I am guilty of not realizing that all schools wern’t like my D’s, all inclusive, 3 meals a day.
Well, ok, but how prevalent is this? What % of colleges “sell” meal plans at - you buy X meals a week (but within there, it’s essentially unlimited at a given meal) versus you buy / swipe each item a la carte?
S2 has to maintain at least a minimal meal plan at his college as long as he lives in the dorms. Even with doing that and giving him a grocery allowance, we are saving about $2k/year off what the school would charge for the full meal plan.
When I was an independent student, I worked at the school cafeteria – made minimum wage ($2.65/hr) and got a free meal. For me, it was a more profitable job than being an RA (for which I got a small stipend AND had to pay for my room, which just about washed out the income). Those extra weekend cafeteria shifts are what fed me, since I could not afford the 7-day meal plan.
Are there hungry college students? Absolutely. My middle sister was one of them. Single mom, two kids, AFDC, Section 8 housing, and ex-husbands who didn’t pay child support. She earned her UG degree at age 33. It was a long, hard road.
Here are a few articles/links for what’s going on in the DC area –
http://campuspantry.umd.edu/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/more-college-students-battle-hunger-as-education-and-living-costs-rise/2014/04/09/60208db6-bb63-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html
This group was started by a group of UMD students, though is not specifically about campus hunger: http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org/about-us/our-work/
My undergrad ONLY had unlimited meal plans and they were mandatory if you lived on campus. $2700/semester for the cheapest one and financial aid didn’t cover everything.
Pizzagirl, I think the options are as varied as there are colleges. Most schools, but not all, require those living in traditional dorms (not always suites) to purchase some meal plan. I think the COAs use the highest plan, 20-21 meals per week, in calculating the COA. I think it is one of those costs that everyone just looks at and thinks “oh, we won’t need that” but then learn there is no choice, a meal plan is required. You think that you’re not going to pick a college based on a meal plan or dorm, but the difference between DD#1’s room and board and DD#2’s is more than $5000. That’s really a lot of money to ignore when choosing a school. And DD#2 has a two year requirement to live on campus, so that’s $10000 I can’t negotiate away.
DD#2’s COA is a close to the school’s estimate. On DD#1, we had a lot more play to pick a cheaper meal plan, get books at a discount, save money on transportation.
“what types of meal plans do FA packages typically factor in? 10 meals a week? 14 meals? The full 21?”
I have not seen R&B cost estimates that include less than 14 meals a week, but there’s a lot more ambiguity at schools that primarily or solely offer declining-balance plans. At some schools, 10 swipes/week plus $1500 or whatever is considered a full residential meal plan. You can run through the declining balance in no time if you’re having soup, dessert, etc. with every meal.
Just for another perspective, my students’ school requires everyone in a dorm to have a meal plan, which is a base rate (can’t go below it) plus a range of dollar amounts. Fall meal plan funds can be rolled over to spring, but spring funds are forfeited if not used up. Some dining halls are not open on weekends. Meal plan money can also buy food at convenience-style kiosks, food courts on campus, etc in addition to conventional dining commons. People with food allergies are not given any financial concessions despite the fact that their dining hall options are extremely limited. And to add to the fun, the prices at th various venues are subject to change semester to semester.
so there’s a lot to learn, and it takes time. All I know is that I often spot students in my checkout line at grocery stores, and if they aren’t buying beer pong supplies I usually snag a grocery gift card, put $30 on it, and hand it back. Their gratitude is genuine. Nobody should be hungry.
Color me more informed than I was at the start of this thread! I made the classic CC assumption that my experiences / my kids’ experiences were universal! Learn something new.
Is it uncommon for students to move off campus? Or are there just a lot of schools that require a meal plan even for off campus students?
Sorry, if that seems naive, but it’s an honest question. I skimmed through some of the thread, but it seems like a lot of people are complaining about the exorbitant price of meal plans and the fact that some meal plans may still leave kids hungry. Most students I knew at college (my own and others) moved off campus after their first or second year (sometimes never living on campus at all, although I understand some schools require students to live on campus their first year), mainly because of how expensive living on campus (and the required meal plan was). Most students lived with multiple roommates, shopped at grocery stores, and did their own cooking. Many had jobs (sometimes multiple part time jobs) to pay for rent and food. Most take the bus to school, although some rode bikes. Is this uncommon? Or is this irrelevant to the point being made?
I had a friend that was from a very low income family, where she worked multiple jobs (partly to build up a little bit of savings for a rainy day–she cut down on her hours in later years) and sent money home to her family, and she never went hungry, although this often meant staying home and cooking, rather than eating out. She moved out of the dorms after her first year because it was just too expensive. I had other friends that paid for all of their own housing, food, books, supplies, tuition, etc, from financial aid and part-time jobs. They were fortunate enough not to have families to support, but they still made do.
I find it interesting that the original article wanted to dispel the rumors of a “privileged college student.” I was much more accustomed to the stereotype of the “poor college student.” Most students I know try to save money wherever they can, unless they are fully funded by their parents.
here are lots of reasons why students don’t always have enough money. And not everyone is on a meal plan! many students live at home or off campus. There is no extra money up front to pay for a meal plan.
If they don’t have to be on a meal plan, they can save a lot of money.
Each meal averaged about $9 at my daughters public school, ( for the plan we purchased) you can eat off campus * much cheaper/i
We found for S2 that rent/utilities near his campus were more expensive than the dorms (esp since they are generally 12 mo leases and I had little confidence about S being able to sublet), but that we could do something productive about the food budget.
I lived off campus one year – had half of a duplex that cost me $90/mo. My roommate (later SIL) had a car, so we could get to a grocery store far enough from campus so that we could get reasonable prices. What messed with my budgeting was the utility bills. The variability from month to month was a challenge. (Didn’t know about utility budget payment plans back then.)
^^^this. Off campus living that costs substantially less than a dorm is often difficult to find. Here, living arrangements that are less don’t tend to include any sort of kitchen, and off campus students rarely have a meal plan. Without one they pay the full retail cash price for on-campus dining, but having one is rarely cost-effective. But living off campus can be cheaper, especially if you learn to cook (and learn to be hungry a lot)
Living off campus has its challenges, especially in the north where heating bills can be exhorbitant. Finding housing that’s less expensive than a dorm is difficult in a college town. Yes, it helps to have roommates (if you can find a landlord who will give each person a separate lease). Some local landlords require one person to sign the lease and be responsible for finding 2 or 3 other people to split the rent. That student has to cover the entire rent when there’s a vacancy or if the other roommates run short, which happens. If you can find a rental at a reasonable cost that lets each student have his/her own lease, you’re going to need a car because you’re almost certainly not within walking distance of campus. Students who do live off campus are wise to get a small fridge for their room. Food that they can afford to share can go in the main fridge, but food they’re counting on having later may or may not be there if they leave it in the main fridge.
I am not understanding what the thrust of this thread is. If you can’t manage to feed yourself should you really be in college?
Oh me, oh my. How dare I try to better my situation through education.
I would’ve had a hard time finding money to feed myself whether I was in school or not. At least after 4 years of education (ok, 10+ in my case due to advanced degrees), I’d be far more likely to find a job where I don’t have to rely on food stamps.
But doh! I should’ve just stayed in a minimum wage job where I’d still be eligible for food assistance. Maybe I’d work my way up in 10 or so years.
It’s precisely if you’re smart, driven and in poverty, that you should go to college because it’ll yield the most rewards - lift you out of povery, be a model for your family and neighborhood, become a tax paying citizen who contributes.
Yet that doesn’t make it “right” that poor students should suffer from hunger because they’re trying to better themselves, considering we live in the richest country in the world, that we have agricultural surplus, not to mention considerable food waste (why can’t cafeteria jobs have a set number of slots for lower income kids, and come with a meal, for instance?)
Thanks for the confirmation, but I was already pretty sure this was the case. And, it doesn’t change my question one bit.
No-one is pro starving students. Or starving anyone for that matter. However, the what is wanted question is still the same question. If people are saying the room and board estimates are too low perhaps that is true at some schools although for us it was quite the opposite and there are jobs in dozens of near-by restaurants that actually do come with meals. I have nothing to say about 10 years of college with free snacks.
Hm, I hadn’t considered it was about published estimates of room and board. That can be difficult, I know, since people are different. Even the good old US.Gov comes up with a range of nearly double for what a single person eats. Seems like that is what a college level person could figure out and plug into the budget before starting school, though.
I had a work study job starting up the cafeteria for breakfast. I was very much an oatmeal person and would work on a large bowl of it every morning until time to rush off. The cook was worried about me because she found out I was off-campus for lunch and would dive into the lunch materials to make me a sandwich and put it in a paper bag before I left.
I think it really depends on your roommates.
My oldest daughters college dorms shared a fridge, and they used stickers on their food.
( for instance) Red was, do not use under any circumstance, Yellow, please ask first and Green could be- go ahead and eat it all up!
It seemed to work ok. Neither kid ever had a fridge in their room, ( except in youngests freshman dorm room) but when we got a new refrigerator in our house recently, we sold our bar size fridge to her housemates so they would have more room. ( D mostly used it, but it was kept in the dining room). If your roommates dont respect your cupboard, can you trust them to respect your more valuable possessions?
My D who lived off campus actually lived closer to the center of campus, than in her freshman dorm.
It wasn’t necessarily a lot cheaper than living in a dorm room with a meal plan, but she had more control over the amount and quality of her food, and she not only had her own room, but enjoyed the rest of the house & garden.
( it was also easier to walk to town than from the dorm end of campus)
*Oh me, oh my. How dare I try to better my situation through education.
I would’ve had a hard time finding money to feed myself whether I was in school or not. At least after 4 years of education (ok, 10+ in my case due to advanced degrees), I’d be far more likely to find a job where I don’t have to rely on food stamps.*
That’s what grad students want to believe. Is your graduate degree going to earn you enough money to pay back your loans? Is your degree in computer science or engineering? No?
It may surprise you, if you don’t have experience otherwise, but most people don’t have a college degree or even an undergrad degree. To find a job that pays more than minimum wage, I suggest you look for one covered by a workers union.