Every semester, students get to choose between types of meal plans offered. Some pick the Everyday Plan because they eat on campus every day. Others who live off-campus will choose the commuters plan, which contains 750 dining dollars. However, there is one plan that students should never pick; the Block 150 meal plan.
The Block 150 meal plan allows students 150 swipes, which can be used at the dining halls or other restaurants across campus. The Block 150 cost $1,455 a semester. This is the second-cheapest meal plan offered, and as such it seems appealing to some students. However, by doing some math, it turns out that students are losing money if they purchase the Block 150 meal plan.
In order to get the best bang for their buck with this meal plan, a student would want to ideally to spend all of their credits at the most expensive place on campus. The most expensive place to eat on campus under a meal credit, minus the Terrace Dining Room at Lonnie Poole Golf Course, is any of the NC State dining halls during dinner, which have an entry fee of $9.65 in cash or credit.
Hypothetically, if a student were able to use every single one of their meal credits at these times in these places, they would have spent the equivalent of $1,447.50. Notably, that’s cheaper than the actual plan. However, the Block 150 plan also comes with $100 in Dining Dollars, which should put it over the top — but keep in mind the dining halls are the most expensive place to eat with a singular meal credit, and that the above scenario is highly unrealistic and only accounts for the highest-cost meal: dinner.
In the real world, students are likely to eat breakfast and lunch, which cost less than dinner, and spend meal credits all over campus at cheaper locations. For example, if a student evenly split their 150 credits between breakfast, lunch and dinner at the dining halls and spent all their Dining Dollars, they would still lose $73. If instead students were to eat at Talley or the Atrium, whose credits have less value, then they would lose even more money.
To add insult to injury, the meal credits don’t transfer each semester. So if a student doesn’t use all of their meal credits in one semester, they are gone forever, which means that they are losing even more money. This gives an incentive to spend the entirety of the swipes to cover the cost of the meal plan. However, simply using cash or credit would allow a student to stop whenever with no potential penalty.
What’s really sad about this is that as a whole, NC State is pretty good when it comes to pricing their meal plans. Nationwide, students spend around $4,500 for a college meal plan on average. However, if a student purchases the Everyday Plan at NC State, which is the most popular one, then they are spending $4,190 ($2,095 per semester). That is $310 cheaper than the national average.
Not only that, but the Everyday Plan provides a great deal as well. This plan gives students unlimited access to the dining halls; as a conservative estimate, if a student ate breakfast ($6.75), lunch ($9.24) and dinner ($9.65) there for five days a week, they would end up spending $2179.40 after 85 days. That means that students would have saved around $84 per semester.
It might not seem like $84 is enough to be worth it, but this assumption is actually the bare minimum; it entirely ignores the fact that students could eat at dining halls on the weekend. If the model were to include weekends, students could spend the equivalent of $3051.16, which would save $956.16.
If it were to also add in the 12 weekly meal credits included in the plan, each valued at a hypothetical $6.00 — and that’s low — students would spend the equivalent of $4275.16. This would bring the total savings to $2,180.16. Like the Block 150, the Everyday Plan also includes 100 Dining Dollars, bringing its potential savings up to $2,280 or more.
The Block 150 plan needs to be cheaper to make it a viable option for students. The other meal plans offer greater value and can help students save money. Students who live on campus should get the Everyday or Weekday plans. Students living off campus should get the 750 Dining Dollars, because students can save 5% at all NC State restaurants and convenience stores. NC State dining provides a great value for the most part, but Block 150 is the unfortunate exception.
