<p>It seems like a waste of money to me.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t require one per se, it’s pay as you go, although part of the room rate goes towards the dining halls. There’s a chance for a lot of profit if people pay for a big plan and eat little.</p>
<p>My college doesn’t require an unlimited meal plan. Dorm residents can choose from 90 meals, 120 meals, 150 meals, 180 meals, or unlimited. Students who go off campus a lot choose the 90 meal plan, students who eat lunch and dinner on weekdays but go home during the weekends get the 120, students who eat lunch and dinner 7 days a week tend to get the 150, and students who eat all 3 meals 7 days a week get the 180. Not many people get the unlimited.</p>
<p>My college does 10, 12, 15, or 20 (the number of meals the dining court serves each week) meals/week or the block plan, which is a certain number of meals for the whole semester.</p>
<p>Most schools require this full meal plan for freshman students only. This is because it is often the first time a student has lived away from school, they won’t be cooking in a dorm, and really have no idea how hungry or not they will tend to be before they have even lived at school. Maybe the environment/stress will cause them to eat more than they normally would, or the increased exercise from walking all over campus will cause a bigger appetite, or, wanting to sit at meals with friends and not be left out of the social group often means eating (even if it’s just nibbling) and you can’t do that if you don’t have access to the food and your friends do. I think it makes sense for freshman, but not after that.</p>
<p>Agree with above poster.</p>
<p>Also want to add, Freshman dorms at my Ds school do not have a kitchen. Basically they do not have the option to cook. And therefore better to have enough meals on meal plan than to go hungry or walk outside to get a meal in peak winter time.</p>
<p>And it sort of becomes a social event as well where all of them are forced to get out of their rooms and meet others during meal times.</p>
<p>Although my son’s school offered various meal plans, we got the all-meals plan for him–and it was a good thing!</p>
<p>We wanted to make sure that even if he spent all his $$ for the semester (and he did), he would not starve, even if the food was not his first choice. Although generally a frugal person, his first few weeks on campus he spent a little too freely, and also had some unplanned expenses, and dug himself a financial hole.</p>
<p>A safety net is a good thing to have.</p>
<p>They may also want to discourage certain behaviors:</p>
<p>cooking in the room using appliances they shouldn’t have (hot plates for instance)
poor nutrition, due to saving money for other things
isolation</p>
<p>One school that my daughter toured states that they monitor students’ eating habits the first year as an indicator of possible stress and/or health issues. Anorexia had been showing up a lot with freshmen girls. Depression can also be a cause for isolating oneself and not going to meals. Catholic school, and the administration had all students sign authorization to contact parents in cases of not eating often enough, as well as for failing grades and one or two other things.</p>
<p>Yeah i would never go to a college that thinks it can micromanage every aspect of an adult’s life. This is a time for escaping the nanny state. There are other mechanisms for getting help to the few who really need it, and it doesn’t justify forcing everyone to pay $500 more on crappy food.</p>
<p>@ steellord: I don’t know about food at your school, but the food at my school sure isn’t crappy since a lot of students here miss eating the food from the dining commons after they leave the dorms after their freshman year (which is why there are seniors at my school who become friends with freshmen or new transfer students and get their young new friends to swipe them in).</p>
<p>One word: Money.</p>
<p>At my school, you can’t have a car as a freshman unless you have specific circumstances requiring it. Therefore, they’re mostly stuck on campus, so it makes sense for them to have a large meal plan.</p>
<p>Mine only required a 10 meal plan/week for freshmen. We don’t even have an unlimited option. There is a 21 though.</p>
<p>All other students (even if you live on campus) don’t have to be on the meal plan. I won’t be on it next year.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that requiring a meal-plan is supposed to be kind of a fail-safe. A lot of college freshmen have no idea how to manage their money and if they have at least 10 meals a week (or whatever), then they can never starve to death. I know wayyy too many people who started the beginning of the semester with tons of money, but wasted it all really quickly and had like nothing left near the end of the semester.</p>
<p>My school only requires 8 meals a week for those living in dorms. You can have 8, 12, 16 or unlimited.</p>
<p>My college requires all students have a meal plan - freshman through senior!
We have a dining hall that is buffet style, and The Bistro, which is a little cafe that serves starbucks coffee and all the ‘junk’ like hamburgers, fries, pizza, etc.
Everyone’s meal plan costs the same. Dining points are used at the bistro and swipes are used in the dining hall.
Basic - 19 swipes, $0 dining points
Traditional - 16 swipes, $125 dining points
Preferred - 11 swipes, $300 dining points
Flexible - 7 swipes, $450 dining points.</p>
<p>I had the preferred plan haha I used almost all $300 by midterms. Oops. I know to budget better. I don’t mind being on the meal plan. It is good for picky eaters too, like my friend is very picky and she got the flexible one. That allows her to swipe in sometimes with friends or if she knows she likes what they are serving, and she can spend the $450 on drinks, chips, or other things at the bistro she knows she will eat.</p>
<p>My school is a pay as you go plan. You pick what you want to buy from the dining halls and swipe your card for it (which turns out to be more expensive than buffet-style/unl. dining plans actually … :/).</p>
<p>I’d actually much prefer the unl. plan since I like fruits/salads/nuts/etc. which are so bloody expensive in comparison to hamburgers and pizzas…</p>
<p>We get $1500 Dine in Dollars, and you just swipe your card as you enter the buffet or after you get your food items (depends on location). I’ve used around $500 this first semester (I only dinner), so no worries here. We also get an additional $300 accepted in some locations that I liked to use when I go out to eat with friends.</p>