Classes haven’t started yet, and summer is still here, so let’s start the semester with an easy trivia test!
If you said $25, you’re right. If you said $18, you’re Carolina Dining.
There are tricky scams that can be difficult to figure out; the new Flex Meal Plan is as blatant as a large flashing yellow light hovering above an intersection. Caution!
Here’s how it works. You give Carolina Dining $1,385 for the “Mega Flex” Meal Plan; in return, you’re handed $470 worth of Flex dollars. (You can also pay $700 for the Minor option, and you’re given $230.)
It sounds like a bad deal, but you’re told by excited dining officials these Flex dollars are worth twice the amount a normal dollar is worth.
My $470 is really worth $940!
Discounts abound! USC loves its students!
Right, right? But then you remember you paid $1,385 and just lost $445 to the great behemoth. No worries, though. That extra $445 “covers all taxes and fixed costs that support the food service program.”
If you buy the smaller plan, only $240 helps covers taxes and fixed costs. Maybe you’ll decide to give more; no one likes a stingy giver.
The plan does give you one perk, though: You can eat whenever you want, which means you must no longer follow the rigid, ludicrous meal times prescribed by the standard meal plans. If that’s worth $445, flex your muscles and give USC the extra money it wants.
If not, buy your five-meal plan and dine when you’re on campus. But you can’t do that either! The five-meal plan no longer exists, thanks to summer improvements.
Welcome back! It’s like we all never left.