<p>At my boyfriend’s school 1 meal is worth $5.20 at a retail dining location on campus (late night cafes/snack shops/starbucks) or All you care to eat at a tradtional dining hall. I’m trying to figure out what meal plan I want and would like to know if I can use Penn meal plans for a certain amount of $ at Chic-fil-a etc.? Thanks</p>
<p>no, meals do not convert (wish they did)</p>
<p>generally most upperclassmen, such as yours truly, recommend the liberty plan (because you’ll end up with extra meals otherwise)</p>
<p>So meal plans usually include a combination of meals and dining dollars. You use meals to eat at the ‘all you care to eat’ dining halls (1920 Commons, Hill, Kings Court). You use dining dollars as regular money at several locations (Houston Hall, Subway, Chic-fil-a, etc). If you wanted to, I think you could use dining dollars or regular money to buy a meal and enter a dining hall, but this would be stupid since a meal costs like $10 I think. So when you buy a meal plan, look at how many meals and how many dining dollars it includes.</p>
<p>since i’m living in a dorm with a dining hall (Hill), will I end up eating more residential-dining meals than the average quad-person? or is the food THAT repetitive and boring (or so I’ve heard) that the “liberty plan” will be sufficient? i’m a vegetarian if that makes any difference</p>
<p>Yes you will end up eating more residential-dining meals than average. But the liberty plan will still be sufficient.</p>
<p>Actually there is a loophole I believe to turn meals to dining dollars towards the end of the year, but the conversion rate is terrible. Someone I know had gotten the quaker plan, intending on eating in the dining halls for every meal. They ended up with nearly 200 meals unused. I believe 100 meals converted into 50 dining dollars for him.</p>