College food and meal plan question

[lovin'fl]

Touring colleges with my 3 high school kids and see all the food options they now have (that I didn't have 20-some years ago). I am shocked to see so many of my teens' fave chains as well as some International cuisines. When I went we had 2 buildings to eat...the dining hall and then a grill. NO Starbucks, Chipotle, Wendys, Chick Fil A, Dennys, Subway...etc and NO sushi or gyros or noodles or etc. They now have these places located all over college campuses. I was amazed by this. But my question is...how does this work on the meal plan? I am guessing these chain places are NOT included and you need a cash debit type thing on your meal card to pay for what you buy. I am guessing meal plans only cover meals in the dining halls. Am I correct? And what kind of meal plans and debit allowance do you set your kids up with? I would assume they would not need unlimited dining hall meals nor even the 5 weekdays...maybe a number of swipes?

 

[leebee]

Every school is different. When DD was college-touring, there was one school where the "dining plan" was open unlimited grazing, as much as you want, any time, day, or dining hall location. It included the chain kiosks that were located within the dining commons, but not the ones that were NOT in the dining commons- those took cash only. One school did everything by swipe, but you paid for a certain number of swipes per week, and they didn't have outside vendors. Some schools had ONLY outside vendors, no actual in-house dining service, and you could pay by cash or pre-loaded cash card. DD's current school (for 2 weeks… graduating 5/9 and ) has open grazing anywhere, any time in any of the dining halls, but you can add on "Bear Bucks" that are good at the Union Commons, a variety of on-campus stores and cafes, and at certain merchants in-town. Unfortunately the Bear Bucks are a "use 'em or lose 'em" proposition, so we never loaded any onto her plan.

 

[Pamlur]

At Mississippi State, the meal plan includes a set number of "Flex Bucks" that can be used at those places on campus. For Freshmen there is only one available plan, and that's the Ultimate or whatever they call it this year.

 

[kamik86]

Agree that this is really something you have to look at with the school. The school may even have a combo of plans.

For example at my school freshman had to be on a set meals per week plan (and there were a few options to pick from) where you got X meals from the main freshman dining hall and a certain number of meal options at other (better) locations.

Then after you were through freshman year there was another plan where you just got a given amount of debit (but you couldn't pick how much it was set and you had to do this or the other plan above if you lived in the dorms) and you could use that at most locations on campus. Some things you could get on debit but not as a meal option (starbucks drinks for example). The debit amount was also REALLY high. I know many of us were buying friends that lived off campus things just to use it up and not let the school keep the money. We also donated a TON of food to food pantries for the same reason. We rather they get the food then the school keep more of our money for nothing.

 

[HM]

At my children's schools, there are a few different plans available. Freshman usually had a choice of two of them. They all consisted of some sort of amount of 'swipes' into the cafeteria and a certain amount of 'flex' money that could be used at other venues around the campus. Off-campus kids could just get 'flex' accounts that could be used in the cafeteria and the other venues, instead of having to carry cash.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Do not assume anything, every school has different types of meal plans. I will go look up dd's. I have not done that yet. Here it is, now I will look at it, lol.

The only "chain" restaurant included in my dd's dining plan is Starbucks.

It is a smaller school with about 3000ish students.

Looks like they have a couple of convenience stores, the Starbucks, 2 bakery-cafes and 3 dining residents halls.

 

[Katy Belle]

DS is a sophomore in college. The chain restaurants on campus are on the meal plan. They only have one traditional cafeteria, that is open very limited times, and far from his dorm. Most of the chioices are chains. The cost of the meal is deducted from his meal plan. It's all based on $$$, not # of meals. They also have a little convenience store in the dorm, it's on the meal plan too. Freshmen are required to purchase a certain level of meal plan. He is sick of sandwiches....there is a Which Wich in his dorm!

 

[barkley]

you really have to check the individual school-at dd's it depends on which meal plan is purchased and weather a person is using a meal count, ala cart points or flex dollars. there are at least 8 or 9 dining places on campus (none are chains) and the little store-certain types are accepted at certain places, and the flex dollars are also accepted at some of the local eateries off campus.

 

[pryncess527]

My school uses a credit program. So lunch at a fast food restaurant in our student center costs 1 credit which gets you $7.50 worth of food from their menu (or whatever credit price was agreed upon by the University and that vendor. They provide a chart)

 

[Colleen27]

It does depend on the school. Mine allows a very limited (IIRC, one per week?) number of "exchanges" for a student to use a meal credit in the commuter-oriented food court, where we have Subway, Chik-Fil-A, Papa Johns, Starbucks, and a few other choices, rather than in one of the residential dining halls. Depending on the housing arrangements, a declining-balance option is also available that can be used everywhere (and offers a small discount off of menu prices) but students in the dorms have to choose from specific plans.

 

[scrapquitler]

Touring colleges with my 3 high school kids and see all the food options they now have (that I didn't have 20-some years ago). I am shocked to see so many of my teens' fave chains as well as some International cuisines. When I went we had 2 buildings to eat...the dining hall and then a grill. NO Starbucks, Chipotle, Wendys, Chick Fil A, Dennys, Subway...etc and NO sushi or gyros or noodles or etc. They now have these places located all over college campuses. I was amazed by this. But my question is...how does this work on the meal plan? I am guessing these chain places are NOT included and you need a cash debit type thing on your meal card to pay for what you buy. I am guessing meal plans only cover meals in the dining halls. Am I correct? And what kind of meal plans and debit allowance do you set your kids up with? I would assume they would not need unlimited dining hall meals nor even the 5 weekdays...maybe a number of swipes?

At my daughter's school, the meal plan includes unlimited visits to the 'regular' dining hall (open 6am to 11pm daily, except Saturdays). It also includes 20 'anywhere meals' which can be used at the food court options in the student center (including dunkin donuts, the bagel shop, the sub shop, etc), the coffee shop/snack bar in the library and the 'bagel cart' in one of the main classroom buildings (that food court is closed on Sundays). It also includes $150 per semester in 'food loot' that can be used at the above mentioned places or for some specific off campus places that offer eat in meals or take out/delivery options.
Oh, and they also get a handful of 'guest meals' each semester where they can bring a guest into the main dining hall for a meal. My husband went and ate there with her once.

The unlimited dining hall meals are included in ALL levels of the dining plan. They offer 3 plans: silver, gold, platinum. My daughter is on the platinum plan. The only differences between them are the number of 'anywhere meals' and the amoutn of the 'food loot' THere is only $150 difference int eh price of the most expensive plan vs. the least expensive. The dining plan is REQUIRED for all resident students except for ones that have full kitchens in the on campus apartments...and those students are required to have only a $300 or so plan of 'food loot'.

 

[JanaDee]

Touring colleges with my 3 high school kids and see all the food options they now have (that I didn't have 20-some years ago). I am shocked to see so many of my teens' fave chains as well as some International cuisines. When I went we had 2 buildings to eat...the dining hall and then a grill. NO Starbucks, Chipotle, Wendys, Chick Fil A, Dennys, Subway...etc and NO sushi or gyros or noodles or etc. They now have these places located all over college campuses. I was amazed by this. But my question is...how does this work on the meal plan? I am guessing these chain places are NOT included and you need a cash debit type thing on your meal card to pay for what you buy. I am guessing meal plans only cover meals in the dining halls. Am I correct? And what kind of meal plans and debit allowance do you set your kids up with? I would assume they would not need unlimited dining hall meals nor even the 5 weekdays...maybe a number of swipes?

Each school is different, but at the state school DS is considering, they are all included. His prospective school does not have a number of meals on their meal plans, it is a dollar amount.

 

[Christine]

As everyone has said, each school is different.

My son's meal plan got him so many meals per week. When he went to one of the two, big dining halls, it was one punch and he could eat anything in there.

If he went to any of the specialty "bistro" places that are run by the dining hall, his punch got him certain meals only. If he ordered something more than what was a standard meal, he got hit with a punch and then he either had to pay them cash for the difference or use his "dining dollars."

The same held true for places like Chipotle, Chick Fil A, etc, the punch got you a standard meal (say it's the #1 combo at Chick Fil A), but anything else caused an upcharge of your flex dollars.

 

[Ambear]

One college I went to had a set amount of money that could be used at food places outside of the main buffet style dining hall. But it didn't have chains, it had like a little grill with burgers and stuff, a coffee shop, and a "club" that served food with a dj and pool and stuff.

Then my other college had chains, and those also used an extra set of money allocated for them. These weren't replenishable as far as I remember. Once you ran out you had to use cash/credit and not swipe your id. You paid more for certain dining plans that had more of these flex spending dollars.

Universities seem to be taking their food very seriously! Both of my schools had major dining hall renovations while I was there. My friends' colleges did too.

 

[lovin'fl]

Lots of good info. Thanks!

 

[kellyg403]

My daughter is a senior nursing student at Eastern Carolina and my son is a Freshman at Appalachian State. Both schools required freshman to have the most expensive meal plan. My daughters meal plan also has 'Pirate Bucks' to use at some of the fast food places on campus and a few on the outskirts, like Krispy Kreme donuts. My son's school has the meal plan on one card and then 'money' is a separate account altogether. I have not looked at all the dining plans available in depth so there may be another plan that includes some kind of 'flex' bucks.

My daughter has been an RA the last 2 years so her plan is the basic and it is enough food for her. My son blew through his allotment with a week to go for the break. He has done a little better this semester. Hopefully next year there will be a dining plan for his needs too. I think he will need one with a little more credits than my daughter ever needed, but I also think he can manage his credits better too.

Good Luck! Very exciting time!

Kelly

 

[leebee]

It's all changed so much! Last time I used a dining plan was at the University of Maine in 1986, as a grad student (lived on campus). We had the option of 3 meal plans: 10 meals/week (2 per day, M-F), 14 meals/week (2 per day, 7 days per week), or 20 meals/week (3 per day, M-Sat, 2 meals on Sunday- because the dining hall only served 2 meals on Sundays). There was a set cost per plan, and you could change your plan once a semester, but only to increase the # of meals. Everyone had a booklet with meal stamps in it; green booklets were the 10 meal plan, blue were the 14 meal plan, purple were the 20 meal plan. The dining halls had set menus, too. At dinner, there were usually 2 hot entrees to choose from along with a variety of sides (but only one entree, one starch, and one veggie per person) as well as a grill that served burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, etc., with fries. Desserts were available but monitored; only one per person. There was also a large salad bar that contained cold cuts, breads, all manner of salad stuff, and 2 soups. No unlimited eating, no open grazing, no vendor sites, no flex bucks. Wow… how did we ever survive? LOL!!

 

[Bec3b1g]

I think each college is different. My son goes to a private liberal arts college where everything is bought with points. There are no food chains located on campus. Each cafe on campus is run by 1 company. Food is made from scratch, farm to fork, local sourcing, cage free eggs (what is that??) etc. They really take pride in their food options and I know that DS is eating better than he did at home.

 

[luvmyfam444]

Touring colleges with my 3 high school kids and see all the food options they now have (that I didn't have 20-some years ago). I am shocked to see so many of my teens' fave chains as well as some International cuisines. When I went we had 2 buildings to eat...the dining hall and then a grill. NO Starbucks, Chipotle, Wendys, Chick Fil A, Dennys, Subway...etc and NO sushi or gyros or noodles or etc. They now have these places located all over college campuses. I was amazed by this. But my question is...how does this work on the meal plan? I am guessing these chain places are NOT included and you need a cash debit type thing on your meal card to pay for what you buy. I am guessing meal plans only cover meals in the dining halls. Am I correct? And what kind of meal plans and debit allowance do you set your kids up with? I would assume they would not need unlimited dining hall meals nor even the 5 weekdays...maybe a number of swipes?

The 4 colleges we just toured all had extra food establishments with them each of them had flex dollars built into their meal plans. The meal plan is required freshman year & each school ran about $1600 a semester. There were several options on how many meals a week - most offered 15 meals + flex $ that could be used in those other restaurants & you could choose flex $. So for example one school we visited had 19 meals/wk +100 flex points or 10meals +200 flex pts. One school had 75 meals a semester with $650in flex. One school had their flex $ being used about a block off campus at a couple of other restaurants.

and yes, they offer EVERYTHING you could ever dream of to it - unlimited. No more freshman 15...think it'll be more like freshman 45! HA

 

[LisaR]

It's all changed so much! Last time I used a dining plan was at the University of Maine in 1986, as a grad student (lived on campus). We had the option of 3 meal plans: 10 meals/week (2 per day, M-F), 14 meals/week (2 per day, 7 days per week), or 20 meals/week (3 per day, M-Sat, 2 meals on Sunday- because the dining hall only served 2 meals on Sundays). There was a set cost per plan, and you could change your plan once a semester, but only to increase the # of meals. Everyone had a booklet with meal stamps in it; green booklets were the 10 meal plan, blue were the 14 meal plan, purple were the 20 meal plan. The dining halls had set menus, too. At dinner, there were usually 2 hot entrees to choose from along with a variety of sides (but only one entree, one starch, and one veggie per person) as well as a grill that served burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, etc., with fries. Desserts were available but monitored; only one per person. There was also a large salad bar that contained cold cuts, breads, all manner of salad stuff, and 2 soups. No unlimited eating, no open grazing, no vendor sites, no flex bucks. Wow… how did we ever survive? LOL!!

As most have noted, check with each individual college because they all differ so much.

Second, I just want to say to LeeBee that I am incredibly impressed and very jealous of your memory! I can barely remember what I did yesterday. I was also in college in 1986 and there is no way I could remember all those details down to the color of the booklets! I think I've lost a few too may brain cells.