<p>Eh…a lot of people do not eat all their 12 meals. I know I never ate a breakfast after the 2nd week of school. Some concerns I had before Duke are:</p>
<p>1) Are there enough meals? More than enough, you get tired of the MP after a while and meals only lock you in with regard to choices</p>
<p>2) What about lunch? You’ll be on west lots of time for lunch and going back to east for lunch would take an hour or so. It’s way too inconvenient</p>
<p>3) What about weekends? That’s where the food points come in. A lot of people order food on weekends to supplement their diet.</p>
<p>4) Will the food points be enough? Ummmm…depends on how much you eat. I think they actually reduced the amount of food points for freshmen plans next year. This past year, the amount started out at 557 for the lowest level. In my experience, it’ll probably not be enough since I know friends who blow through 100 points in a week. You can always add more.</p>
<p>I can’t think of anymore ATM.</p>
<p>Albedo22: Your meal plan covers 7 dinner/brunches and 5 breakfasts. Lunches are not parts of that. Basically, you are responsible for lunch during the weekdays and 4 meals during the weekend (assuming you eat 3 meals a day).</p>
<p>Frankly, I think anything less than $500 is not enough to last a semester. A semester is 12 weeks plus finals week. Even if it’s only 12 weeks, that’s a little over $40 a week. That means you are looking at about $6 a day to cover what the meals don’t. For me, $6 is about how much I’d spend for lunch on west (an entree plus drink, 2 burgers plus drink, w/e). I definitely go over on the weekends. So, unless I do grocery shopping and cook myself, I’d be hard pressed to stay within that budget. Those are just my thoughts.</p>
<p>Edit: I don’t think I’ve seen this advice when I was considering this stuff last year but dollar bills are so useful. I’m always running out of them when I need to tip the delivery guy.</p>