Guest Writer Amy Meng does some important calculations.

“I gotta go to JJs express to use up my swipes.” 

A sentence that every Columbia freshman, and every Columbia student who has been a freshman, hears at the end of the week. JJs Express—the rat race to use up all of your swipes before the clock strikes 12 am on Sunday, when the weekly swipes reset. With more swipes than they need, freshmen find themselves spending them on those “Take 4” white bags or swiping a hungry upperclassman in.

For many freshmen, especially if they have the 19 swipes per week plan, some swipes may go to waste. This unfortunate situation warrants an important question: How many meal swipes did Columbia freshmen waste in the 2025 fall semester?

What we need to answer this question:

• Number of Columbia freshmen: 1,806 
• Number of weekly swipes each freshman has: 15 or 19 
• Number of floating meals/guest swipes each freshman has: 16 or 21
• Number of weeks in the fall semester: 15 weeks

Other considerations:

• Let’s assume half of the students skip breakfast (online studies range from 40% to 75%). The other half will eat breakfast on campus four times a week. 
• Let’s also assume the average freshman eats a non-dining hall meal thrice a week.
• Let’s also assume the average freshman uses two weekly swipes on JJs express. 
• Approximate average number of weekly swipes between the two numerical options: 18 (empirically, more freshmen seem to have 19 weekly swipes).
• Approximate average number of floating meals/guest swipes between the two numerical options: 19 (again, more freshmen seem to choose the meal plans with 21 extra swipes).
• Let’s assume each freshman uses an average of two extra swipes per semester (most people forget they exist…).

Of course, every freshman spends their swipes differently. This is just a rough calculation of what these numbers may look like.

Doing the real math:

Total number of swipes that an anti-breakfast freshman uses every week:

(0 breakfast swipes) + (7 lunch swipes) + (7 dinner swipes) + (2 JJs express swipes) – (3 eating out) = 13 swipes

Total number of swipes that a breakfast-loving freshman uses every week:

(4 breakfast swipes) + (7 lunch swipes) + (7 dinner swipes) + (2 JJs express swipes) – (3 eating out) = 17 swipes

Total number of swipes that are ‘wasted’ by all freshmen every week:

Anti-breakfast freshman: (18 weekly swipes) – (13 swipes used) = 5 swipes wasted

Breakfast-loving freshman: (18 weekly swipes) – (17 swipes) = 1 swipe wasted

This comes down to an average of 3 weekly swipes wasted per freshman:

(1,806 freshmen) x (3 weekly swipes wasted) = 5,418 weekly swipes wasted

Total number of extra swipes wasted by freshmen last semester:

(1,806 freshmen) x (19 extra swipes per freshman) = 34,314 total extra swipes

(1,806 freshmen) x (2 extra swipes used per freshman) = 3,612 extra swipes used by freshmen 

(34,314 total swipes) – (3,612 swipes used) = 30,702 extra swipes wasted

And finally, the total number of swipes that are wasted by freshmen across the 15 weeks:

 (5,418 weekly swipes wasted) x (15 weeks) + (30,702 extra swipes wasted) = 111,972 swipes wasted last semester

Wow. That’s a pretty substantial number. But of course, who wants to eat pink John Jay chicken and moldy Ferris strawberries every day?

John Jay via Bwog Archives