<p>I lived off campus and spent like 15-70 (70’s a big shopping week and then I go back to like 15 dollars a week after that) a week… Usually was more like 20-30 dollars. But so much cheaper than stupid college food and healthier too! (I like cooking so…) I did alot of shopping at the mexican grocery store where everything was dirt cheap! (not necessarily the best but) And also the farmer’s market recently… SO GOOD.</p>
<p>I like getting creative with limited amounts of materials though so… just be creative</p>
<p>Eh, it’s convenience and sociability and, at least for me, pretty good food for a marked up price, but considering it’s served to me, for the most part whenever I want, and is relatively healthy, I don’t think $10/meal is overpriced enough for me to seriously complain. But yeah, still will go off meal plan junior year, and if enough of my friends do, next semester.</p>
<p>Our unlimited plan costs $1950 with $150 for flex bucks per semester. Our cheapest plan, at 125 block meals and $300 flex for on campus locations, is $1600. The nicer underclassman dorms require a meal plan. I’m too picky of an eater for a meal plans so I usually resorted to eating PB&Js, some spaghetti, cereal, and desserts when I had one. Much better for me to prepare stuff at home although I still stick to a frozen meal each day along with canned stuff. At least I can have consistent frozen/fresh fruit in my room!</p>
<p>My school offers many different dining plans, I happen to get 150 meals per semester plus $375 in money that can be used at chains that are on and around campus. That puts my meal plan at $1700 per semester, which is actually not expensive at all.</p>
<p>However, some of the meals-per-week plans are much more of a rip off, starting at $2500 for 7 meals a week (less per week than the average of mine at 150/semester) and the meals expire. You get seven meals starting on Wednesday, and if you don’t use them by the next Wednesday, they just vanish and you lose them. Total rip off. Hence why I went with the meals/semester plan.</p>
<p>If it’s 17 meals a week last week of August-late December, it’s about $7.5 a meal if your plan is $2000. Cheaper than the staple $40 a day. Overpriced, yes. I went on a meal plan with my sorority soph year, and it was $2,000 for the entire year. I spend about $200 on food a month, depending on how much I eat out. Usually $150 on groceries, so living off campus has saved me a lot of money on food. Meal plans are nice because you don’t have to cook. Enjoy the convienance while it lasts. </p>
<p>$800 a month on groceries is crazy, unless that is for an entire house, which would be reasonable.</p>
<p>If one thinks about it, college is a rip-off as a whole. From the bloated tuition costs, to the bloated cost of dorms, to the ludicrous textbook costs, the meal plans and all the other ridiculous chicken***t that I will not list, I cannot see how any such institution would last in any economic environment other than a state-sponsored oligopoly. To think that people tolerate this abomination…</p>
<p>^ most of college is a scam, money-wise. For example, my Spanish textbook cost over $100 when I bought it new. Now I have to pay $65 for an access code for a website because the book did not come with it. Why the hell should you have to pay that much for a website, especially after you already have the book?! Sadly there’s a free part of the website but no, how dare we go with the reasonable choice! Honestly, people should be ashamed of trying to get so much money out of young college students. </p>
<p>I can’t even think about the numbers. It makes me sick! Luckily I was smart and did two years at a community college, so I only have half the debt.</p>
<p>October - I did the same thing ,and now that I am switching colleges which wanted more math and a handful of different general-ed, I will be meting those requirements via CC.</p>
<p>What irritates me more than anything is the overbearing, centrally-planned nature of the whole thing, and Reagan was correct in wanting to abolish the Dept. of Education. That does not go far enough, but it is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>In lieu, something modelled upon the Chinese civil service examinations of old would provide quality control while leaving things to the free market. For engineering for instance, if a group ABET or IEEE were to formulate a series of tests, and in order to be granted a diploma, one must pass said tests (corresponding to courses like we have now), an entire private industry will spring up preparing people for the exams.</p>
<p>One could say ‘Van, this will never work’, but these examinations in effect ran what was up until the Industrial Era the largest and wealthiest country for a thousand years. If we, in the modern era, could not bring such a thing to fruition, then that speaks volumes about how this worm-eaten bastardised culture compares to that of Sui China.</p>
<p>Yes, it definitely is a rip. Here’s something to put it in perspective. My first 2 years, I had to take out extra loans to pay for everything. This year, now that I’m living in completely separate housing from the university, I will be getting over $11,000 in financial aid refund. About $5500 of that will go towards rent, but that gives me $4500-5000 of money to spend. Living off campus saves you a bundle as it eliminates expensive housing and a forced expensive meal plan.</p>
<p>It also helps now as an upperclassmen that most of my classes going forward will have cheap books or no books at all for my main major. </p>
<p>I might do an intercession study abroad with all of that extra money. I recommend to everyone to get off campus your sophomore year, it will save you a ton of money.</p>
<p>On a marginal basis, any additional dollars spent will likely be borrowed, and after subsidised loans are maxed out, then comes the unsubsidised which I will not touch. One may argue ‘it’s about the experience’ and some other marketing crap, but I note: if this money is borrowed at 6.5%, then after four years, one will have to pay back the same amount plus about 30%, and that assumes that it is paid back all at once upon graduation.</p>
<p>Not everyone is lucky enough to self-finance most things. I have done well because I whip the gold market like a rented muel, but others will graduate with millstones around their neck from these absurd costs.</p>