The Best D3 Dining Halls

A definitive list of D3's culinary champions in 2023

When it comes to college dining halls, finding a consensus “best” is a challenge.

Everyone has their own preferences or opinions, and the internet is full of unhelpful lists based on mismatched criteria.

We sifted through all of the noise, scoured the web, and filtered down to only the D3 schools to compile a list you can actually trust.

Why? Because food is such a critical part of the college experience and has a huge impact on the daily performance of student-athletes.

Here’s how we determined the best D3 dining halls in 2023:

How We Created Our List

1. We aggregated scores from prominent college ranking sites (Princeton Review, Niche, and ‘Best Value Schools’). If a school was ranked in the top 25, we assigned points by subtracting its ranking from 26:

   1. i.e. A school ranked #1 in a list gets 25 pts, while one ranked #25 gets 1 pt

2. Because we value the input of our followers, we polled Twitter for standout D3 dining experiences. We assigned 10 points for any school that was mentioned in the comments on this post:

D3Direct @D3Direct

What D3 school has the best dining hall or food options?

3. To ensure we’d scraped everything the web had to offer, we also asked ChatGPT to weigh in on the debate. If a school was mentioned in ChatGPT’s output when asked about the Top 20 college dining halls, we assigned 5 points.

A total of 31 schools registered points after we summed up all of the categories. The highest possible score is a 90 (1st on all three lists, mentioned on Twitter, and ChatGPT). Spoiler alert - no one scored a 90.

Finally, we narrowed it down to the Top 15 to create the definitive list of D3 Dining Halls for 2023.

Enjoy!

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The Best D3 Dining Halls

#1 Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)

With 11 different spots to grab food on campus, it is no wonder Wash U took home the top spot in our rankings. It placed highly in all three lists, plus was mentioned on Twitter and ChatGPT.

Final Score: 70 Points

#2 Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)

Bowdoin students enjoying one of the two Lobster Bakes held each year

Bowdoin College's dining hall has consistently ranked as one of the best in the country for several years. The menu features a wide range of options, including vegan and gluten-free choices, and the ingredients are sourced from local farms and producers.

Final Score: 69 Points

#3 Bates College (Lewiston, ME)

Bri B. @busybeingbri

@D3Direct I was very impressed with @BatesCollege’s dining hall on our @Bates_Football visit. I didn’t eat there, but saw LOTS of variety, healthy options, diverse menu offerings, & everything looked delicious. The hall was clean & well stocked, & the staff were very friendly/welcoming.

Final Score: 45 Points

#4 Pomona-Pitzer College (Claremont, CA)

Pomona and Pitzer are technically separate schools, but since they compete together in athletics (Go Sagehens), we included them as a single entity for our list.

They have four dining commons, a student-founded location called Shakedown Café, a full service coffee shop (Pit-Stop Café), and much more.

Final Score: 37 Points

#5 St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN)

The variety of food at St. Olaf is INSANE…

On Tuesday, students and faculty dining at St. Olaf College’s Stav Hall chose between red wine-braised beef with Parmesan risotto and truffle green beans, albondigas with chipotle-tomato sauce, chicken Pad Thai and garlic black bean tofu. On Thursday the old standards will compete with a bruschetta bar and orange-achiote chicken with pineapple relish. On Friday adventurous eaters can sample garbanzo-red pepper cakes with curry-tomato sauce, saffron basmati rice and guaijillo turkey with citrus salsa. (quote via MinnPost)

Final Score: 33 Points

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Keep reading to get:

• The rest of the Top 15

• The complete list of 31 schools we evaluated

• The overall scoring breakdown