When it comes to choosing whether to live on or off campus, one thing many students have to consider is how they will eat.
One of the major benefits of living on campus is the ease of access to the dining halls.
Off-campus meal plans more expensive, but convenient students say
Mechanical engineering senior Yash Kankaria eats a bagel on Sept. 20, 2015, inside the cafeteria in Case Hall. Kankaria has morning classes and usually eats breakfast before classes. "It's really crowded here, so it does get a bit frantic," Kankaria said.
For a certain amount of money per semester, students “living-on” get unlimited access to all the dining halls on campus.
However, the plans differ for students off-campus. According to the Eat at State website, the plans range from 25 swipes for $237.50 up to 175 swipes for $1,225.
For the smallest plan, it comes out to $9.50 per swipe. For the 175 swipe plan, each swipe costs $7.00.
Some students, such as media and information senior Brandon Price, live off campus and use a meal plan in addition to shopping for groceries.
“Sometime I buy groceries, sometimes I eat in the dining hall," Price said. "Just a little mix of whatever keeps me from starving.”
Price said there are different benefits that come to eating in the dining halls.
“You can eat as much as you want, plus it’s actually much easier to calorie count, believe it or not," he said. "They have this website called NetNutrition that a lot of students don’t know about.”
Price said Net Nutrition is very helpful for students who have special dietary needs or restrictions.
On the other hand, advertising senior Jane Kittendorf lives off campus and only buys groceries to provide herself with food.
She said she likes buying groceries because she feels she has more control over what she eats.
“You can pick what you actually want, there’s more variety," Kittendorf said. "For people with dietary restrictions, it makes it a lot easier.”
Kittendorf added that she doesn’t feel the meal plan offers the organic and healthier options she prefers.
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Additionally, Kittendorf does not believe the meal plans truly get students their money’s worth.
If one were to get the off-campus plan with the most swipes — 175 for $1,225 — they would get approximately 58 days with 3 meals per day, which is roughly two months.
However, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 the average household spent approximately $4,000 on groceries for the calendar year.
That’s roughly $330 per month for groceries, compared to roughly $610 per month if students were to use a dining plan for every month.
Though it is more expensive, it is also easier for students to eat in the dining hall since they don’t have to shop for or prepare food.
Essentially it comes down to how much effort students want to put into their meals and how much money they want to spend to lower that effort.
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