Dining plan question - Stamp Union add-on plan?

umcp11
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:44:53 +0000

I’m actually not certain about the conversion between resident points and dollars.

But one thing is for certain, and that is that there is no benefit to the STAMP add-on plan whatsoever. That DOES convert dollar for dollar (as does Terrapin Express).

It is worth the same as cash, but you can only use it on food in the Stamp. So, pointless much? Just load up your debit card instead. The food on route 1 is cheaper and better anyway.

I do generally agree the cheapest dining plan is the smartest option. The “middle” option, Resident Plan, is $1966 for Fall semester. Fall semester is 4 months. So that is over $400 a month in food alone. Who the HECK spends $400 on food for a single person?!

However, if you plan to eat three meals a day, every day, you’re right, you may run out of dining points since the diner is extremely overpriced. In that case, though, using your debit card in the diner is equivalent to or less than buying points (but more sickening because you can actually see how much that fairly sub-par food costs…it is more expensive than eating out!).

Dining plans are nice if you get mommy and daddy to pay for them (which I did, not gonna lie), because the food is fairly healthy (yes, it’s better than eating out every day in THAT sense) and it takes no effort to eat a decent amount and eat well. But in terms of value for the money they are horrendous, and as soon as you get a kitchen (in upperclassmen suites or apartments), get off the dining plan asap!!! The good news is even freshman high rise dorms have a full kitchen in the basement - no one ever uses them so they are always free for cooking if you are not horribly lazy (which most people are…again including myself).