Dining flex: Essentially, this is pre-loaded money that you can use at any on-campus restaurant (Alpine, Wendy's, etc). It doesn't always automatically come with your meal plan, but it can be added to any plan you choose. This does transfer from semester to semester. It's essentially the same as using a debit card, but it's sometimes covered by financial aid. In most cases, you choose how much or how little flex money you purchase.
The meal plans to choose from (from most expensive to least expensive):
The Unlimited Plan
What you get:
- Unlimited meal swipes - you can eat at Top of Lenoir or Chase any time they're open and can swipe as often as you want.
- 35 PLUS swipes
- 10 guest swipes — unlike other meal plans, you can't use your regular meal swipes for someone else, so that you can't just swipe in your friends constantly, free of charge.
The price: $2,360.28
The bang for your buck:
Below the Unlimited Plan, the next highest meal plan is 200 swipes per semester. If you are planning on eating in the dining hall more than 12 times per week each semester, then consider the Unlimited Plan.
However, if you feel like you'll go out to eat or eat your room more often, it might not be the plan for you. If you're planning on frequenting guests to the dining hall as well, you may want to remember that you only get five free swipes before your guest has to pay to get in.
The Block 200 Plan
What you get:
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- 165 regular meal swipes + 35 PLUS swipes (which can be used as regular meal swipes or for PLUS meals)
- No specific guest swipes, though each time you swipe in a guest, it costs you one swipe.
The price: $2,082.
The bang for your buck:
This evens out to 12 meals per week, how you break that down if completely up to you. With this meal plan, you'll probably be operating between eating one and two meals in the dining hall each day.
This plan will work well if you aren’t going to be wholly reliant on the dining hall for food, but you want to have it as a good fallback and a way to socialize during the week.
The Block 160 Plan
What you get:
- 125 regular meal swipes + 35 PLUS swipes (which can be used as regular meal swipes or for PLUS meals)
- No specific guest swipes, though each time you swipe in a guest, it costs you one swipe.
The price: $1,841.60
The bang for your buck:
Essentially, this is nine meals per week. Depending on how often you go to the dining hall, you'll be eating between one or two meals in the dining hall each day, but more likely than not, it'll just be one.
This works well if you aren’t going to spend most of your meals or grab snacks in the dining halls, but instead will rely on what you buy or make in your dorm room.
The Block 120 Plan
What you get:
- 85 regular meal swipes + 35 PLUS swipes (which can be used as regular meal swipes or for PLUS meals)
- No specific guest swipes, though each time you swipe in a guest, it costs you one swipe.
The price: $1,464
The bang for your buck:
This is seven meals a week. If you think you'll eat more than one meal per day in the dining hall, you should bump up your meal plan or prepare to have a day or two in the week where you won't eat in a dining hall. If you eat frequently in the beginning of the semester, you'll likely run out of swipes by the time finals come around.
The Block 100 Plan
What you get:
- 65 regular meal swipes + 35 PLUS swipes (which can be used as regular meal swipes or for PLUS meals)
- An automatic $200 in Dining Flex, which you can use at any restaurant on campus, just like you would a debit card.
- No specific guest swipes, though each time you swipe in a guest, it costs you one swipe.
The price: $1,453
The bang for your buck:
This is six meals a week, but you are automatically paying for $200 of Dining Flex, which roughly evens out to 25 meals at on-campus restaurants (if you think of them as ~$8 per meal). If you aren't super excited about eating at the dining hall, and figure that other options might better fit your lifestyle, this plan might be for you. If you want to rely on the dining hall as primarily a spot to socialize or grab a quick bite when there are no other options, this would work well for you.
Changing your meal plan:
You are free to change your meal plan until Sept. 3, online or at the UNC ONE Card office. Your refund is rewarded on a pro-rated basis, depending on when you cancel or lessen your meal plan. But this date is early for you to really know what your semester may look like, so it's best to get a feel of what you think your schedule will be and plan accordingly now.
If you join a fraternity or sorority during your first semester, you have one week to contact the ONE Card office with your bid information so that you can change your meal plan, since most fraternities and sororities have mandatory meal plans.
How to choose (and my personal opinion):
It's best to decide what meal plan works best for you, your lifestyle and your schedule. Personally, I downsized between my first and second years of school. I found that at the end of my first semester, I didn’t even get close to using a 200 Block Plan, let alone the Unlimited Plan that I had. On any given day, I was eating at the dining hall once, twice tops, and rarely ever on weekends.
As for PLUS swipes, I completely forgot I had them, but I should’ve used them more. If you decide to get a meal plan, PLUS swipes are a great way to break the monotony of the dining hall without actually spending money. Especially if you have a higher meal plan, they’ll come in handy — if you remember that they’re there.
Dining flex is something that I never really used, but it is a good way to budget long-term. I’ve always been terrible at budgeting, especially when it comes to food, but Flex seems like a great way to avoid spending too much money on food.
However, if you see yourself wanting to have the dining hall as an option to fall back on, grab something to go before a late night in the library or as a way to catch up with friends, it might lead to less stress to get a bigger meal plan.
In the end, my recommendation would be to really think about how you’re picturing your lifestyle to be during your first year. Though you aren’t going to know for sure, thinking of how you operate on a personal basis will be a lot more helpful in the end than listening to what everyone else recommends.
