Who wants to overeat and waste money in the process?

Apparently, the University of Colorado believes the freshman class needs to gain a few pounds while slimming down their wallets.

The university requires every freshman living on campus to purchase one of two meal plans: 15 meals a week with $200 of Munch Money (money that can be spent in convenience stores on campus), or 19 meals a week and $150 of Munch Money.

Both plans cost the same amount: $2,478 per semester.

This is quite a chunk of money that could be reduced if freshmen were presented the same options as students living off campus. These students have the opportunity to purchase 120, 80 or 50 meals all with $50 of Munch Money, or they can simply buy 10 meals at a time.

I believe that freshmen living on campus should be offered these same options.

Many students don't use up all their meals each week, resulting in an incredible waste of money. Who wants to pay for uneaten meals?

Despite these unconsumed meals, we are certainly not going hungry, as proven by the infamous gaining of the "freshman 15." Having the option to purchase only the number of meals that students will actually use has the potential to save them hundreds of dollars. After paying tuition, various fees and room and board, who doesn't want to save some money?

Being able to purchase different meal plans also is financially beneficial for freshmen, even if the same number of meals is purchased.

Let's take the 15-meal plan, for example. Here's the math:

Off campus students can buy 10 meals for $62.

Therefore each meal costs $6.20.

If you have 15 meals a week, you spend $93.

Say there are approximately 18 weeks in a semester. That means you would spend $1,674 per semester.

The 15-meal plan also adds in $200 of Munch Money, so the total comes to $1,874.

The only 15-meal plan freshmen have the option of buying costs $2,478.

That's a difference of $604 per semester. This would be a total savings of $1,208 for the year.

It's true that if students are given the opportunity to purchase fewer meals, or simply use the off-campus meal plans, the university would lose money.

However, perhaps the university could buy less food for meals. If students didn't feel obligated to use up all of their meal swipes each week, they would certainly eat less, thus saving the university some money as well.

In order to ensure that there is enough food for students, the university could still require students living on campus to purchase their meals for the semester all at once -- it can just be less than what is offered to freshmen now. Then the university can estimate how much food to buy each semester based on the number of meals purchased.

Basically, students living off campus can buy exactly the same number of meals with the same amount of Munch Money that freshmen get, but for more than $1,000 less.

It's hardly fair, especially when you consider that several of these meals for freshmen are wasted every week.

I'm not saying that CU should abolish any of the freshmen meal plans; I simply believe these students should have more options.

Why not let freshmen purchase meals in increments of 10 and let them save a few dollars?

Rebecca Fathman is a student at the University of Colorado.