

All that said, I think that a meal plan can be a good idea for you as a backup option since you’re a transfer and don’t necessarily want to be worrying about finding food in a new neighborhood for the first few weeks that you’re settling in. I’d just get the cheapest meal plan, eat in the dining halls for the first week or two while you’re making friends and figuring where grocery stores. Then, you can use the remaining meals as a way to make new friends (even though we don’t really like the food, cu students are very happy to accept a free meal swipe) or as a backup when you’re short for time (like during midterms or finals week).

Hope that helps and congrats on Columbia.

Best Dining Option for Transfer Student (help please)

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