My niece is going to NYU in the fall and some of the policies are baffling.
Like meal plans, Dining Dollars, the vending/laundry, and the bathroom situation in Weinstein.
Anyone?
According to this site, Weinstein is a traditional-style, Freshman-only dorm with suite configuration (2-3 people per room, 2-3 bedrooms per suite). That means 4-9 people share a bathroom that is considered part of their living area (presumably they are responsible for cleaning it as well)
A 10 meal or larger meal plan is required for residents of this dorm.
Meal plan stuff is explained here:
http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/eCampus1/NYU
We know the official word from the school. I’m looking for answers from people who went there. Things like how much laundry costs. How many Dining Dollars make sense. Whether people end up needing more meals on the meal plan.
She’s going to the school, so she already has what the school says. I want what the school doesn’t say.
Oh, sorry. Your post wasn’t very clear. If you read it, it says the policies are baffling. I posted with links to the explanations of the policies.
Perhaps you would find this interesting:
http://www.arsiel.net/nyu/i_do.html
That link was helpful. Thanks!
Well, there are plenty of NYC dopers. Are you going to come drop her off for school?
No, more’s the pity.
I’m going to try to visit her sometime so I can gawk about like a rube. That’d be fun.
My laundry knowledge is terribly rusty, but if you want neighborhood advice, etc. I’ll take my best shot at it.
Eva Luna, NYU '89 (but I go back all the time - Dad lives in Queens)
Hey, Eva Luna.
I guess the biggest question is how do we figure out how many meals to get on the meal plan?
They have all different levels of meal plannage. Do most students eat the majority of their meals at the campus cafeterias, or do something else?
My sister is trying to figure out how much money to put onto various cards and plans and we don’t know a damned thing about New York or NYU, so estimating is hard. There are meal plans. There are also Dining Dollars that can be used for food and laundry. And there is Campus Cash that can be used for other things.
The default meal plan is 10 meals a week, then 14, then 19. They all come with varying amounts of Dining Dollars. The 10 has a lot of DD. The 14 few. And the 19 in between.
I know it’s been a while, but is campus culture geared toward eating on meal plans or eating from other sources?
IME the full meal plan was a huge waste of money; if you cook at all, it’s a lot more money per meal than I would have otherwise spent, especially for breakfast (but then I’m a toast-and-coffee sort of person). But then I lived in Hayden Hall, which meant all but my first year I had a kitchen (of sorts).
Campus culture will depend a lot on who your friends are, as well as whether your classes are scheduled in such a way that it makes sense to go back to a dorm for meals. Also keep in mind that the Village is chock-full of all sorts of street food (don’t miss Mahmoun’s Falafel!), some of which may be cheaper for grabbing a quick bite than the meal plan would be. Freshman year we were required to have the full 19-meal plan, but after that I went with the minimum, and it was fine.
My college was situated in a place very different than New York – think tundra – but in my experience, the thing for a freshman to do was get a very comprehensive meal plan. Then, as she learns her way around, she can cut it down, but she’ll never be in a situation where she has to forgo a meal due to poor planning.
–Cliffy
I got my MA from NYU from last year, so I can definitely field questions about the school. Campus life, not so much.
For what it’s worth, I was an undergrad at another school in NYC. As a freshman, I got the minimum meal plan and the maximum campus dollars. This ended up working out much better: almost everyone else I know had a huge surplus of meals at the end but ran out of money within two months.
She’s going to the business school and I don’t know where anything is.
Did you like the school?
She’s on the main part of “campus,” then, to whatever extent NYU really has a campus. (My work/study job was in the business school.)
I meant to say something else in the midst of my last insomniac posting - provided she is reasonably responsible about her budgeting and won’t starve by mid-semester, there’s another reason to recommend minimum meal plans. To me, part of the experience of going to college is to experience ALL of life in New York, not just the university cafeterias. Cash, or even meal dollars, provide more flexibility - to me, the per-meal cost of the meal plan was overpriced, even though the cafeteria food wasn’t half-bad for cafeteria food.
I did like the school quite a lot - particularly once I chose my major (which was pretty much right away). Classes in my major were rarely more than 15 - 20 people, and we got a lot of individualized attention. I called several professors years after I graduated to ask for advice, and they were all very generous with their time and energy.