<p>Very nice illegal tips 
I will keep them handy somewhere xD</p>
<p>Sometimes I just ate food like, outside of the dining area, before the cashiers -_-</p>
<p>Isn’t it sad that your parents are paying like $500 a month for your food for the “regular” dining option (they are, I worked it out once) and yet you don’t get three meals a day and if you are actually hungry like a normal person and don’t spend an extra $100-200 on take out, you have to literally resort to stealing/hiding food? It’s a bit messed up…they literally expect you to pay $600-700 a month to eat three meals a day. For that cost you could go to Plato’s diner for breakfast, subway for lunch, and hanami japanese restaurant for dinner as your de facto meal plan and probably actually save money…</p>
<p>Honestly I don’t think students would steal if the meal plans were adequate. Plenty of people here are saying they have points left over…do you think people with points left over are smuggling food out of the diner? Heck no. For $500 a month the meal plan really should be adequate. It’s pretty messed up…but I guess tuition is cheap…relatively…</p>
<p>Unless you’re out of state. Or even IS…if I had gone to a SUNY I would have payed 5,000 a year.</p>
<p>I mean, UMCPs out of state costs are still cheaper than OOS costs for UVa, the UCs, or various other top public schools. </p>
<p>For IS students, they rank about right in the middle of the pack.</p>
<p>So when is the first focus date, and do they “warn” the kids in some way or show them how to figure out what they have left? I’m pretty sure my kid is clueless about this. He’s a big eater, and I put him on the big eater plan, but I noticed recently that he has spent no Terpbucks at all (do those get taken away as well?) and I’m wondering how that can even be since I know he eats at the cafe in the b-school which only takes Terpbucks…</p>
<p>^ I think everything you need is right here. The first focus date is this Friday.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Maryland Dining Services Focus Dates](<a href=“http://dining.umd.edu/dining/resident/new/focus]University”>http://dining.umd.edu/dining/resident/new/focus)</p>
<p>Thanks Pluma,</p>
<p>So if I read correctly, the Focus Dates are for the Points only and it does not matter how many Terpbucks you still have?</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>P.S. I just figured out what your screen name means so I guess I should either call you plum, or your whole name, or just “aristocrat”…haha</p>
<p>rtr - <a href=“https://dsonline.umd.edu/student/form/main.php[/url]”>https://dsonline.umd.edu/student/form/main.php</a>
give him that link and you’re set
and yeah terp bucks aren’t affected by focus dates</p>
<p>The only warning they give you is they have a small sign in the Diner when each focus date is approaching. </p>
<p>However, no one at the university ever explained to me once that there was even such a thing as focus points/dates. And a lot of the other freshman I talked to didn’t know either. No one ever told us. Something’s not right there. They talked to us about dining at orientation, but didn’t mention it.</p>
<p>The focus dates are stupid. They should tell you the minimum amount of points you ought to have, not the maximum, so you know if you’re overspending or not. </p>
<p>I’m on an apartment plan and I think I can spend around $10 a day which is pretty good since I usually get lunch and maybe a coffee each day. Definitely recommend getting water and not soda, and always always always get the dine-in plates and glasses (unless of course you’re taking the food to go). If I’m not mistaken there’s an extra to-go charge and it adds up quickly.</p>
<p>There’s a charge of 25 cents each time you take food out. I think it’s supposed to be by container, but almost every cashier will only charge you the quarter once.
Drinks don’t have the charge, but the paper cups are more because their larger.</p>
<p>^ Actually, that depends on the cashier. I was able to use a large paper cup (for water) and not get charged at all.</p>
<p>No water doesn’t count. It’s always free.</p>
<p>Let me guess, that’s a common way people steal too, right? Putting soft drinks in water cups?</p>
<p>lol no. there are no cups specifically for water…that would be really weird if there was. all “carry out” cups are the standard pepsi/coffee cups. they usually always check to see what’s in it, and if you’re eating at the diner you can use the glasses provided, so…</p>
<p>But putting soft drinks in a solid color water bottle and sticking back in your backpack…</p>
<p>Still, taking something clear like sprite… >.>
And lol @ginab.</p>
<p>Yeah whenever I get sprite they always ask me if it’s soda or water. I tell the truth, but I could just as easily say it’s water.</p>
<p>One time I got charged for soda because the water dispenser (the one that’s a combination soda/water dispenser) put a little bit of fruit punch in the mix, so it looked kinda pink.</p>
<p>And the strategy of just walking out of the entrance won’t work anymore since they have a register there now ;)</p>
<p>It works on South Campus still. They even have a handy wall they put there.</p>