Student Dining Plans

spacer
Dining employee making burgers at JJ's Place.

Flexible Options for Busy Schedules

Students have demanding class schedules and the challenge of balancing both classwork and equally busy personal lives. 

With a Columbia Dining Plan, you'll have both delicious and healthy options, even when you're on the run.

Student Dining Plan Highlights

Plans are not required for

residential CC/SEAS, GS or Graduate students, but they're a great value.

cutlery icon
Flexible Meal Options
  • Plans include meals per week or per term. Meals per term allows you to ration your meal balance, in case you don't eat on campus enough to use weekly meals before they expire.
  • Plans with meals by week also include a number of floater meals, in case you run out of meals during the week. 
  • Many plans include guest meals for when family and friends come to visit.
dollar icon
Dining Dollars

Most plans include Dining Dollars, which can be used just like cash at any of our dining locations.

  • Dining Dollars roll over year-to-year. They expire upon your graduation.
  • Dining Dollars are tax free.
credit-card-alt icon
Flex

Some plans include Flex in addition to or instead of Dining Dollars:

  • Flex allows you put money into an account that you can spend using your University ID card at all Columbia Dining locations, as well a number of other merchants on- and off-campus and online food delivery.

What's New for AY 23-24

The service calendar has been extended by several weeks each term, to bring you more of the Columbia Dining you love. Keep this in mind when selecting your plan option, especially if you’ll want to use more meals.

Data from AY 22-23 showed that the majority of Plan D Holders requested supplemental meal packs before the end of the term. Due to the service calendar extension, we have made the following changes to reduce the number of students who need to purchase supplemental meal packs: 

  • The number of meals offered in Plan D has been increased to 100 meals per term. 
  • The number of meals offered in Plan C has been increased to 150 meals per term. 

These changes were implemented with student feedback.

Plate of chicken, rice and veggies.

Student Dining Plan Summary AY 23-24

For simplicity, floating meals and complimentary meals are combined and treated as one and the same for weekly plans. 

spacer
Chef Mike's Sub Shop employee handing a sandwich to a student

Select or Change a Plan

Students can select a Dining Plan by clicking the Select Plan button and completing the sign-up form. Please note:

  • Prices provided here are per term, but the purchase of a Dining Plan is for the full academic year. Cancellations are not permitted.
  • Any student wishing to purchase a First-Year Dining Plan should contact Rosie Fernandez at 212-854-4076.
  • Dining Plans can only be changed during the change period, typically during the first two weeks of term. The Change Period for Fall 2023 is closed.