Should you be offered a self catered room but wish to have Meal Plan, you can either request to be allocated to a Meal Plan location (depending on availability) or you can add Meal Plan to your accommodation contract.
Meal Plan makes up part of your accommodation contract, and so if you are offered a Meal Plan room and wish to be self catered, you will need to request a room at a different location. This is because meal plan accommodation is located together within the same buildings or blocks for a variety of reasons. One significant reason is proximity to outlets where food is available (the majority of Meal Plan accommodation is clustered around The Hub at the Vale Village).
Meal Plan is also a very social experience - a flat of six may choose to go to dinner together in Infusion, whereas residents of a self catered flat may choose to cook or shop together. This also ensures that flatmates who share a kitchen use those facilities in a similar way, and this helps to avoid potential conflict, such as whose responsibility it is to do the washing up - as all flatmates are using the facilities to more or less the same degree.