Eating Off Campus

By Melissa Lee

But..what do I eat?

We’ve covered quite a bit of ground here with money, and living, and parking. Which means, its about time to talk about the most important thing in any college student’s life. Food.

For some of you living on campus, having a meal plan comes with the cost of living on campus. But what about those who are not living on campus? Is a meal plan worth it? Here are the pros, and the cons.

THE PROS:

1. Convenience – Having a meal plan means you can eat on campus. It means you can eat whenever, and whatever. While your friends are struggling to get on a shuttle bus or get to their cars just for lunch, you can saunter on over to the nearest dining hall and have your fill.
2. Its healthy – You get a pretty balanced diet. Most dining halls offer a combination of salads, pasta, barbecue (if you’re in this part of the world), sandwiches, soups, the works. If you didn’t have a meal plan, you might feel hard-pressed to walk to McDonald’s across the street for lunch, and we all know how that will turn out…
3. Forget about it! – When you purchase a meal plan, your student account is charged with the entire cost of the meal plan. Whether you are one to pay your tuition in full (lucky you) or pay it through installments, you know that money for your food is already earmarked, so you don’t have to set money aside for food for the rest of the semester.
4. Accepted everywhere! – Most meal plan dollars are also accepted at off-campus locations. Chilli’s might not take your dining dollars if you decide to go on a Saturday night date, but smaller establishments often will.

THE CONS:

1. Oh all that food! – The “freshman 20” is not a myth. Some people gain weight in their first year in college because of meal plans. Dining halls often offer unlimited food for a flat rate, which is great, if you’ve got a metabolism of birds. But at some point, all that eating catches up with you, and if you’re not careful, you might end up with a 10lb problem on your hands.
2. That is quite a lot of money – Most meal plans come down to between $7-9 a meal. In some cases, depending on the university, a meal might actually come up to $11. That is a lot of money for a meal, especially if you’re an average sized eater. A foot-long sandwich at Subway would cost you $5, and about $7-8 if you throw in a drink and chips. Go figure.
3. Unused meal plans – The truth is, there are times when you will need to dine with friends (who don’t have meal plans), or just go on a nice dinner somewhere. These things happen, and you end up with a bunch of unused dining dollars/meal plan credits that you can’t rollover to the next semester. If you’re lucky, you can sell them off to someone who might need them. If not, that’s just money that’s been thrown away.
4. This ain’t the real world, sweetie – Unfortunately, in the real world you don’t get to have meal plans to help you budget. Being able to set aside a sum of money at the beginning of the month for food and dining out will give you more than enough practice for when you get a job and deal with more financial responsibilities.

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