There’s a huge chance that your campus has at least one dining hall, meaning there’s another huge chance that you’re REQUIRED to get a meal plan if you’re a freshman.

Depending on the day, having a meal plan can be good or bad. The dining hall is close, fast and has a wide selection of food. However, you always see the same people there, and the “wide selection” of food is the same every day. Here are some tips on how you can master the dining hall and make the most of your meal plan.

Take your Tupperware: If your dining hall is all-you-can-eat, then you should eat whatever you want when you go, but also stock up for later. Take cereal, cookies, fruit and vegetables.  There are going to be some mornings you don’t want to go to the dining hall because you’re just too hungover, and you’ll just want to eat cereal in bed. Or maybe you’ll be up all night cramming for an exam and need a few sweet, chocolate chip cookies to get you through the night. Read More »

Welcome to the Dining Hall! It is a new year, but the menu hasn’t changed much since the spring semester. While its cuisine might fall short of the five-star Michelin rating, your dining hall is still offering the same mediocre-to-decent fare that you’ve been demanding as students with only a few minutes to eat, anyway.

As a freshman, you might have been awed by the mere expanse of food before you. Inspired by the hustle and bustle of upperclassmen milling expertly around the different food stations, you were elated to find that dessert is served at every meal. But come October, the honeymoon glow dimmed to a faint flicker, and your affair with the dining hall turned into something of a mess.

The economic, all-you-can-eat style buffet, serving food that is generally fatty, sugary, and over-processed, leads many collegiates to pack on the pounds as they struggle to navigate this danger zone. Whether you’re shoveling tasteless food as fast as you can to make a class in ten minutes, or leisurely enjoying a couple hours of all-access binging while chatting with friends, the cafeteria offers a wide variety of ways to overindulge. Here are a couple of tricks to help you avoid the pitfalls of college dining:

1. Survey the Scene. Make a tour of the available options of the day so that you don’t load up on all the stuff at the beginning of the line, only to have to nab a second plate for the food at the next station. Read More »