Comparison of Dining Plans

Penn Dining Plan (2,416 freshmen and 21,203 full-time students)

·         4 first year dining plans with varying combinations of visits

·         Extra visit added for a price

·         There are 5 different dining halls to use meal swipes and 4 additional halls where dining dollars are accepted

·         Each plan has the same price of 4,182 dollars a year.

·         There is a 15-16 dollar cash equivalent of a meal swipe

Temple Dining Plan (4,200 freshmen and 37,000 undergrads)

·         11 dining plan options

·         The ability to purchase additional meals and diamond dollars

·         The actual cost equivalent of a meal plan is $7.60 for breakfast and lunch and $8.85 for dinner.

·         The dining halls are open until midnight every day except for Saturday

·         The highest costing  required plan is 3,198 dollars and the lowest costing required plan is 2,608 dollars

·         There is a main dining center and a food court for diamond dollars or a meal swipe exchanged for the equivalent amount of cash

USP Dining Plan (600 freshmen and 2,600 undergrads)

·         3 meal plan options

·         There is a Dining Hall and small food court

·         The Dining Hall closes at 7:30

·         Highest costing plan is $ 4,682 and the lowest costing plan is $ 1,672.

Drexel Dining Plan (2,750 freshmen and 11,517 full time undergrad students)

·         3 meal plan options ranging from $ 5,025 to $ 5,250 a year.

·         There is one dining hall for meal swipes and a food court/market for dining dollars

·         The cost equivalent to a meal swipe is $ 10.50

·         The Dining Hall closes at 8:00 M-Th and 7:30 F-Sun.

Drexel’s Dining Plans are different than the ones at surrounding schools. There are many parts of the dining plans of other schools that Drexel could benefit from. Drexel has the most expensive dining plans out of all of the surrounding schools.  Drexel also has the one of the lowest amount of options for meal plans. Penn has four meal plan options but each meal plan has options so they really have about 8-10 options. Penn and Temple also have the option of additional meals being added to the purchased meal plan, unlike Drexel. Drexel also close earlier then some other schools like Temple. For the amount that students pay for dining plans they should have the option to eat later in the night if they want or have to.