5 ms·

It seems there is a second story here about their University requiring the purchase of a 'meal plan' and that generally not being good value (costing more than

by NeoTar 3y ago

It seems there is a second story here about their University requiring the purchase of a 'meal plan' and that generally not being good value (costing more than the dishes individually)? Am I reading that between the lines correctly?

suddenclarity 3y ago
Yes and no. It seems you're required to be on a meal plan. First-year students automatically (you might be able to downgrade) get a plan for $4019 which includes 400 meals and $75. Meals vary in price though. So if you max out on dinners ($14.97), in theory, you can get 405 dinners which would cost a total of $5974. In other words, a meal plan saves you $1955 vs buying individual meals. If you eat all three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), the average meal would equal $12.19. In other words, you'd get $4951 worth of food for $4019. To summarize, it seems the meal plan saves you money by giving you a discount. The problem (I assume) is that some students don't make use of their 400 meal swipes. https://dining.tufts.edu/your-meal-plan/your-meal-plan-options https://dining.tufts.edu/your-meal-plan/your-meal-plan-optio...
- Ensorceled 3y ago
  My alma mater solved this issue by making the compulsory "meal plan" a credit for the campus wide system so you could eat in the residence dining hall (which was relatively cheap) or spend the credit at various food courts on campus (more expensive, but there is a Subway, McDonalds, etc. etc. as well as various non-franchised options). The second term, they added the credit on a weekly basis because a bunch of students had run out of credit before the end of the first term ... which, as our psychology department pointed out, was a completely predictable eventuality.
Ensorceled 3y ago
The project calculates if the meal plan is good value FOR YOU based on your eating habits.

5 ms·

It seems there is a second story here about their University requiring the purchase of a 'meal plan' and that generally not being good value (costing more than

by NeoTar 3y ago

suddenclarity 3y ago
Yes and no. It seems you're required to be on a meal plan. First-year students automatically (you might be able to downgrade) get a plan for $4019 which includes 400 meals and $75. Meals vary in price though. So if you max out on dinners ($14.97), in theory, you can get 405 dinners which would cost a total of $5974. In other words, a meal plan saves you $1955 vs buying individual meals. If you eat all three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), the average meal would equal $12.19. In other words, you'd get $4951 worth of food for $4019. To summarize, it seems the meal plan saves you money by giving you a discount. The problem (I assume) is that some students don't make use of their 400 meal swipes. https://dining.tufts.edu/your-meal-plan/your-meal-plan-options https://dining.tufts.edu/your-meal-plan/your-meal-plan-optio...
- Ensorceled 3y ago
  My alma mater solved this issue by making the compulsory "meal plan" a credit for the campus wide system so you could eat in the residence dining hall (which was relatively cheap) or spend the credit at various food courts on campus (more expensive, but there is a Subway, McDonalds, etc. etc. as well as various non-franchised options). The second term, they added the credit on a weekly basis because a bunch of students had run out of credit before the end of the first term ... which, as our psychology department pointed out, was a completely predictable eventuality.
Ensorceled 3y ago
The project calculates if the meal plan is good value FOR YOU based on your eating habits.