MSU Culinary Services dining program ranks as No. 24 out of 1,175 colleges and four-year universities in the U.S. according to the annual release of 2015 Best Campus Food rankings by Niche.com

The rankings place Michigan State Culinary Services — a division of Residential and Hospitality Services — among the top university dining services in Michigan.

The survey used data sourced from the Department of Education and more than 471,000 opinion-based survey responses from more than 64,000 current students and latest alumni.

A breakdown of the judgment process included reasonable meal plan costs, students satisfaction with the quality of campus food, a wide variety of healthy food options accommodating dietary preferences and hours of operation that are convenient to the average student, including late-night food options.

Michigan State dining halls offer daily on-campus dining options beginning at 7 a.m. until midnight. Along with unlimited access to the dining halls with every meal plan, Combo-X-Change allows students with meal plans to access a single meal from any of the 21 on-campus Sparty’s convenience and coffee shops, get takeout from the dining halls or the Eat at State On-the-Go food truck, Monday through Friday.

Finance sophomore Leondre Quallo doesn’t let a day go by without using his Combo-X-Change. 

“I use my Combo like a fourth meal around 11 p.m. every night,” he said.

The multiple cuisine options MSU offers caters to a variety of diets, students said.

“I like the effort MSU makes to have different cuisines,” interdisciplinary studies in social science senior Shivani Pandya said. “The options make the cafeteria more diverse to different diets and to people who are sick of pizza and burgers.”

Average meal plan cost reported by the college to the U.S. Department of Education account for 15 percent of the rankings, while the student survey responses collected by Niche users accounted for the remaining 85 percent.

“I personally love the food options,” an MSU sophomore wrote on Niche.com. “Because of my class and work schedule being so tight, I often have to eat fast and run where I need to be. The dining halls on campus are all in great locations, so I can find food no matter where I am.”

During the past five years, Michigan State has renovated seven on-campus dining halls, including the most recently remodeled The Edge at Akers Hall.

To provide the quality of service students and the campus community expect when dining at MSU, Culinary Services employs more than 3,500 team members — 3,000 of which are students.

“Our ranking reflects the university’s commitment to an excellent residential experience and the hard work and dedication of our team members,” Culinary Services Director Guy Procopio said in a statement. “We couldn’t nourish our Spartans without contributions made daily by all Culinary Services team members — from the front line to management — and all of MSU.”