Brilliant Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 My dd lived on campus last year, but she'll be a commuter student this year. I just got her bill - she is planning on purchasing a meal plan so that she can eat lunch or dinner with her classmates on days she's on campus. Somebody please check my math because I'm just baffled. For $470, she gets 40 meals during the semester, plus $50 in credits to be used at the coffee shop or snack shop. $470-$50= $420/40 = $10.50 per meal. The posted rates for meals purchased individually are $8 for lunch or $9.25 for dinner. Crazy! We will NOT be buying her a meal plan - we are able to load money onto her student ID, so it looks like we'll be doing that instead. Have you done the math at your student's school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OLG Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Yes, they are expensive! Maybe the difference is tax? That's what is a hit for our ds. He lives on campus but is going with the cheapest meal plan allowed. You can see why kids want apartments and cook for themselves. I sympathize! Can she just pay as she goes? We considered that since it is an option for ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Yes! We also did the math on the meal plan this year. The school requires freshman & sophomores to purchase a meal plan, but not upperclassmen. As you did, when we looked at the price for the meal plan minus the declining dollars, and then divided it by the number of meals, it came out to something like $11/meal. The pay as you go price is $10.95 for dinner and less for breakfast and lunch, so we didn't see any advantage to signing up for the meal plan either. I told my son that we'd give him the money we would have spent on the cheapest meal plan and he could load some of it onto his ID as declining dollars, or he could just spend it where he wants. Since he'll have access to a kitchen, he might look into making some of his own meals. If he does that, he'll save quite a bit of money. I really don't understand why they would price the meal plan higher than the per meal cost. Maybe some folks don't do the math.... Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I'm betting that the meal isn't worth the $$$. I would prefer to purchase food for the freezer or something. Can you take your own lunch? I mean.... even a burrito from Baja Fresh is around $6.75. (And I like those better than any food I had on campus.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 When my kids lived off-campus, they always ate breakfast at their apartment to save both money and time. Lunch -- it depended on what was going on and whether it was a good time to be social. Were their friends also eating lunch at that time slot? Did they have time to go back to their apartment? Sometimes they brought a bag lunch. Dinner -- if they had a reason to be on campus or there was a social reason, they ate on campus but otherwise they ate at their apartment. The socializing over meals is worth some $$$, in my opinion, but not all meals are social. You need to weigh the cost, the benefit of socializing at that particular mealtime, and the convenience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I think it really depends on the culture of the school (and maybe the location of the school). Where I went people really bonded over meals. Used to drive to Boston a lot on weekends and spend time with friend's sister at MIT, where it seemed like almost everyone had a bagel or pop tart in their room for breakfast, skipped lunch, and then went someplace out to eat for dinner. Where DH went most people lived off campus and socializing was more over coffee (numerous on-campus coffee shops), or at bars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 My dd lived on campus last year, but she'll be a commuter student this year. I just got her bill - she is planning on purchasing a meal plan so that she can eat lunch or dinner with her classmates on days she's on campus. Somebody please check my math because I'm just baffled. For $470, she gets 40 meals during the semester, plus $50 in credits to be used at the coffee shop or snack shop. $470-$50= $420/40 = $10.50 per meal. The posted rates for meals purchased individually are $8 for lunch or $9.25 for dinner. Crazy! We will NOT be buying her a meal plan - we are able to load money onto her student ID, so it looks like we'll be doing that instead. Have you done the math at your student's school? Our posted lunch and dinner prices are $11 and breakfast is $9. The meal plans utilize the $11 per meal price and points are exchanged 1 point per $1 (to be used at snack bars, etc.). They offer many combinations and have freshman MPs, upperclass MPs, and commuter MPs. I think that the meal plans aren't necessarily cheaper than purchasing the individual meals. It seems that it is just more convenient - Idon't have to remember to load my student's account over the semester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 The socializing over meals is worth some $$$, in my opinion, but not all meals are social. You need to weigh the cost, the benefit of socializing at that particular mealtime, and the convenience. This was a huge issue for my ds in his first semester. I had NO idea and never even considered it when making his schedule. Unfortunately he had classes when his dorm mates were eating supper. It lead to weight loss (which he could not afford) because he didn't want to eat alone. Once he clued me in on the issue (and boys often have a hard time identifying a problem like this), we made it a priority that he have the usual supper hours free in the spring semester. He was emotionally more healthy this past spring. He was able to eat with friends whenever he wanted and he learned that it was OK to eat alone. This ds views meal time as social time. It is important for him to sit and visit while dining. I know this is a bit of a rabbit trail from the OP, but Gwen's comment above was something that I never considered and really wish I had known about before sending this son to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Meal plan and dorm prices are part of the reason Greek housing was always full at the college I attended! We had 3 meals a day, plus a snack bin and our room and board was significantly less than dorms! And it included our dues! I had the smallest meal plan freshman year and could not use it all up. It was a waste of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye-n-CA Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Our daughter was a commuter last year and we did not end up purchasing any kind of meal plan. Unfortunately, the cafeteria is not set up to allow visitors or students to pay for their meals in cash (!), so she missed out quite a bit the first year. This year, she is still commuting but plans to purchase one of the two commuter meal plans. The price works out to about $6 per meal which is the posted cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Wow! That is expensive. My son's meal plan averages out to about $7 per meal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 The socializing over meals is worth some $$$, in my opinion, but not all meals are social. You need to weigh the cost, the benefit of socializing at that particular mealtime, and the convenience. :iagree: with this, too. I'm not suggesting that a student should never eat in the dining halls with his peers because of the expense. I definitely agree that there is value to the peer interaction. However, if the cost of the meal is the same through the meal plan or "pay as you go", then why tie yourself down by purchasing the meal plan? The meal plan requires: 1. money up front to pay for it, and 2. you forfeit any meals you don't use. True that the student does have to manage his funds a bit more if he's using "pay as you go", but I think that management is worth the potential cost savings, and by the time the student is an upperclassmen, he/she should be able to manage his/her own finances. Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 If you buy a meal plan encourage your student to really carefully look over the terms of the plan and to know how to monitor it as the semester go on. Many meal plans have an allotted number of meals per week and there is no carry over or flexibility in how money is spent. Some students appreciate having more money in flexible spending which can be used at campus coffee shops, snack bars, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I just checked my son's meal plan for the Fall and it states that any meals not purchased with the meal plan are subject to 12% meal tax so.....add that into the cost if you're buying meals seperately. Myra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I just checked my son's meal plan for the Fall and it states that any meals not purchased with the meal plan are subject to 12% meal tax so.....add that into the cost if you're buying meals seperately. Myra Yes - DD18 and I were just figuring this out. Her meal plan works out to less than $4.50 a meal and meals purchased outside the plan have to add in 6% sales tax. This seems pretty common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 :tongue_smilie:We had a required meal plan at our residential school until we moved off campus senior year. We started out putting the same amount into a jar and used that to buy vastly better quality food (fresh beef instead of mystery meat) and cooked at home, until we had money flowing out of the jar, and thought about starting a scholarship fund from it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 We're getting the 14 meals/week package for our dd because she will have an on-campus apartment with a full kitchen, but her OCD causes issues with being able to cook much. The cost isn't too bad. For 14 meals/week, the cost is about $7.50/meal and then she also has $100 in dining dollars to spend at the food court (has Chik-fil-a, Pizza Hut, Subway, and others). The smaller meal packages are too pricey to bother with. It would be cheaper to just do dining dollars than the smaller meal packages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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