Are college meal plans mandatory?

[Abbie]

I surprised by all the folks who never ate on campus. I ate at least one meal in a college restaurant every day. Some days two meals. It was just a great way to socialize in between classes and not have to wash dishes by hand back in the suite.

We had a LOT of food choices so None of us ever got bored. We had a sub shop, a hot dog shop, an ice cream shop, a TCBY, a pizza delivery place, a homestyle cooking place, an italian restaurant, the food court, a create your own pasta restaurant, a Chik-Fil-A, a McAllister's Deli, a coffee shop, a donut shop, a few breakfast joints, and even a fine dining restaurant with shrimp and steaks!

Wow, did you go to a huge school? What a great amount of choices! My DD's school is a small, private one and she hates the choices so lives on subs and salads.

Some sort of meal plan is required at her school (and yes, I do think it's about the money!) if you live on campus. Freshmen and sophomores are required to have the full plan......I can't begin to calculate how much money was wasted those years! This year we had to go through the dean to get a special exemption to allow her to purchase a smaller meal plan and I'm so glad they agreed!

 

[Pigeon]

I work at a university and it's mandatory here for anyone living in the dorm. It was that way when I went to college back when the earth was cooling.

It's a money maker for the school, but I can also see the reasoning behind it because the logistics of kids trying to cook in dorms that have very limited kitchen facilities or get off campus (when we don't allow underclassmen to have cars on campus) regularly enough to eat well would be tough.

 

[KirstenB]

Was in college back in the eighties, eekkk!! If you lived in the dorms, you had to have the meal plan.

But after freshman year, I moved off campus with my friends. We got an apartment, and did our own cooking/takeout. I liked that a lot better. Not that the food was bad, it was decent. I just didn't like the whole shared space with a lot of people.

 

[Angelhalo]

Wow, did you go to a huge school? What a great amount of choices! My DD's school is a small, private one and she hates the choices so lives on subs and salads.

Some sort of meal plan is required at her school (and yes, I do think it's about the money!) if you live on campus. Freshmen and sophomores are required to have the full plan......I can't begin to calculate how much money was wasted those years! This year we had to go through the dean to get a special exemption to allow her to purchase a smaller meal plan and I'm so glad they agreed!

Not really. I went to Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

 

[bicker]

Ok, here is my stupid question of the day: WHY? Why is this required, especially when some students have a full kitchen?

This was a big big controversy when I was in college in the early 1980s. I led a student "revolt" (it was just a lot of us whining incessantly about having to do the meal plan) and was eventually given the "keys to the kingdom" by school officials. The point they made was that cooking in the dorms, besides being dangerous, generates tons of garbage! The agreement we struck is that I would pull together and run a student work program that would essentially provide the school with cheap labor (students) who would address this problem.

It worked for a couple of years. Then I became a grad student and didn't have time to run it anymore, and within a year it fell apart and everyone was finally forced onto the meal plan.

A few years ago, one of my college friends sent me a link.... the school newspaper had digitized all of their old issues, and put them online, and he found the issue where I was interviewed about the new program. Oh gosh, thank goodness it was in black and white, so you couldn't see how poorly dressed I was.

Anyway, at least for us, the problem was labor cost for keeping the dorm kitchen clean and garbage free... that's why the university didn't want cooking in the dorms.

 

[barkley]

the college dh attends requires it if you live on campus but there's 3 plans you can choose from and it's a point vs. number of meals plan. so you can get full blown means or ala carte items at a number of on campus eateries, and you can use the points at the coffee/smoothie/frozen yogurt places on campus as well.

there are a couple of elements that seem appealing in their plan-bundled into each of the meal plans are what are called 'flex dollars'-they can be used for food items on campus but can also be used at several off campus fast foods and eateries as well-you can also use them at the campus bookstore for non food items. if you have points remaining at the end of a quarter you can roll up to a certain amount over to the next (and presumably move into a lower level food plan to make up the difference), for a small charge one student can transfer points to another,AND a certain number can at the end of a quarter be transferred into flex dollars.

dh does'nt live on campus but he has a flex card that we load with money each quarter-it's like a debit card so that way he can hit any of the campus eateries or the merchants that accept it and grab a bite between classes.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I think you may have the option to not pick it at my dd's dorm. IDK, it is so confusing.

Now they do have a "7-Plan" which is one meal a day.

And you can use those meal "points" at other dining places, not just the dorm. They have a "store" you can use to use up any "points" to buy snacks, pizza, and many different dining halls.

Plus they have "EZ Charge" (optional) which is basically a food credit card. Kids that are in apartments can sign up for this plan if they want.
We signed up dd up for this however I don't think she is using it.

Right now she seems to be sticking with her dorm, instead of "branching out".

 

[eliza61]

I have been checking out a few colleges online. I have been surprised at the number of colleges that make the meal plan mandatory for anyone living on campus. Is this common or have I just happened upon a few that require it? I don't think I ever stepped foot in the dining hall when I went to college.

My son is at Marshall U, meal plans were mandatory for Freshman. I think the premise is they don't want a bunch of moms (like me) scared to death that their "babies" aren't eating. He has a great choice of meal plans so it wasn't a tough issue for us.

There is also the problem of kids "cooking" in the dorm. I went to the University of Pittsburgh and I can't tell you the number of "smoke outs" we had from some one burning food on their hot plates.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My son is at Marshall U, meal plans were mandatory for Freshman. I think the premise is they don't want a bunch of moms (like me) scared to death that their "babies" aren't eating. He has a great choice of meal plans so it wasn't a tough issue for us.

There is also the problem of kids "cooking" in the dorm. I went to the University of Pittsburgh and I can't tell you the number of "smoke outs" we had from some one burning food on their hot plates.

Hot plates are not allowed in my dd's dorm. Now she said there are kids there that do not ever eat in the dorm and they have a full stocked pantries in their rooms.

 

[clori]

Way back when I went (1992) if you lived in a dorm room without a kitchen you had to have a meal plan. It was point based. My first semester freshman year we weren't really sure and my parents went with the most expensive plan. It was use or loose and at the end they had things like fruit baskets you could buy to use up points. By the second semester I was on a lower point plan.

If you lived on campus in an apartment that had a kitchen in it (usually juniors and seniors) you didn't need to have any meal plan. Most people I knew including me kept the lowest priced meal plan even with an apartment. Depending on your schedule sometimes it was quicker/convenient to go to one of the cafeterias in between classes than it was to go back to your apartment and cook. Many times groups of friends/study groups etc would also meet up in the cafeteria since not everyone had a kitchen. Even off campus students often had the meal plan if it worked better for their class schedule since it was cheaper than paying cash for all meals and I think at one point the points became transferable semester to semester.

 

[golfgal]

Ok, here is my stupid question of the day: WHY? Why is this required, especially when some students have a full kitchen? Are the schools making big bucks on the program or is there some other reason that I am missing?

If she is living in an on-campus apartment you might want to look into the requirement. I know most of the schools here say if you live on campus you have to have a meal plan BUT if you are in the on-campus apartments you are exempt. I know the school that DS17 is going to next year is like this. The college I attended had the same set up.

 

[monkey68]

My college, it was required for freshman living on campus. We had a cash system, where the card worked like a prepaid debit card. You could use it at the main dining hall, the coffee shop, the sit down restaurant, the campus grocery store (where it was really overpriced). You had to have one of the 2 higher costs, I think either $1300 or $1500 for the semester. I didn't come close to using all that. The other years, I bought a $500 meal plan, and bought a fridge, which I would have some frozen dinners, and I would also keep pasta, oatmeal, etc. in my room. I thought it was ridiculous that my school would charge 50 cents for a hard boiled egg, when I could buy a dozen of them for $2 and boil them myself.

 

[bballmom56]

At my kids' university, freshmen living on campus are required to have the "unlimited" meal plan, meaning you can eat as much as you want any time of the day or night. I'm sure one reason it is required is to make sure that stressed out freshmen are able to get food as they want and need it.

DS is living off campus this year and is still taking the unlimited plan. I didn't think that 5 guys with 5 different schedules living in an off campus house would want to worry too much about cooking and even worse - cleaning up after it. And I was right. DS and at least one of his housemates regularly eat on campus. I like it because I know he is eating well and it keeps him connected to the campus community. They have a choice of the main dining area with salads, hot/cold meals, specialty foods, etc., or chik-fil-a (or however you spell it), starbucks, quiznos or the convenience store.

 

[shellybaxter]

I am the Director of Auxiliary Services (which includes Food Services) at a small college with a residence hall. Residece hall students are required to purchase a meal plan. We require it to be able to provide the service. We are not allowed to compete for local community business so the amount of customers we can have (we are a VERY small school) is finite. In order for the program to break even (we DO NOT make a lot of $$$) we have to require a meal plan of all residence hall students (they do not have cooking facilitis in their rooms - we do have a small kitchen for weekends when food service in not available) in order to be able to provide the service at all

 

[kafitty]

at my state college, anyone living in the regular dorms had to have a meal plan; it wasn't required for anyone in the 21+ apartments.

we had this plan, it's run by Sodexho.

the college dh attends requires it if you live on campus but there's 3 plans you can choose from and it's a point vs. number of meals plan....

they have catering options too. They run ALL of the foodservices on my campus, with the exclusion of a couple Dunkin Donuts locations. They even run a faux Starbucks.

i don't think it has anything to do with worrying about college kids eating - it's definitely the money. Forcing people to buy meal plans means that the company is getting paid big bucks up front, and since a lot of people choose to eat off campus with their "real" money, they probably make a pretty decent profit off of unused points/meals. i'm sure it's something in the contract with the school.

 

[Feralpeg]

The meal plan was required for freshman living in the dorms at my DD's university. To tell you the truth, I wish it was mandatory for all the years. In the end, it cost me a lot more when she wasn't on the meal plan. On the meal plan, she ate at the diners on campus. Once off the meal plan, she ventured to too many off campus restaurants and spent a lot more money.

 

[Allison]

I work at a university and it's mandatory here for anyone living in the dorm. It was that way when I went to college back when the earth was cooling.

It's a money maker for the school, but I can also see the reasoning behind it because the logistics of kids trying to cook in dorms that have very limited kitchen facilities or get off campus (when we don't allow underclassmen to have cars on campus) regularly enough to eat well would be tough.

Yes, it's not all about "big bucks". The cost of running a dining facility is enormous. The reasons you stated are a big part of it.

 

[englishteacha]

My college required on campus students to have a meal plan, unless they lived in the (now demolished) on-campus apartments. We had lots of levels to choose from, and could also get points to spend in the snack bar. It was a small school, so we only had the main dining room and the snack bar to choose from. I lived on campus for 4 years, and ate 2-3 meals a day in the dining hall or at the snack bar. The food was good, and our meal plans were very affordable. Going to meals was also a good time to socialize. Another "perk" was you could order bag lunches if you were going off campus. I got a bag lunch every day when I was student teaching, and sometimes we'd order them for day trips or long rides home. I had friends who attended other schools who found that eating on campus was horribly expensive, or the food was awful. We were lucky.

 

[aristocatz]

My undergrad was mandatory if you lived on campus....& it was mandatory to live on campus for the first two years unless you were a commuter student.

I think we had the option of a 5 day or 7 day plan.

My guess for the reason to make the dining plan mandatory was:

-Revenue for the school

-Cut down on kids sneaking in their friends, who were not on the plan. This was actually an issue when students had guests visit for the weekend. Kids tried to sneak their visiting friends in all the time!

-If I were running a college, I would rather the students ate food prepared for them rather than letting them cook so much in the dorms. Might increase the price of gas/electricity per month in the dorms and increase the risk of fires (college students-especially at the party school I went to-are not always the brightest bulbs when it comes to domestics)

-They served pretty healthy food at my college. This increased the nutrition of the average student, thus increasing their focus for studying and learning!

 

[LisaR]

Thanks for all the responses!

I have learned many things:

1. Things have changed more than I thought since I went to college.

2. I better save more money for the kids so they can have the meal plan.

3. My DD is going to starve because she is vegan and she hates eating out with a passion. She would much rather prepare her own food.