Meal Plans

Dining at CMU is different from many other universities. As opposed to offering a few large dining halls that serve buffet-style meals, CMU offers numerous restaurant-style dining locations. You cannot grab a tray and load on whatever you like, you’re restricted to a meal block, CMU’s definition of a meal. (There is 1 location that is a traditional dining hall)

As a freshman at CMU, you are required to purchase a meal plan. If you’re just skimming, follow the basic rule of: buy the red plan, then if you get an apartment-style dorm, move to the yellow plan. You have a few weeks into the semester where you can change meal plans and get money back. The CMU freshman meal plans are almost always too much food to finish in one semester. On top of that, unused parts of your meal plan effectively are deleted at the end of each semester. They do not roll over or get refunded. Table 1 shows all the basic information for the different meal plans.

Table 1: Meal Plan Information

Cost

Meal plans are charged on a semester basis, so you will pay for 2 semesters total of your freshman meal plan. Red, blue, and green are similarly priced, while yellow is significantly cheaper. Yellow plan is only available to students living in apartment dorms on campus. There are much fewer apartment dorms than other options, so few freshmen will be allowed to purchase the yellow plan. However, if you are allowed to, it is recommended that you do.

Meal Blocks

At CMU, you’re allotted a certain amount of meal blocks, which the school considers to be a “meal” for you. The different meal blocks are described in Table 2.

Table 2: Meal Block Definitions

Every day from midnight to the next midnight, you are allowed to use 4 meal blocks total. Every meal period, you are allowed to use 2 meal blocks. You cannot use 3 meal blocks within a single meal period or more than 4 meal blocks in a day. Guest meal blocks bypass this restriction.

You may read Table 1 and think, “I eat 3 meals a day, how will I get by on the recommended Red Plan?” Most commonly, people will occasionally skip meals or travel off campus for meals, which reduce meal blocks consumed. Also, the $850 in flex dollars can make up for needed meal blocks should you manage to finish all of them.

Unused meal blocks do not roll over to the next semester. You also do not get refunded for unused meal blocks. Use as much of your meal plan as possible to avoid wasting money, because you paid for the entire meal plan upfront.

Flex Dollars

Flexible spending dollars (flex dollars) is ‘money’ included with your meal plan. This ‘money’ can be treated like cash at all on-campus dining locations and select off-campus locations. These can be used as a substitute to meal blocks, or for adding on additional items to a meal block purchase (such as an additional side or drink). There are also convenience stores on campus (Entropy+ and Scotty’s Market) which stock snacks and limited living supplies such as toiletries at an upcharge. Never go here with cash, only use flex dollars here unless absolutely necessary.

However, beyond these locations the flex dollars have no use. Unfortunately, any unused flex dollars also do not roll over and are effectively destroyed at the end of the semester, like meal blocks.

DineXtra

DineXtra (dinex) can be used at the same places as flex dollars, but is not included with meal plans. Dinex can be purchased by itself without a meal plan, while flex dollars cannot be purchased. The only way to obtain flex dollars is by purchasing a meal plan. While dinex may feel limiting because of the locations accepting it, there is one reason to purchase it. For every $100 of dinex you purchase, you get 1% bonus added to your account. For example, if you purchase $500 of dinex you get an additional $25 (5% of $500) in dinex for free.

Guest Meal Blocks

Guest meal blocks can be treated as normal meal blocks and follow similar restrictions for entree/side/drinks. However, they bypass meal period and daily restrictions. You can purchase up to 4 meal blocks in a single meal period by using 2 guest blocks. You can purchase up to 6 meal blocks in a single day by using 2 guest blocks. Note that meal plans with guest blocks only include 2 for the entire semester.

Final Thoughts

You get a lot of meal blocks as a freshman. Unless you’re an athlete or someone who eats a ton, buy either the red or yellow plan. In order to not waste meal blocks, students will commonly sell or give meal blocks to upperclassmen who don’t have meal plans. As an upperclassman writing this, please do this as opposed to letting your meal blocks go to waste. The Discord server is a great place to complete these transactions efficiently.

See Also

• CMU Official Dining Plan Page
• CMUEats
• CMU Dining Locations