Every student in the United States has the right to get a student loan to support their studies.
Most of these students who have this right take out this loan to have a better college experience and pay it off after graduation, which depends on what they are studying.
The longer length of your studies, the higher loan you will have. These student loans cover most things for a student, from their accommodation to their food.
College dining halls offer their own foods, but they still come at a price, and they might take up a lot of space on your student loan if you choose to eat more than average quality or quantity.
This article will take a look at how much of your student loan actually comes from the meal plans you eat in your dining hall at your university.
Meal Costs in Colleges
Even though it might not seem like they shouldn’t take up much space in any loan or lifestyle, meal plans in college could be extremely costly if you choose to go for different options than the average meal plans in college.
According to USNews, in an academic year in college, getting a meal plan for the entire year could cost somewhere between $3,000 and $9,000.
When you put this into context, if you study for three years and you spend an average of $5,000 on your meal plans, it will take at least $15,000 in your entire student loan.
This is actually a number that is quite high when you compare it to entire student loans that you need to pay back.
However, these numbers could change drastically depending on your location and your school. Some schools even have meal plans for $1,500.
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How Do You Choose Your Meal Plan?
When you are choosing your meal plans for your academic year, unlike other costs like accommodation, you have way more options and customization opportunities depending on your lifestyle, what you want, your budget, and many other things.
The first thing to look at is how much it will cost you once you finish your studies because if you go for the most expensive options, you have to pay for those meals for years to come.
Then you need to take into account when you eat it and what you want to eat. The cost will increase or decrease depending on your needs.
The Verdict
Overall, meals actually have a lot of part in your overall student loan, and when you graduate and start paying toward your student loan, at least a year of your monthly payments will go towards the food you ate. This is a lot of time and a lot of money.
Since you don’t get to use a debt relief company or a debt settlement company to lower your student loans, you can’t negotiate a better deal, as well.
That is why you need to be careful with your meal plan choice in college to make sure that you are not going over your limit.
Amit has always been interested in food and nutrition. After completing his high school certification, he spent half a decade trying multiple meal delivery services. He was impressed with the quality of the food but was disappointed by the lack of information available to help people make the best choices for their health.
Before starting MealDeliveryService.org, Amit worked for multiple Meal Delivery Companies. He knows first-hand what people are looking for in a meal delivery service and is passionate about helping others make healthy choices for their families.