So, how does the meal plan work again?

Once again, your gracious Hospitality Hostess with the Mostest, Claire Repsholdt, is here to guide the way…


At the beginning of each semester, we are all given $550 dollars on our ID to spend down at various dining halls all around campus (including the Refectory at YDS). So, you have $550 burning a hole in your pocket as soon as classes start. Luckily, Yale Hospitality has a handy online campus menu directory that you can use to search daily offerings all of the food vending sites on campus with filters that help sift choices for all major diets. As you planto spend down this sum and review the on-campus dining options during your first days on campus, you will be happy to discover that as a Divinity student, you are perfectly positioned in the cul-de-sac of the finest dining options at the top of the region of Yale known as Science Hill. 

THE YDS REFECTORY

Our very own Refectory is the climax of a pilgrimage up the hill that attracts students from all up and down Prospect Street to come and dine. Falling in love with the cycle of fresh and healthy options is easy. Figuring out the rate at which to spend your points throughout the semester is trickier. It’s a cup half empty/half full situation. The good news is that we’re a kind bunch here at the Divinity School, so if you spend your money out by October, chances are there is a fellow YDS student who might loan you a dollar or two so you can buy a bagel when you need it.  

OTHER DINING OPTIONS

And yet, of course, our humble refectory is only the beginning of your dining experience. This is really a choose-your-own-adventure sport. Your money is good anywhere graduate and professional students are, but it is also good where the undergraduatesare. Each of the 14 residential colleges boast its own extravagant take on how to use meal points. The catch is: each residential college is also only accessible to its own ID-holders, so you’ll have to wait until someone else opens the door in order for you to get in. This is common practice so don’t feel weird about it. If you want to get around this bit of trickery, you can look into becoming a graduate affiliate with Yale College, which means you’ll volunteer your wisdom to the Head of College, to help them advise, support, and teach undergraduates. Plenty of pixels have been stored on Oklahoma servers in order to identify which college boasts the best fare, and I’ll leave you to contemplate that in between parsing course options. 

You first-years may still hear of the lure of the Commons that lived in the former Hall of Graduate Studies, since the building has just closed for renovations this year. Now, the library remains undoubtedly the most common area for the Yale population, and there is some food to be found in the back of Bass. Besides our own refectory and the residential colleges, food can also be found tucked into the corners of other campus places. Plan a meandering studying day to explore the various cafes. But really all you have to do is park it for an afternoon in the upper vantages of Kroon Hall (pictured left), where the foresters are, and wait until the snack shed closes up shop, when suddenly, like all of your best studying fantasies, their unsold Blue State muffins are distributed into the hardworking crowd as a truly magnificent reward for your concentration efforts. 

Sad but true—one some-say beautiful place where your points mean nothing is the School of Management. Unsurprisingly, they operate on their own tidy consumption and funding model, which means that both their coffeeshop and cafeteria do not accept the generic dollars of other schools. If you are interested in augmenting your existing plan with some money that will take you into further reaches of campus, consider adding some Eli Bucks to your account. This kind of campus cash is good for purchasing items across campus at a 10% discount. This tends to be an unusual option for graduate students, who are eager to take their extra cash out into the New Haven Restaurant scene, but sometimes there is just nothing handier than dining on campus.

One more option…use your dining dollars at Durfee’s on Elm Street. Pick up some yogurt, maybe a bag of chips and even some Yale swag (coffee mug? sweatshirt anyone?) if you’re trying to burn through those last few bucks. Just don’t wait until the end of the semester, because those shelves get mighty empty.

And, last but not least, as of yet, the points on your ID cannot buy you or your date a drink at GYPSCY. Join student government. Start the petition.