My oh my, how dorm food has changed at the University of Iowa
- Thread starter Tenacious E
- Start date
My Nephew finished a year at Hillcrest. He couldn't figure out why all the other kids were raving about the food. He thought it was shit, but his mom is a chef. And he ate gourmet healthy his entire life. He hated the dorm food.
Part of the value of the dining plan is not just the food, but also the time. You just have to show up, wait in a line if there is one, grab your food, eat, then drop off your tray and leave. No food prep, no cooking, no cleaning the kitchen, no dishes. Plus if you are with friends you have the camaraderie of sitting around the table with them while eating. Heck, I remember sitting with acquaintances and then becoming friends with them because of the time together in the dining hall. Stuff you don’t get at any scale in an off campus apartment eating ramen or mac and cheese.
I used to eat breakfast with Steve Mocco and a few other wrestlers at Hillcrest a few times a week because a friend from a neighboring town was on the team. That ended up with me just getting invited to join them whenever they were downtown. I might still have a headache from the night Zelesky got fired and Tim Hartung decided to go out with a bang. Wild times.
My son will be attending in the fall. Just reviewed today's standard dining options for his residence hall. A far cry from my two favorite nights: tater tot casserole and cheap steak. Today for lunch and dinner, he could have had (or I would have had if I were him):
Lunch: lemon basil salmon and/or a fried spicy chicken filet, roasted asparagus, caesar salad,
Dinner: brisket, greek chicken thighs, rice pilaf, and Mediterranean salad with feta and kalamata olives.
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My favorite part of OSUT (One Station Unit Training, Basic and AIT combined) at Ft Knox was the daily dinner conversation with the old dude serving.
Him: Y'ant veal, y'ant chicken? (Think really thick Kentucky, hillbilly accent)
Me: Which is which?
H: Dis is veal, dis is chicken
Me: <points> That one (they both looked horrible)
H: Y'ant gravy
Me: No sir
H: Y'ant taters
Me: Yes sir
H: Y'ant beans, y'ant corn?
Me: Beans
Every freaking night, same thing
I could eat for $10 a day easy right now, and not shitty food. It takes a little more than 10 min in the oven or 3 min in the microwave though, so college kids might be out on that.
I could not possibly care less and have no idea why this might be a point of pride for you.
But, I'm still happy for you. I guess.
Well, you said it's difficult to do. It's really not. Not a sense of pride for me, $8 a meal in college seems high when I can do it for less as an adult who isn't broke.
I've only been talking about residents of dorms.
It's f@cking bizarro-world in this thread with the adults' weird enthusiasm for stating how cheaply they can eat, or did eat decades ago. Things change guys, and I'm not arguing with you. Everything is okay.
Of course a thread about dorm food morphed into a thread about people trying to brag about how cheap they can eat.
Congrats I guess? lol
Congrats I guess? lol
I'll own that. College is way overpriced and the meal plans seem no different. Basically $500 a month seems crazy to me.
Can he cook for himself? I could cook a little at that age but I didn't have the patience to put together most of what I could get at Burge/Hillcrest and I rarely planned ahead for meals. No, Burge/Hillcrest food wasn't as good as my mother's cooking, but it was a buffet with a dozen different options any given day and my mother was a hundred plus miles away.
As already noted, this is not included in tuition.
So? It is money that is spent thus leaving less money in the students pocket, thus leading to more borrowing for the cost of college. Money is money regardless of what pocket you take it out of or which one you put it in.
Also, it leads to the entitled attitude that many college students have regarding their college experience. They all want cushy dorms, private club like student unions, restaurant food offerings and then they want to complain about the cost of tuition.
Eating
Annnnnnnnd….the old fart from the small town Iowa Casey’s coffee club has chimed in.
Thanks for this valuable insight.
Annnnnnnnd….the old fart from the small town Iowa Casey’s coffee club has chimed in.
Thanks for this valuable insight.
Still waiting for Biden to forgive your student loans because you are too lazy or stupid to repay your own obligations?
Don't let facts encumber your opinions. You can live in the dorms and not have any meal plan whatsoever. Meal plans have different levels. I am describing the "gold" plan. There are also black and hawkeye meal plans. How a particular student uses and appreciates it is an individual experience. Is this your way of lashing out at the concept of tuition forgiveness?
Called my shot before reading this. I'm paying for everything so you can sleep easy.
I can't believe some of you losers, I can survive on $1 a day. The lazy college kids can do it to if they're willing to Uber to the various food banks.
I can't believe some moron was suggesting Aldi when there are cheaper options available.
I can't believe some moron was suggesting Aldi when there are cheaper options available.
I
It wont be torn down, at least not now. In a housing market that tight, you need all the units you can get, and Mayflower has a lot of them.
It wont be torn down, at least not now. In a housing market that tight, you need all the units you can get, and Mayflower has a lot of them.
Yes we do. Our son is lucky and he and his roommate got a room in Burge. From what I understand, there are no doubles left in any dorm right now, and they are nowhere near done with the housing selection process. Apparently, there are tons of kids who don't have a roommate they have matched with, but their lottery number came early, so they are tying up an insane number of doubles with only one person currently assigned to them. Meanwhile, the University is pushing the roommate matching process early. So there are lots of matched roommates, but no rooms to choose, unless you break your "match" and pick a random single, which defeats the purpose of the matching process in the first place. Sounds like a real clusterf*ck driven by poor processes and a lack of units.
While the facilities and amenities are generally better than my day (Mid to late 80's), some of the processes are overly cumbersome now IMO. They just threw us all into Burge,etc. unless there was some special condition. To me, that was a huge part of my education. All of a sudden I had people from everywhere; small town Iowa, Other Large Iowa High Schools, Chicago Burbs and some others. It was wild for me and the education was dealing with all types of people. Now they try to do all this extensive matching by interest, etc. almost like dating. Seems over the top to me. I met some lifelong friends my freshman year.
I wish. I’m a serial debt payer. Like, probably almost to a fault. I 100% own every car, home, boat, you name it I’ve purchased in life. If I hadn’t been so aggressive on my student loans - I might be in for a $10k pay day!
Zero debt…it’s one of my weaknesses. What’s your excuse for being such a loser in life?
Counterpoint is that in theory they are matching people with like interests, cleanliness, etc., and will make the living together experience smoother. You can still make friends with other random people on your floor.
I'm with you, I also have no debt and also paid off my student loans years ago. Someone who is as responsible as you with your finances certainly don't support students getting their loans paid off for nothing do you?
Yes, but when thrown together you are forced to learn to deal with all kinds of people. Its part of the educational experience. We need more mixing and less echo chambers.
Nope. You’re free to search my posting history when the grumpy old men meeting ends. I never have. I won’t however go all piss pants if it actually goes through. I’ll be a bit jealous that I can’t cash in because I did what I was supposed to do - but won’t lose my shit and whine to high heaven. There are worse things I see the government wasting money on.
I thought this was HORT? What is the deal with all of you poors complaining about the price of a college meal plan? $500 wouldn't even cover half the cost of our private chefs per week.
The portion of your tuition that goes towards paying off construction of the expanded dining halls, kitchens and staff facilities is not voluntary,... All of this shit adds to the bottom line supported by tuition.
