The plethora of options in delivery and dining delicacies has left many NIU students pondering the age-old question: How much does one tip for a 99-cent hot dog?

Considering the average college kid is either dirt-poor or running on limited funds, one wouldn’t expect students to be star tippers. But while NIU students might not be forking over $20 bills left and right, they aren’t cheapskates either.

“I order delivery about three times a week,” freshman marketing major Mateusz Demaj said. “I usually tip two bucks – at home I’ll tip more. It depends on the quality of the restaurant.”

Sophomore accountancy major Gary Barnstable, who moonlights as a Domino’s delivery driver, said NIU students are surprisingly generous. He estimates that 90 percent of students he delivers to are very good about tipping.

“The average tip from an NIU student is about $2 to $2.50,” Barnstable said. “[Anywhere from] $2.50 to $3.50 is a good amount.”

NIU students out on the town also like to show their servers a little appreciation. Josh McLain, a junior marketing major who has pumped out “sippable sundaes” at Steak n Shake for the past three years, said some students tip well out of sympathy.

“People from the university usually tip well,” McLain said. “Students actually tip really well usually, at least for me – because they realize how much my job can suck.”

Both Barnstable and McLain have noticed a peculiar trend: While most students are generally decent tippers, students paying with Huskie Bucks tend to shortchange their drivers and servers.

“People who pay with Huskie Bucks [don’t tip well], but that’s because they aren’t offered the option, I suppose,” McLain said.

Barnstable agreed.

“Students who live in the dorms stiff us when they use their Huskie Bucks accounts – often when I don’t even think they mean to,” he said. “They skip right over the tip and total line, leaving them blank and stiffing us on delivery. This happens, on average, four to six times a night.”

So how do you know how much of a tip you should be leaving? According to CNN.com, the average American leaves an 18 percent tip, so anywhere between 15 to 20 percent should keep you covered.