Back to Basics: Find a Cheap Meal on a College Campus
September 17, 2008 by Mary Jo Manzanares
Filed under Back to Basics, Food & Beverage, Money Saving Tips
It the food part of your travel budget is running a little low, but you just can’t face one more trip to the local grocery store for bread and peanut butter, try heading to a nearby college campus to find a hot meal for a reasonable price.
While many students take their meals in their dorm dining halls, most campuses still have other student dining facilities. Whether it’s a snack bar, cafe, full restaurant or bar, the prices are geared to a student budget. Of course, the food is geared to a student palate as well, but if you’ve been subsisting on a diet of cold snacks, a burger may seem pretty darn tasty.
Most non-dorm dining facilities are open to the greater campus community – meaning visitors as well as students. Plan on using cash, as not all accept debit or credit cards.
A couple weeks ago, I found a fun little bar at the University of California – Berkeley and found a reasonably priced menu, including some vegetarian choices, as well as inexpensive specialty brews.
If you know a great campus cafe or bar, please leave a recommendation in the comments.
Photo credit: personal collection
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My own experiences as a student would make me wary of opting in to eat college cafeteria meals, I’m afraid–but I agree, you can certainly save some money, and the quality will depend a lot of your location. (As we like to say, your mileage may vary.)
We’ve had great success in the past with staying in college dorms out of school season. Many schools rent out rooms to travelers to generate income in the summer months. You generally don’t get deluxe accomodations, and will probably get shared bathrooms, but you can usually save a lot of money.
Student dining has changed a lot since my college days. Now there are many mor4e palatable options than cafeteria food.
It’s not the highest quality, but if you want to sit down and have a hot meal, there’s always an affordable choice.
Haven’t tried staying in a dorm, though. Not sure I’m ready to go that far back to college.
Great advice. As a current student at the University of Missouri, I can say any meal here on campus would be more than decent. Also, most college towns, because of the residents, have reasonably priced off-campus options as well.
Good suggestion, Laura!
Most college towns have places that cater to the college budget.
in Berlin, there is a cafe in the law school building of the Humboldt University – across the street from the main building – good cheap soup, sandwiches, salads, bagels, drinks, etc. There is even a little area to eat outside, if the weather is nice.
Thanks for the tip, Donna.
I forgot that grad students may be just as poor, if not more so, than undergrads.