What did you do and why?

My son will be in a commons dorm and we are leaning toward the all-access 7 day dining plan for my incoming fish who is athletic and likes to eat a lot at every meal. I've got a little bit of a concern that he'll get burned out on the overall quality and start to seek other options to the dining halls to the extent that the value proposition is no longer as good, but even though he likes to eat good food he's got some capacity to just treat food as fuel.

My son like your son. Definitely eats 3 a day or more. Lifts daily and plays sports.

I think we are going with the unlimited 5 day M-F but add like $300 in dining dollars to the card. Saves around $200.

I feel like there will be more "out to eat" moments on weekends, but the added dining dollars can be used to swipe at the cafeterias on weekends for $9 a meal. The $400 ($300 plus $100 that's included) gives him 46 swipes in the Fall semester.

Plus he gets 5 meal pickups a week. He can grab something Friday night and throw it in the fridge too.

We haven't fully decided, but that's my first thought.

The unlimited swipes is a game changer since I was in school. Don't know if that's been the case for a while.

Why would you ever buy a snack? Swipe and grab something off the line, right? A little extra effort and a few more steps. Done.

We having an incoming freshman and are planning to do the all-access 7 day plan as well. I think it will be overkill but the other options for on-campus freshman didn't make sense for me. I wish there was an option for ~2 meal swipes a day (i.e. lunch and dinner) but then eat breakfast in the dorm room (i.e. cereal or fruit).

One note if you're considering the 5 day plan, the physical handout at New Student Conference earlier this week indicated the 5 day plan would not be available for on-campus freshman. When I look online now, I see a restriction only for Corps of Cadets (only available for juniors and seniors) so maybe I just read the hand out wrong.

On campus 3 in one dorm room with public bathroom and 18 meals per week ~ $15,000+ per academic year @ ucla.