How do I compare a university dormitory meal plan with cooking for myself in Korea?

The brochure leaves out the things that actually decide it, so go at the dormitory office with specific questions. How many meals a day are included and on which days, because Korean dormitory cafeterias very often reduce service at weekends and some close entirely on Sunday. Whether unused meals carry over, and the honest answer is usually no, since these are normally fixed-term plans rather than a balance you draw down. Whether the plan is compulsory or optional, and if you can change or cancel partway through the semester and what refund applies.

Ask the cafeteria opening hours too, and write them down. They are narrower than people expect. Breakfast often ends before nine, dinner can close around seven, and if your timetable or your part-time work falls outside those windows you will pay for meals you never eat. That is the single most common way students lose money on these plans.

If you have any dietary restriction, ask about it explicitly before you commit. Standard Korean university cafeterias rarely offer halal or reliable vegetarian options, and a plan you can only half use is worse value than it looks.

One more thing that often settles the question entirely: ask whether cooking is allowed. Many Korean dormitories prohibit cooking in rooms and provide only a small shared kitchen, sometimes none at all, so self-catering may not be a real option. What most international students do is take the plan for the first semester, since the cafeteria is downstairs and one less thing to organise while you are settling in, then decide again for the second semester once they know their timetable and whether they can eat the same cafeteria food every day. A dormitory meal is cheaper than eating out, cooking for yourself is cheaper still, but only if you actually have a kitchen and the time between classes to use it.