Meal Plan at Middle Tennessee State University
One of the decisions that any incoming freshman will have to make is how he/she is going to get his/her food throughout the semester. For this decision, there are a lot of choices, if you are going to live off-campus or with your parents you can choose to eat at home or cook by yourself and take snack, lunch or dinner to classes depending on your schedule. This is the cheapest way to get food but also you have the option to get a meal plan and eat at school. If you are going to live on-campus, at least in the first year you will have to have a meal plan because Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) requires it. Throughout this article I will talk about the meal plan from my experiences as a freshman at MTSU.
- How the meal plan works?
The MTSU meal plans are composed of meal swipes and FlexBucks. You use the meal swipes at the dining halls to pay for your access at the dining hall and FlexBucks are declining balance of funds to use at any MT Dining restaurant, coffee shop or POD Market. The POD Market offers quick snacks, Grab-and-Go menu, toiletries, bottled beverages, sushi, and more.
-Food at the dining halls.
In my point of view, at the dining halls there are a good variety of food, from vegetarian food to hamburger, baked potato and international food. You will not get bored of eating in the dining halls as long as you are open to eat different kind of foods and to try new foods. The workers at the dining halls are very kind and attentive. Every time I see them I get in a conversation with them, it is always nice and very rewarding to know how is their day going and about them. If you don’t feel like eating at the dining halls and want to save as much FlexBucks or money as possible, you can use the meal equivalency program to eat at several MT Dining locations. The meal equivalency program allows you to exchange your dining hall access for up to $6 credits at participating MT Dining restaurant every weekday. For example, if you would like to have sushi for lunch and the sushi cost $8 and where you are buying your lunch participate in the meal equivalency program, you will can take $6 off of your final price by using a meal swipe and you will only have to pay $2 out of pocket and you can use FlexBucks to pay for it but if you buy something that cost less than $6 you will not get any money back.
-The meal plan is a service, therefore, they will try to sell it to you:
My first interaction with the meal plan was at the CUSTOM orientation where meal plan sellers were trying to sell me a meal plan and giving me information regarding the meal plan. This was very overwhelming but just be prepared for it.
-The meal plan has excellent benefits that will not be as easy to find it in others alternative
The biggest benefits are convenience and that will make easier your social life. It brings you a lot of convenience because you will not have to cook or go out of campus to get food and as you will pay upfront for the meal plan you will not have to worry about the money. Also, it will make your social life easier because if you have the meal plan you will go to the dining hall almost every day, so the dining hall will become one of the places where you will can socialize and meet persons from everywhere. I have been able to create friendships with several international students, one from South Africa and several from China and Mexico in the dining hall.
-You will have to choose among several meal plans options
If you live on campus, the meal plan will be automatically be added to your account but if you don’t live on campus and you want to buy a meal plan you will have the opportunity to choose it. Below, you have the meal plan options for the school year
2017–2018.
In my freshman year, I chose the 100 Meal Plan with 275 FlexBucks because the 50 meal plan was not going to be enough for me, I needed around 80 meal swipes but there was not a meal plan with that amount of swipes.
My advice to you is to do your homework about the meal plan and choose the one that you will need. Also, at the dining hall be open, ready and motivated to socialize and try new plates and if you have enough FlexBucks and want to meet with someone for lunch or dinner, invite them to the dining hall. I have done it and it feels good because you don’t feel that you are spending money and probably that person will enjoy to eat and know how is the dining hall at Middle Tennessee State University! Also probably the professor, friend and students that you would like to meet with have the meal plan so it would be easier to get them to meet you at the dining hall than at any other place.
-More Information
If you would like more information about the meal plans at MTSU, just go to https://mtsu.campusdish.com, there you will can find all the information about the places where you can use the FlexBucks at Middle Tennessee State University, the different meal plans that you can buy and any other information about the meal plan.
