Know your dining halls

My first piece of advice is to not trust Tillett lol. If you hated Tillett at orientation, join the club. Most students do. Every other dining hall is pretty damn good though and no matter what you eat, they have options for you. I wanted to break down each dining hall and how dining hall takeout is organized so you know once you come to school.

There are 4 dining halls, but since the new dining hall on Livingston will be opening this fall, I’ll only discuss the other three:

Dining Halls
Neilson
Location: Cook/Douglass
Closest to: The Biel Road/Henderson Apartments/Katzenbach bus stop (EE/F buses)
Good for: The large space it offers (2 separate dining rooms)
My opinion: I love Neilson. I think it’s the best on campus (a semi-biased opinion). They have a variety of delicious food and I like how it’s very easy to move around it and get food because everything’s kinda in one big circle.

Livingston Dining Commons
Location: Livingston
Closest to: The student center, Beck Hall
Good for: The awesome food and really nice dining area
My opinion: This dining hall is the polar opposite of Tillett. The food they have is really good, and I’m looking forward to trying their takeout and burgers from The Pub. I also like how much space there is in it. Very nice dining hall and certainly boosts Livingston’s rep.

Brower Commons
Location: College Ave
Closest to: Rutgers Student Center bus stop (EE, F, H, LX, A buses)
Good for: It’s location right in the middle of most of the major dorms on College Ave.
My opinion: Pretty good food. They have a nice sushi bar and more of a selection of ice cream.

Busch
Location: Busch
Closest to: The Busch Student Center stop (A, B, H buses)
Good for: It’s location right next to the campus center.
My opinion: I think Busch has a really nice dining hall. A lot of people believe Busch is the best dining hall at Rutgers and it really is great. Huge dining hall, really home-y (there’s a fireplace lol), and they have great food.

Dining Hall Hours
During the week: in the morning, the dining hall usually does breakfast from 7-11, lunch 11:30ish – between 3 and 4, dinner from 4:00-9:00
On the weekend: Breakfast is either 9 or 9:30-10:30, brunch/lunch 10:30-2:30, transition b/t lunch and dinner: 2:30-4:00, dinner 4:00-8:00

Yeah, I know. It kinda sucks that the dining hall isn’t open later when you have late classes, but it is what it is.

What is dining hall takeout?
One of the cool things about the dining halls at Rutgers is the option you have for takeout. Dining hall takeout is when you go into your dining hall for a period of time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you swipe your ID and you can get food to take out instead of sitting in the dining hall.
-Breakfast is usually bagels, breakfast sandwiches, fruit, cereal, coffee, etc. There’s no breakfast takeout on weekends
-Lunch they have subs or you can take a cheese/pepperoni pizza out. There’s no lunch takeout on weekends.
-Dinner has a different rotation for each campus. Neilson generally has nachos on Monday, Chicken and fries on Tuesday, Chicken/Eggplant Parm and Pasta on Wednesday, Burgers and fries on Thursday, and Sunday was wings/pizza. There’s no dinner takeout Friday or Saturday.
**btw, for every takeout meal, there is a vegetarian or Halal option.

Dining hall takeout hours:
Every campus is different. Breakfast is usually 7- 10 or 11. Lunch is around 11/11:30-3 or 4. Dinner is mostly 4 or 5 to midnight.

So I wanted to kinda break down each campus for everyone the best I could, just so you’re semi-familiar with each one before you come here. Just some info about them, what’s there, the lecture halls, etc. If you have any questions about something I didn’t mention, let me know!

Cook
Main campus for: SEBS, Rutgers Gardens
Dining Hall: Neilson
Campus Center: Cook Campus Center (CCC)
Freshmen dorms: Helyar House, Voorhees, Perry, Nicholas
Upperclassmen dorms/apartments: Helyar House, Newells, Starkeys
Lecture halls: Food Science auditorium, Cook-Douglass Lecture Hall
Hot spots on campus: Passion Puddle, the farm,

Douglass
Main campus for: Douglass Residential College, Mason Gross School of the Arts
Dining hall: Neilson
Campus Center: Douglass College Center (DCC)
Freshmen dorms: Lippincott, Katzenbach, New Gibbons, Jameson
Upperclassmen dorms/apartments: Old Gibbons, Jameson, Woodbury Bunting-Cobb, Henderson
Special-interest dorms: Woodbury Bunting-Cobb
Lecture halls: Loree, Hickman Hall, Ruth Adams (one room)
Hot spots on campus: Douglass library, Voorhees chapel area

College Ave
Main campus for: College of Nursing, center of Rutgers New Brunswick
Dining Hall: Brower Commons
Campus Center: Rutgers Student Center
Freshmen dorms: Clothier Hall, Tinsely Hall, Mettler Hall, Stonier Hall, Frelinghuysen Hall,
Upperclassmen dorms/apartments: Hegeman Hall, Wessels Hall, Leupp Hall, Pell Hall, Mettler Hall, Stonier Hall, Frelinghuysen Hall, Hardenbergh Hall, Campbell Hall, Rockoff, Easton Ave
Special-interest dorms: Brett Hall, Leupp Hall, Frelinghuysen Hall,
Lecture Halls: Voorhees Hall, Scott Hall, Art History, Milledoler Hall, Van Dyck Hall
Hot spots on campus: Grease trucks, frat row, Easton Ave, train station, George Street

Busch
Main campus for: Engineering, Pharmacy, Football & other sports
Dining Hall: Busch
Campus Center: Busch Campus Center (BCC)
Freshmen dorms: Davidson Hall, Metzger, Allen Hall, BEST Hall
Upperclassmen apartments: Silvers, Nichols, Richardson,
Upperclassmen Suites: Judson, Crosby, McCormick, Morrow, Winkler, Thomas
Special-interest dorms: McCormick, Metzger, Barr Hall, Mattia
Lecture Halls: Hill Center, Allison Road Classrooms (the ARC), Science and Engineering Resource Center (the SERC), Wright Chem Building, Engineering building, William Levin Hall (Pharmacy), Physics lecture hall
Hot spots on campus: Rutgers Stadium, Werbler Rec Center, home to other sports complexes

Livingston
Main campus for: Rutgers Business School, the RAC, other sports complexes
Dining Hall: Livingston Dining Commons
Campus Center: Livingston Student Center (the LSC)
Freshmen dorms: Quad I, Quad II, Lynton Towers (North Tower)
Upperclassmen dorms/apartments: Quad I, Quad II, Quad III, Lynton Towers (North and South)
Special-interest dorms: Quad I, Lynton Towers (South Tower)
Lecture Halls: Lucy Stone Hall, Beck Hall, Tillett Hall
Hot spots on campus: student center, the RAC for the basketball games, other sports, Livingston theater

I realize that one of the glorious things about college is having so many options all at once in the dining hall. At first it’s awesome. Like you can have chicken marsala with mashed potatoes along with a loaded salad and a slice of pizza, and top it off with a brownie and some ice cream. I know it sounds amazing now, but your body won’t be too amazed after awhile haha.

Whether we want to believe it or not, dining hall food is fattening. They want to please their audience, so the food is made for college kids lol. So my advice is to take it easy. Don’t go overboard.

In Neilson, there are like 9 different sections. It’s exactly like a buffet: there’s the entree, sauté, Asian/international food, the deli, cook-to-order pasta, pizza, a salad bar, desserts, and coffee/tea/ice cream. There are sooooo many choices. What I started doing toward the end of the year was counting calories because there are lots of unnecessary calories in the food. There’s a nutrition website that gives you the menu and nutrition facts for every dining hall. It’s helpful to look it and know exactly what you’re eating. I loved the cook-to-order bar because you got to choose a pasta, vegetables/chicken and a sauce to go in them. It is what it is and you know what you’re getting. I think Busch has the same thing and the new dining hall on Livingston will, I heard.

So at all costs try to avoid the freshman 15. Watch what you eat and don’t let the freedom of having whatever you want get to you. It’s tough, but you’ll thank yourself 2nd semester when you start getting cravings for homecooked food.

To sum it up: you have a buffet-style dining hall. That doesn’t mean it should be all you can eat, all the time

For freshmen, it kinda sucks because you HAVE to get one of 3 of the higher meal plans. I believe there’s the 285, 255, and 210 plans. Word of advice: get the 210. Seriously. I don’t care if you’re a huge eater, you won’t run out of them. I had the 255 and had like 50 meal swipes left by the end of each semester. It’s ridiculous and a waste of money.
Now there are exceptions because I know guys in my hall who’d go there alllll the time, but they got the largest meal plans and still had 100-something left. I’m telling you, even if you think you’ll be in there all the time for food, or even to get coffee to go or dining hall takeout or whatever, get a smaller meal plan. In the beginning of each semester, they let you change what you got and you can either maximize/minimize it. I didn’t do that and I regret it. It may not seem like a lot of swipes, but trust me, it’s a good amount. And it’s possible that sometimes you just might not have time to get into the dining hall for 3 meals. Schedules suck and it happened to me, so you don’t really need all the excess meal swipes that you might have chosen. You’ll be happy when you get down to the end of your swipes on the last few days.

And regardless of the plan you get, you still have 10 guest swipes each semester. So it all works out.

To sum it up: get the 210 meal plan. If you didn’t already, change it if you want to the first few weeks of school. Trust me on this one