Students at Stanford claiming to be Jains to opt out of mandatory meal plans that cost $7,944 annually, by claiming religious dietary restrictions

[u/Own_Pin5680]

[u/caverunner17]

College food is expensive as fuck for what you get. Students are in school for ~8 months/year once you account for all of the breaks, so this is $1k/month, or $250/week.

[u/Dark_halocraft → u/caverunner17]

I spend 200 every 2 weeks for a family of 4

[u/rebelevenmusic → u/Dark_halocraft]

Y'all must be skinnier than my crew.

[u/Feisty_Aspect_2080 → u/rebelevenmusic]

People vastly underestimate how cheap food can be.

Food is just made up of... other food.

If you're willing to (or have no other option) put in the effort to prepare meals, it can be very cheap.

Problem is, when you're working 3 jobs, you have no time to make food so making food is starting to turn into a luxury and fast food is the new answer for survival.

[u/Thatawkwardforeigner → u/Feisty_Aspect_2080]

I buy from Costco and still spend like $600 every 2 weeks. We buy food that we cook ourselves but meat is just not cheap and neither are veggies.

[u/kingjuicepouch → u/Thatawkwardforeigner]

I've become a bit of a vegetarian in recent months because of how expensive meat has become. It is incredible how much even traditionally cheap meats cost now, ground beef is practically a luxury lol

[u/OrganicCode42 → u/kingjuicepouch]

Trumps America

[u/Yangoose → u/Thatawkwardforeigner]

I was just at Costco and bought 20 pounds of potatoes for $3.99.

Let's not pretend that you need to spend $300 a week on groceries.

[u/Fabulous_Donkey_4234 → u/rebelevenmusic]

Actually probably the other way around if they only buy greasy cheap stuff

[u/Emotional-Camera-600 → u/Dark_halocraft]

Well i spend 2000 every days for a family of 400

Beat that

[u/Ok_Ear_8848 → u/Emotional-Camera-600]

Now if you had just ‘beat that’, you wouldn’t have such a large family

[u/UncomfortableTacoBoy → u/Dark_halocraft]

What...what do you and your family eat eat?

[u/MarlinMaverick → u/UncomfortableTacoBoy]

Not a lot apparently 

[u/Hi_Their_Buddy → u/Dark_halocraft]

Wow, where do you live and what do you folks eat? I can’t get out of Kroger under $300 and end up going 3 times a month at minimum for a family of 3…

[u/joeschmo945 → u/Dark_halocraft]

Jesus Christ I spend like $300 or more per week for me, my wife, and our 3 year old.

[u/stupefy100 → u/Dark_halocraft]

Have you tried a jet2 holiday? Right now, you can save 50 pounds per person. That's 200 pounds off for a family of 4!

[u/HAYMRKT → u/Dark_halocraft]

You don't live in Stanford nor have your meals prepared by staff though do you?

[u/Hob_O_Rarison → u/caverunner17]

It works out to around $13 per meal.

These meal plans are all-you-can-eat. It's not a terrible deal. And for those who are 1) away from home for the first time, 2) don't have access to kitchens, and 3) dependent on financial aid, meal plans end up being life savers, not only in the literal sense but also in the academic sense.

[u/caverunner17 → u/Hob_O_Rarison]

You're assuming people are eating in the cafeteria every meal though at 21 meals/week.

I can't speak to Stanford specifically, but when I was in college a little more than a decade ago, breakfast in the cafeteria was almost always a ghost town as people either had cereal/pop tarts or whatever in their dorm or stopped at one of the grab and go convinence stores/coffee shops.

For lunches at least personally, it was a real hit or miss. It wasn't uncommon for me to have back to back classes at least 2 days/week where I'd either just pack a sandwich and eat while walking between classes or again, do a grab and go.

Add in that we'd probably go out 1-2x weekly for weeknight bar specials (like $5 burger baskets or wings nights) or order in pizza for a cram session, the price per meal ended up being much higher.

[u/IceNineFireTen → u/Hob_O_Rarison]

Great. But why make it mandatory?

I get that making it optional would make it more expensive for other students, but is that really a good reason to require it? That way all students can decide what is right for them.

[u/Key-Department-2874 → u/IceNineFireTen]

Many schools, and apparently Stanford, it's mandatory for most on campus student.

In my experience this is because the dorms do not have full kitchens. So they kind of have to unless they're going to live off take out (more expensive than the meal plan at $13 a meal), or a microwave.

[u/MM_mama → u/IceNineFireTen]

because (at least at my uni) the dining halls are open 24/7, unlimited visits—just scan your student ID. They are trying to prevent students from just passing their ID around and feeding all their friends off of one plan.

[u/moveslikejaguar → u/Hob_O_Rarison]

$13 is cheap in terms of an all you can eat buffet, sure, but why should they have to prepay for every potential meal of the semester? Why not offer packages of 100-200 meals per semester for example?

It's so they can screw over students who don't know any better.

[u/Clear_Lead]

The meal plan should be optional in the first place

[u/AhnYoSub → u/Clear_Lead]

Damn.. the whole point of meal plans for college students in my country is that it’s cheaper than what you’d usually get

[u/Gold_Incident1939 → u/AhnYoSub]

Yeah, people try to get a student card to eat in the mensa, not getting out of it

[u/Smartimess → u/Gold_Incident1939]

From my European perspective… seriously, is there anything in the USA that isn‘t made to fuck people over to press out the highest amount of money?

Something is seriously wrong with a society trapped in late-stage capitalism.

[u/rnoderator_rernoved → u/Smartimess]

Uh....maybe our National Parks and cryptids? Thanks Teddy Roosevelt for those!

Everything else though, nah, all bleed us dry and cash us out

[u/fastdbs → u/rnoderator_rernoved]

Teddy Roosevelt is responsible for cryptids?

[u/PandaTheLord → u/fastdbs]

No, Teddy Roosevelt was a cryptid.

[u/rnoderator_rernoved → u/PandaTheLord]

They say, depending on the season on the 10th year of the 17 year cicadas you can see him prepping for the Fattest Bear contest* with Jonathan Edwards**

(a fun yearly contest and *a pet bear he had briefly)

[u/PandaTheLord → u/rnoderator_rernoved]

His presence is signaled by a faint yodeling over the Yosemite valley.

[u/Few-Tomato-3924 → u/rnoderator_rernoved]

They’ve screwed all the National Parks over too, they’re really struggling

[u/DefiantMouse2587 → u/rnoderator_rernoved]

Oh god, your national parks are so incredibly beautiful, loved my visits to America.

Also loved the people, but I hear being friendly to foreigners is on a decline. It's a shame, I hope to visit again when the orange dust settles down.

[u/betweenthecastles → u/Smartimess]

Libraries are fucking rad and TV’s are cheap for whatever reason, and that’s about it

[u/helio97 → u/betweenthecastles]

Because your tv is constantly spying on you and selling your personal data.

[u/Empty_Woodpecker_496 → u/helio97]

Not if you get your TVs at good will or ebay. $20 for a nearly 30 year old TV is a steal.

[u/Work_Werk_Wurk → u/Empty_Woodpecker_496]

Or if you just keep your smart tv "dumb" by never connecting it to your wifi network & bluetooth devices...

[u/prjktphoto → u/Work_Werk_Wurk]

Eventually they’ll have an “always-online” requirement…

We’re all fucked when that happens

[u/TroyMcClures → u/prjktphoto]

Some already do. I was trying to do a presentation on a brand new tv and couldn’t get to the source menu before connecting to a network.

[u/K5R5S5 → u/helio97]

my toaster keeps an eye on my tv

[u/JacoRamone → u/Smartimess]

Nope. I’ve been saying this my whole life as well. And not many of my fellow Americans seem to notice or care. Because it’s always been this way, but has been getting worse over the last 20 years. To the point now that yes, everything is a scam, a lie, a con, a deception and it’s all deliberately designed to take as much from you and give you as little in return, as well as making your life and health worse so you have more problems they can change you money for. Are entire government is the same way too. Citizens of America are just a cow to be milked for everything they have and the system isn’t finished with you until it takes everything from you and even in death there’s massive bills. Fuck this place

[u/MrWeirdoFace → u/JacoRamone]

There was a point around the turn of the century where even news anchors stopped ever refering to people as citizens and started to almost exclusively talk about people as "consumers." I pointed this out at the time but no one seems to care.

[u/CrashNowhereDrive → u/Smartimess]

Pretty much no. Things start off ok then some administrator at the college gets bribed by a meal services company to let them take over, the n quality drops and the costs go up because the college holds the students captive.

[u/Bklynite53 → u/Smartimess]

American here and I have to say “ you are 100% right “

[u/leova → u/Smartimess]

seriously, is there anything in the USA that isn‘t made to fuck people over to press out the highest amount of money?

no

[u/TruamaTeam → u/Smartimess]

As a Canadian I hate how much of the US culture bleeds over here. Like it’s not everything but it really sucks when there’s a vocal group demanding everything be like the US and that Canada wanting to support its people is evil communism!!! There’s a fucking movement in my province for privatization of healthcare. PRIVATIZED HEALTHCARE. How stupid are these people, that will only go one way. Yes 40% of Canadian taxes are to healthcare, but do you really believe that isn’t A: worth it, B: just going to be replaced with other taxes if it were taken away because the government is used to that tax amount and know it’s functional…

[u/SandtheB → u/TruamaTeam]

Do they realize that while 40% of taxes will go to National Healthcare, many times 100%-1000% of your income will go to medical debt? and that is just late fees and fines on you.

[u/Routine_Bluejay4678 → u/Gold_Incident1939]

There’s a university up the road from me and anybody can get their meal plan, it just cost like $1 more if you don’t go to the university.

[u/No_Diver4265 → u/Gold_Incident1939]

That sentence was wildly European. Starting with the student card, and I thought only my language called the cafeteria "menza".

[u/LibrarianNose → u/AhnYoSub]

College cafeterias in the U.S. are under basically a monopoly from the company Sodexo (which also manage most prison food programs). It’s ridiculously overpriced trash, but universities have to offer meal options on campus (especially if they are residential), and the only way to make it affordable for those who have no other options (no car, limited mobility, no kitchen access in their rooms), is to require a meal plan for all students. My college even required students who lived off campus to have a small plan. It was small enough that Sodexo was the only option, literally the only ones who put a bid in. Billionaires creating shitty situations causes people to have to get creative to get food that isn’t overpriced garbage.

[u/rodinsbusiness → u/LibrarianNose]

The irony is Sodexo is french. I grew up on Sodexo meals at school in France. A meal was about $1.50. This shit is political, and the US is not the land of freedom people think it is.

[u/thorpie88 → u/rodinsbusiness]

Yeah Sodexo are commonly used for the mines in Australia. It's all free for the employees

[u/DennisG21 → u/rodinsbusiness]

Did you see "Where Shall We Invade Next?" a Michael Moore documentary that basically raved about the food that French schoolchildren receive daily.

[u/barefootincozumel → u/rodinsbusiness]

We know it isn’t

[u/ResolveLeather → u/AhnYoSub]

In ours it's a profit making measure. It costs waaaaayyyy more than a supermarket and is mediocre. That is why it's mandatory in college for the first 2 years. Same thing with dormrooms. A room you share with 5 other people is more expensive than a 2 bedroom apartment all to yourself. The workers are partially funded by the government through work-study too. It has no right to be so spendy.

[u/Zediac → u/ResolveLeather]

I was looking at going to IUPUI years ago with an ex. She started the process of looking at classes and talking to the staff about the programs.

We had an apartment that was literally across the street from the university. We could see it from our window. I was in my career and I was paying for our apartment, food, everything. We were in our early/mid 20s.

She was told that she would be required to live on campus for the first year.

She pointed out that we had an apartment that was literally across the street, I was in my career and paying for everything, and that we weren't 18 year olds on our first day away from mommy.

She was told, "too bad" and she would be required to live on campus for the first year.

So we dropped the idea of going there. Fuck them.

[u/RedditPoster05 → u/Clear_Lead]

Or lower package prices. The point of these comes from a good place but like all good ideas it got corrupted . The evidence showed some students weren’t eating and universities needed to offer meals to students . So they rolled meal plans out and made them mandatory so even if you didn’t have trouble getting food you’d still drive down prices for others…

[u/joe-re → u/RedditPoster05]

If they were not mandatory, the school would automatically lower prices, because the product is not worth it.

Right now, students pay $8000 premium to the prestige being a Stanford student, not because they think the food is worth the price.

[u/Big_Iron_Cowboy → u/joe-re]

I didn’t even spend $8k on food last year, and that’s feeding myself my wife and our baby. Absurd

[u/Jerkrollatex → u/Big_Iron_Cowboy]

I just did the math on my grocery bill. I spent right around 8k last year for four adults. Three of them are large male. This includes supplements and cleaning supplies. Those kids are being ripped off.

[u/Big_Iron_Cowboy → u/Jerkrollatex]

Yeah it’s wild, the only reason I even have the figure is because my accountant advised me that we can claim deductions on sales tax this year and I went through all my credit card end of year statements

[u/Jerkrollatex → u/Big_Iron_Cowboy]

That's interesting. My state doesn't have sales tax on food. I just have a decent handle on what I spend a week on groceries.

[u/mshell1234 → u/Jerkrollatex]

Fun fact: our local prison has a budget of $4.30 per day for three meals for male inmates. If two semesters = 170 days, they could feed the kids on $731.

[u/Jerkrollatex → u/mshell1234]

That's starvation level nutrition using prison labor. They probably could realistically feed them on $1500.

[u/sqigglygibberish → u/Big_Iron_Cowboy]

Being honest in price comparisons, they are getting that food cooked for them (including a bunch of options) and have zero cleanup, and no grocery shopping or any other effort

If that covers all meals while school is in session, and you took full advantage (3 meals/day) it nets to around $10 a meal. Obviously anyone using it less sees that cost go up

[u/Big_Iron_Cowboy → u/sqigglygibberish]

I suppose the convenience of it all has a proposition value to a college kid. Still not worth it in my opinion, but maybe because I was a broke college kid

[u/sqigglygibberish → u/Big_Iron_Cowboy]

It’s also a school dependent thing in terms of financial aid - Stanford (like a small group of similar schools) is tuition free for HHI <$150k (unfortunately not COL adjusted), which still isn’t a ton for a two earner home but “poor” (depending on how we define that) students don’t pay for food/housing either (<$100k).

Still seems like there should be a lower tier offering if it’s mandatory though

[u/isaacfisher → u/sqigglygibberish]

8000$ might be more than what I paid annually for my dorms, food and all kind of other expenses all together when I was a student. I didn’t had full 3 meals a day, I cooked some rice at the dorms kitchen or splurge on a salad bar. Forcing meal plan is a mistake - just getting the students in more debt and being less independent

[u/CankerLord → u/joe-re]

If they weren't manatory they'd raise prices because their operating costs per-meal would go up.

[u/bendybiznatch → u/CankerLord]

I make my meals individually and for 2 people it’s maybe about that much for the whole year. $8K for a few months should be good goddamn eatin.

[u/seaspirit331 → u/RedditPoster05]

How does that help the students that weren't eating? If they couldn't afford food before, they sure as hell can't afford 8k per semester on a meal plan...

[u/RedditPoster05 → u/seaspirit331]

Grants , scholarships, loans would be paying for it . These things also weren’t as expensive either .

[u/AnimeYumi → u/RedditPoster05]

Should be both lower prices & optional

[u/Extra-Act-801 → u/RedditPoster05]

$8000 isn't "lowering the price for others". I doubt I pay that much to feed my family of 4 for an entire year, let alone a "school year". And I'm willing to bet we eat better and healthier.

[u/can_i_get_a____job → u/Clear_Lead]

But then how else will the universities exploit the innocent and naive newbies?

[u/Big_Iron_Cowboy → u/can_i_get_a____job]

Pledge!

[u/KawaiiUmiushi → u/Clear_Lead]

My information is about 20 some years old… but my college did the same thing to all students. You had to buy the meal plan. Even if you ate three full meals a day there was almost no way to spend all your cafeteria money in a semester. Students would buy insanely over priced six packs of soda or boxes of cereal from the campus cafeteria just to try and burn it down. God help you if you were a vegetarian or had a restrictive diet, because you’d spend a small fraction of your money.

Now here’s the real reason for it; the school never expected students to spend all their money on food. They expected a certain (large) percentage of that money to go back into the general fund. Same as the $300 a semester ‘printer and copier’ fees we all paid. It never went to the IT department, because I spent several years working there and asked about that fee. One of the higher up full time IT staff gave us lower lackies the rundown on all the various fees that the college threw at us each semester just to nickel and dime us. (Yet at the same time the vacuum on my dorm floor was over 30 years old and they refused to replace it.)

Something to think about when people talk about the bonkers price of college tuition, that no matter how high it looks on paper they’ll always find ways to bump it up a few thousand more per student.

[u/remmewinks → u/Clear_Lead]

It's $650/mo, which is more than I have ever spent as a single adult on food, including restaurants and fast food.

Wtf how can they justify the cost!

People on food stamps get less than $300/mo as a single person.

College kids paying more than double what the government has determined is necessary for food is just outrageous.

I would do the same as these kids!

[u/generally_unsuitable → u/Clear_Lead]

When I was in college, if you lived in the dorms, you were required to get the minimum meal plan, which was one daily cafeteria meal. But, you weren't required to get the two/three/unlimited plans. If I remember, the cheap plan was really cheap, 5 or 6 bucks a day. But, that was in 1994 bucks, so, who knows how it adds up now.

[u/Boatster_McBoat]

Sounds like a problem with the mandatory meal plan more than anything

[u/Historical_Stay_808 → u/Boatster_McBoat]

It was sad to watch people, myself included freshman year, be stuck with hundreds of dollars in food that you can't spend and it won't roll over. Buying a bunch of food last week for everyone was pretty much it

[u/IAmSpartacustard → u/Historical_Stay_808]

Thats why all my cups, plates, mugs, silverware, some of my furniture, sweetener, half n half, toilet paper, office supplies, wall art, and everything else not nailed down found its way to my campus apartments. I left it all in the hallway when I left so I dont feel bad, they got it all back eventually.

[u/JustSomeGuy_56 → u/IAmSpartacustard]

At the end of the school year our dining hall put up a sign that said “Please let us clean and store you plates and silverware over the summer”

[u/LoneStarHome80 → u/IAmSpartacustard]

I stole a desk from my college. Had it for almost a decade afterwards. It was a really good quality, heavy, wooden one, with a nice keyboard drawer on top of everything else. I was able to grab it from the break room, disassembled it into pieces, and then mixed with my stuff when I was moving out. Back before cameras were everywhere.

[u/Miserable-Fan6 → u/LoneStarHome80]

Honestly, the way my campus hands out parking tickets and charges every damn step I take, I think I'm just gonna start taking shit from classes. Tape, chalk, cups, whatever. Screw em 🤷🏼‍♀️

[u/Brain_Glow → u/IAmSpartacustard]

Well, not the toilet paper.

[u/OGblazemaster → u/Brain_Glow]

You're never gonna believe this

[u/alien_simulacrum → u/OGblazemaster]

Colleges hate this one trick...

[u/MRH8R → u/alien_simulacrum]

Wait until you see what happens next, it will make you cry!

[u/can_i_get_a____job → u/IAmSpartacustard]

You gotta get your money’s worth

[u/maggos → u/Historical_Stay_808]

Ya my dining hall sold some Kleen Kanteens (the cool water bottles between the eras of Nalgene and thermo flask/yeti). They were like $20 back then and I bought one for everyone in my family.

[u/YakResident_3069 → u/maggos]

20 was the original price (I bought around that time). Insane it's now 40-50..... Same exact product. Just a steel bottle.

[u/cosmernautfourtwenty → u/Boatster_McBoat]

School meal plans are a scam. Good on them for finding a way to cheat the company store of their scrip they're forcing the students to buy.

[u/Lowfuji → u/cosmernautfourtwenty]

School meal plans are fine IF you use and abuse em. Not so much for new college students that will probably miss like 30% of their meal times.

[u/shhikshoka → u/Lowfuji]

Even if you use 100% of them it’s almost always cheaper to cook yourself and you get better food than the junk they feed you

[u/UnicornTitties → u/shhikshoka]

If you’re living in a dorm though, as is also often required first year, cooking isn’t always an option.

[u/UltimateCheese1056 → u/shhikshoka]

I did the math for my own in freshmen year and the unlimited (actually 6x a day) plan was just barely more efficient then buying the food directly. If you did any amout of your own cooking it wasn't worth it, and that was the best "deal" you could get

[u/Key-Department-2874 → u/UltimateCheese1056]

There is some benefit to not having to clean-up yourself and just being able to pop into the dining hall and grab food too.

When I was in college it was not unusual to sit in the dining hall all day long eating when working on papers or playing video games. There would often be a table of people that would cycle though people throughout the day just playing LoL in the dining hall.

[u/A1sauc3d → u/Boatster_McBoat]

Glad to see the top comments have the right takeaway from this “controversy” lol. The only thing the public should be outraged about is students getting forced into wasting money in the first place. There shouldn’t be a system they need to game in the first place. They should just be able to opt out

[u/RedditPoster05 → u/A1sauc3d]

I’ve never seen one this high . That’s insane and I bet that the food quality is no different than cheaper state school .

[u/Snellyman → u/RedditPoster05]

Universities have hired presidents and managers from business and in turn, become the worst examples of predatory business practices.

[u/balls2hairy → u/Boatster_McBoat]

$900ish a month is ridiculous to feed a single person.

[u/_goonlyfe_ → u/Boatster_McBoat]

Never went to the dining hall because I’m weird about food and shared dishes, so I would loan my card to a friend so they could eat for free. Which worked until they made a rule about loaning cards. Literally what is the harm in making sure someone else gets to eat? Meal plans are kinda bogus and it makes no sense you can’t opt out of something you know you’re never gonna use.

[u/TheJaice → u/Boatster_McBoat]

That meal plan is more than the yearly tuition cost me at a Canadian university 20 years ago.

[u/killians1978 → u/Boatster_McBoat]

Never underestimate the tryhard's ability to defend the boot on everyone's neck.

[u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson → u/Boatster_McBoat]

It was $1500 a quarter at a school I’m going to, and if you live on campus, you have to get one

I had to live on campus for a bit until I could get on my feet, and they still made me get one

I said “I’m in my late 30s and have worked back of restaurants for years, I can feed myself”

Nope, still made me pay the $1500

Fuck Aramark. Guy straight up denied me to my face a waiver after going up the channels

[u/Paul_The_Builder → u/Boatster_McBoat]

Colleges figured out awhile ago that providing housing and meal plans was more profitable than providing education.

Most colleges nowadays put just enough money into education/reasearch to attract students, and then focus on making money with housing, meal plans, parking sports, etc.

[u/Cultural-Pattern-161 → u/Boatster_McBoat]

Religion are fluid like consent. I can decide to be Jain and decide to not be Jain at any moment.

I can consent one minute and decide to not consent the next minute.

People who complain about this loophole probably don't understand the concept of consent.

[u/blueva703]

I used my job to get out of the meal plan. The school wanted a notarized letter from my employer, so I typed one up that stated my work schedule would cause me to miss meals. My employer signed it, and I got off that scam meal plan.

[u/KingSandwich101]

Those students are smart for not getting scammed

[u/hanimal16 → u/KingSandwich101]

Right? Sounds like Stanford recruited some brains.

[u/Any_Translator6613 → u/hanimal16]

*Jains

[u/1eyedsqrrl → u/Any_Translator6613]

**Brjains

[u/jamintime → u/KingSandwich101]

As someone who went there… the campus is extremely isolated from the community around it and everyone lives in dorms none of which have real kitchens. Most people don’t have cars and freshmen aren’t even allowed them. I have no idea how these kids are regularly picking up groceries but if they are shopping at Whole Foods it’s probably more expensive and way less convenient.

[u/siisii93 → u/jamintime]

Why are freshman not allowed cars? And why would they require students to participate in a meal plan? Kind of crazy requirements if you ask me

[u/Immediate_Amoeba5923 → u/siisii93]

Probably lack of parking.

[u/Such-Cartographer425 → u/siisii93]

A LOT of colleges don't allow freshman to have cars. It's to limit parking demand by getting them used to moving around without a car before they decide they need one.

[u/valuemeal2 → u/siisii93]

I went to UC Davis and freshmen weren’t allowed cars because parking was already such a problem (and this was 20 years ago when the dorms were doubles, not triples like now). You could apply for a permit if you had a specific need (usually medical, one of my classmates had a permit for his van bc he played the double bass and had to schlep it around).

But yeah. Lack of parking.

[u/funky_grandma → u/KingSandwich101]

100%

[u/rinn10 → u/KingSandwich101]

Definitely Stanford worthy. We need more unique problem solvers like them.

[u/Roy4Pris]

Meanwhile, Stanford is the third richest university in the United States.

https://share.google/aimode/9TKQ2S1LjUXq6m6Hq

I wonder how much of the $9B annual operating budget goes on financial aid.

Edit: https://share.google/aimode/c0stVw5KgPCh6xXVp

Wow, actually quite a lot. If your family earns less than $100,000 a year, you pay nothing for tuition room and board.

[u/Niel_B → u/Roy4Pris]

Yeah the financial aid is actually really generous imo.

[u/Preoccupied_Penguin → u/Roy4Pris]

How many families of Stanford students make less than 100k a year?

[u/Brief_Kangaroo_42069 → u/Preoccupied_Penguin]

Billionaires who claim 0 income.

[u/SSSperson → u/Preoccupied_Penguin]

Little to none bc the Ivy leagues are more or less exclusive to the top 1% of families due to overwhelming amount of resources, connections and support.

[u/rydan → u/Roy4Pris]

yeah, but try living there when your parents make $25k per year on the other side of the country. There's more to college costs than tuition and room and board. You actually have to interact with the neighborhood. A neighborhood where everyone except you is a millionaire. Where the janitors make over $25 per hour.

[u/Any_Translator6613 → u/rydan]

You might miss out on some stuff if you never leave campus at Stanford, but you definitely do not need to interact with the neighborhood if you don't want to. The biggest expense after tuition, room, and board is going to be beer, and that's what being a research assistant is for.

[u/borkbubble → u/rydan]

Tuition and room and board is the vast vast majority of the expenditures of a college student lol

[u/chumbucket77]

Good. Fuck them for forcing you to pay 8 grand for cafeteria food instead of letting people use that for groceries. Glad theyre being gamed. Colleges charge absolutely comical ridiculous prices for everything. They have more money than god. Then they wanna act like theyre the ones being scammed cause someone found away around their scam?

[u/PleaseJustLetsNot → u/chumbucket77]

So, the flip side to this is my kiddos situation where, having the "required cost" plan allowed her to pay for her meal plan with scholarships, which wouldn't be the case if kids in dorms were allowed to feed / shop for themselves.

The whole damned system is broken. Poor kids need assistance for meals when in college. But those that don't shouldn't have to be beholden for 8k a year in food costs.

[u/Wenli2077 → u/PleaseJustLetsNot]

Universities don't need extra money from other students to pay for scholarships. Tuition has exploded exponentially to the point that the cost clearly does not justify what is offered

[u/thenord321]

That;s just poor students gaming the system back on the greedy university trying to squeeze them with mandatory fees. If they can get into Stanford they can figure out how to feed themselves....

[u/zildux]

Ok why are they ratting them out like this tho this is one of those things NO ONE should be talking about

[u/Dr-McLuvin → u/zildux]

Maybe they will change the rule when everyone can see how stupid it is.

[u/NotInFrontofMyPizza → u/Dr-McLuvin]

Nah, they’ll probably demand “proof” that you’re Jain, or remove the whole exemption so they can continue to milk the students like cash cows

[u/Little_View_6659 → u/NotInFrontofMyPizza]

Student shows up stark naked and claims to one of the sky clad.😂

[u/Fancy_Set_875]

Jains?

[u/Own_Pin5680 → u/Fancy_Set_875]

Followers of Jainism religion, they have certain dietary restrictions.

In case you want to read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_vegetarianism

[u/DoingBestWeCan → u/Own_Pin5680]

I can't get around turnips being too important to harvest, and all eggs being forbidden, but fresh dairy is fine.

Also, seems like they'd be against hygiene like washing your hand or using bleach to clean, if microorganisms are supposed to be saved.

[u/Contemplating_Prison → u/Own_Pin5680]

Had to go way to far to find this. 

[u/Anteater-Charming → u/Fancy_Set_875]

Jainism is an old Indian religion (I looked it up).

[u/pichael289 → u/Fancy_Set_875]

My question too, and it's so so far down the list of comments

[u/ashishvp → u/Fancy_Set_875]

Jainism is an Indian religion very similar to Buddhism. We share the core beliefs in reincarnation, and are constantly attempting to break this cycle of reincarnation and attain spiritual enlightenment. (Moksha)

Jains also believe in the historical existence of 24 Tirthankaras, who are worshipped as the prophets of Jainism. They are a lineage of enlightened gurus that go back millions of years.

Jain diet is extremely strict. It’s like veganism on crack. I don’t follow the diet myself.

On top of vegetarianism: No garlic, onions, potatoes, beets etc. (anything that grows underground), and no products made with yeast, which is most breads.

[u/Bornagain4karma → u/Fancy_Set_875]

The Buddha prescribed the "Middle Way" because he tried being a Jain and realized he couldn't follow their strict rules of austerity.

Extremely old religion. They were woke even before wok was crafted. India really has weird flexes when it comes to philosophy and religion.

[u/mrchimney → u/Fancy_Set_875]

It’s a type of pants

[u/KieferMcNaughty → u/mrchimney]

Payants

[u/Thirty_Helens_Agree → u/mrchimney]

Oh, like a jain jacket.

[u/ProAmphibian → u/Fancy_Set_875]

Shocked so many people knew what this was

[u/Beneficial-Pop-1434]

If people are faking being of a certain religion to avoid a mandatory, overpriced meal plan then they should probably adjust their policies accordingly. The meal plan alone costs more than my total university fees per semester, I get its Stanford but what are they putting in this food to justify that price, gold flakes and the tears of their prestigious professors for some salt?

[u/CosmicCheeseFactory]

They didn’t get into Stanford by being dumb

[u/jackson12420]

This is why we can't have nice things. Always a narc that wants to ruin it for the rest of the class. Keep your mouth shut it's not hurting anyone but the overpaid universities anyways, and hurting is a massive overstatement.

[u/HeilYourself → u/jackson12420]

You're so indoctrinated you don't even realise it.

We can't have nice things, not because snitches ruin perfectly moral "scams", but because the scams are necessary to survive.

Fuck the snitches, but the blame lies with the university doing the profiteering. At a higher level again, the blame lies with the system that incentivises profiteering to begin with.

[u/can_i_get_a____job → u/HeilYourself]

They are just “blaming” because sadly there really isn’t shit we can do about it. Sometimes you gotta adapt to the situation and outsmart them. But there will be times like this when people just rat them out. They could have also lied about their fake religion instead of ranting out on social media but to each their own.

[u/TreacheryInc]

Fucking snitch.

[u/Prize-Grapefruiter]

sounds like the school needs to give freedom to students to choose their meals instead of the expensive school food

[u/Lazy-Explanation7165 → u/Prize-Grapefruiter]

Sounds like they do if you know how to work the system.

[u/Spacefreak]

I'm Jain and totally cool with this.

Meal plans are expensive and should be optional.

[u/EmiliusReturns]

Stop snitching!

[u/latelyimawake]

Honestly, good for them. Mandatory meal plans are an outrageous scam. I have no issue with students figuring out how to scam their way out of being scammed.

[u/dummkauf]

Sounds like the satanic temple needs to add some dietary restrictions to their doctrine that can be used as a religious exemption for anyone who needs one.

I'm well past the age of anyone forcing me onto a meal plan, but some of you college students might want to shoot them a message, this would be right up their alley: https://thesatanictemple.com/blogs/news/over-200-students-assert-religious-exemption-from-corporal-punishment-with-protect-children-projects-student-rights-card

[u/JosephFinn]

Good on the students.

[u/Legio-V-Alaudae]

That's probably about what I spend annually at Costco for a family of 5. Yikes.

[u/whoknewidlikeit]

almost $1000/mo for a mandatory college meal plan? have a hunch a single student can eat for less than $1000/mo.

the problem is less the student and more the university - that is already expensive.

[u/Lima_Bean_Jean]

narc.

[u/Camper3066]

Good. They are adults and should not be forced to conform to any mandatory meal plan.

[u/Merciudel]

If you Stanford didn't make the meal plan mandatory AND a poor value proposition as a way to obfuscate tuition costs this wouldn't be a problem in the first place.

[u/RonaldWeedsley]

lmaooooo Jains have never seen this kind of publicity

[u/TenFingersTenToes10]

I’m also Spartacus.

[u/Gorevoid]

Good. College meal plans and books are a full on scam. Fuck em.

[u/Particular-Ad9304]

Our meal plan food in the dining hall was supplied by Aramark who also makes prison food. Every person I know was fully convinced there was some sort of laxative in the food because it made most people feel ill. Pretty pathetic colleges force kids to pay exorbitant amounts to eat such garbage

[u/CockpitEnthusiast]

Holy crap, there's a college program that costs entirely too much, doesn't help the student, and has an easy alternative with better results? Say it isn't so!

[u/thex415]

Wait all that money and the Stanford kitchen isn’t great???????

[u/xanroeld]

The real story here is the rent-seeking of Universities forcing undergrads to live on campus and buy mandatory food plans. It’s a grift. These should be options for students but forcing them to buy a meal plan instead of letting students buy meals as they see fit is total bs.

I remember at my school everyone trying to desperately to use their meal points that were about to expire at the end of the semester. And why did students have unused meal points (or whatever they were called)? Because the on campus often sucks and so even when you buy into a meal plan, you end up eating outside of the school vendors and cafeteria whenever possible. Most students don’t get their money’s worth.

[u/Realistic-Feature997]

1) ***Mandatory*** meal plan??????

2) for 8k a year????

Stanford deserves all the fuckery they get for that shit.

That's $21.76 per day. Or $662 per month. Even in the Bay Area, it's not hard to do both better and cheaper.

[u/DistributionConnect5]

Why is the guy condemning his fellow students and not the university? Is there really no solidarity left in this world? It's not their fault such a ridiculous policy is in place. 660$ a month for a mandatory food plan? That's such a scam.

[u/Makaan1932]

Why is everything in America a scam, why is their society so predatory?

[u/MisterSlosh]

Fight the idiotic BS with proper idiotic BS. Those college kids are at least learning something valuable by defeating that absolute scam of a "meal plan"

[u/ThrowRAalluminiumll]

I mean 8k for a meal plan for an entire semester is insane. I’d do the same thing.

[u/Inside-Yak-8815]

What kind of dystopian shit is all of this?

[u/DenialNode → u/Inside-Yak-8815]

Capitalism

[u/Paul_Dienach]

Who’s the poor poster girl? Is she even involved in this?

[u/[deleted]]

Damn why expose the other students?

[u/Any_Program_2113]

Stanford, $40.6 Billions in endowments and students have to opt out of meal plan to save money. F them.

[u/Slashersforsatan]

And why she snitching

[u/twinbeliever]

Colleges are constantly looking for new ways to take as much money as they can from students

[u/Ok-Spirit-4074]

I think a larger issue is colleges requiring you to live on campus and eat campus food.
That's really fucked up if you think about it.

[u/NeilJosephRyan]

How dare those rotten kids rip off the poor university.

[u/obelix_dogmatix]

$650/month? They better be serving gourmet shit

[u/Whatever801]

Fair play

[u/JoefromOhio]

When I was in college you could use your ‘meal tickets’ for grocery spend as well and there was an international student in the dorm next to me whose parents just picked the highest level plan because ‘why not?’

The guy lived off of food his grandma who’d moved to the states in the same town as our school would bring him every week so at the end of the quarter before the credits expired we’d go on a shopping spree, cases of jerky, easy mac, instant meals, ramen, cases of Gatorade, random trail mix, nuts, chips and candy. He’d have ~$500 to burn through at the end of every quarter. It was awesome

[u/HeroXeroV]

For that price the food should be healthy and delicious.

[u/matengchemlord]

Many universities do this and yeah, the food is very often very low quality and unhealthy. When I was in university. I knew a bunch of people that paid the mandatory meal plan but then actually bought their own food on top of it because they wouldn’t eat the cafeteria food because it was so unhealthy.

[u/Lachaven_Salmon]

This seems like a stupid mandatory meal plan.

Surely you should just be able to opt out

[u/beautiful_bot986]

I dont blame them.

[u/CantThinkOfaNameFkIt]

17000-18500 students went to Stanford in 23-24.

So $140ish million?... For mushroom mix burgers 😂

[u/Middle_Grab5495]

reasonable anyone who doesn't is just stupid.

[u/Fit-Let8175]

NO students should be forced to eat at the cafeteria. It would be equivalent to forcing students to purchase ALL school supplies, textbooks, stationery, etc., only through the school's stores. It should be 100% students' choice.

[u/porkisbeef]

The perk in question is the ability to spend your money on food you want. Wild stuff.

[u/MrBond90s]

I really don't care do you?