School's approach to UCAS - is this typical?

Few profs teach undergrads and if you don't choose their options, they are not very visible.

This is factually incorrect in multiple ways.

Nowadays many/most academics will progress to become professors - unlike 20 years ago when professors were very much in the minority. At Oxford most academics become professors by their 40s.

Oxford does not usually let professors use research grants to buy themselves completely out of teaching - if this were allowed, there would be pretty much nobody left to teach.

It does vary by subject but in my own department every professor (including me) has to teach undergraduates.

And there were no big family groups only lone mums and dads. I enjoyed the day. Shame ds had a meltdown in Turl St and said he hated everywhere!

peripericardium - I always felt bad about after reading threads where posters have confident, together dcs. But, just because a dc can find their way to an open day and has done oodles of research and knows which subject they wanted to study since they were a foetus... does not make them any cleverer than the dolt who regularly gets lost, is disorganised and is shy and awkward to boot.

I was incredibly trepidatious about going to an Oxford open day after reading on here they were full of pushy parents, with braying dads in red trousers dominating everything. It wasn't like that at all! Everyone was very nice, and at one college ds went off to have a talk with a professor and I had a rather nice (free!) lunch with some other prospective parents.

Grumpy some people on these threads like to use them to make a point about their DCs being so super-clever and super-independent and that their parenting is so much better than everyone else's. I wouldn't take it personally. It comes up predictably every time.

There's also always one who hiked 10 miles in the driving rain without any shoes to get to their open day and was left to their own devices the second they shot out of the womb.

Just caught up with this thread - sounds like he's nicely on track now and if he forwards emails to you that will help. It seems that although you might have appreciated a bit more guidance upfront from the school, its all working out ok now.

A phrase upthread caught my eye, as my own motivating mantra when I'm procrastinating over a task which I don't want to do e.g. tax return is: 'no one else can do this for me' - maybe a useful one to pass on to some of our kids? But there will be others who do still need that bit more support - and that's fine too. There's no right and wrong way on something like open days, just what suits your DC and you.

I went to the events for parents and was the taxi due to where we live. DH went to nothing. At the finance meetings for parents is where you find out about finance. Subject events are for prospective students and parents should not be there or take a back seat. If any parent has been to 5 open days and not attended a single finance event then time has been misused! However it is easy to get up to speed on Finance via Finance England. Even if parents attend the autumn term open days it is still easy to draw up a timetable regarding finance, accommodation and tweak the PS.

I found parents and some prospective students to be most obnoxious and annoying at Oxford! I think the parental role is to act as a sounding board and discuss the day. There is no great need to be there but it can be helpful for some young people. When I wasn't required I went shopping!

Regarding clicking with a professor- an undergrad will be lucky to see them again! Few profs teach undergrads and if you don't choose their options, they are not very visible. In 3 years, my DD was taught by one and DD thought she was very odd and didn't like students.

We shouldn't be expected to go through everything twice, once for students and again for parents.

A link to the same PP used for children in the assembly would do. I've yet to go school-side for some kind of parent briefing that wasn't:

a) A replica of what the children got.
b) Told me anything I couldn't read on the screen.
c) A bit patronising.

Perhaps it's just here?

Outside the bubble, many other children have to rely on their schools for that.
And schools DO teach the students about it.
I'm not saying that parents should do everything to do with uni. I'm saying that schools work with children, including those who wouldn't normally consider uni.

We do all kinds of things for our students in preparation for university but we don't do letters out telling parents, evenings for parents. We do a bloody good job of getting kids into uni with many going to top universities.

Here's my thing. It's the job of parents to clue themselves up. It is the job of schools to inform the children. We shouldn't be expected to go through everything twice, once for students and again for parents.

Granny one of the things that influenced her was that she enjoyed the open day

Yes I would say the same which is probably why I feel so strongly about it. I would have made the wrong choice without those sessions and particularly the time I spent with the students.

Ah yes student finance forms, how I don't miss them!

OP sincerely that was not my intention. I'm glad you are both back on track.

The reality of life at university is having to manage a lot of conflicting priorities. And there is a lot of admin for your DS to be on top of before he gets there. No one else can do it for him.

I just had a deja vu moment about student finance, 4 kids 2 doing 3 years 2 doing 4 years, such a relief when it was over. I never, ever want to fill in a student finance form again.

C8, my daughter said they did repeatedly and asked him to be quiet. To be honest I felt terribly sorry for his daughter, she must have been mortified. I think there was quite of group of possible assassins by the end of the day.

It was really unfortunate because it was the university she was keenest on and she got an offer but after that day she went off it a bit and ended up choosing to accept offers from two other unis. She got her first choice and it worked well but it just shows how parents can be a liability.

She went to a uni that is highly regarded for her subject but one of the things that influenced her was that she enjoyed the open day so , she thought the students showing them round were really positive and friendly. In fact her insurance choice was very similar, she couldn't stop talking about the different tips the students were giving them. When she went to uni she had a paid job showing students round and in her final year was one of the student organisers for open days so hopefully she passed that on.

Edinburgh had this amazing system of detaching the parents from the kids for one session

That sounds like a much better compromise. Was talking to one of said offspring about this thread this morning. Her view was that most of the attending parents had been to university themselves whereas I was guessing it was mostly those for whom it was new. I don't know if that is the norm.

I just can't think of any other situation where a 17 year old suggests borrowing sixty grand and a parent wouldn't reply 'let's have a look then'.

But does it have to be in person and during the same session? (would be interested to know if your organisation has tried this and how it worked).
And yes I'm sure marketing are out in force, which is partly why mine valued grabbing time with actual students where possible who were not carefully selected.

Edinburgh had this amazing system of detaching the parents from the kids for one session. I still don't know how they did it, but one minute we were all walking together down a corridor, and the next all the parents were in one room with cups of tea and all the kids were in another with lots of current students to talk to....

My daughter went to a specific open day for women in science day (was a specific subject) It wasn't open to parents but one father decided to attend.

To be honest I'd have hoped the University told him it was for young women and not parents and (politely) offered him use of the student cafe whilst he waited. I would have wanted to kill him as well!

C8 you need to keep in mind that universities are not daft. Oodles of cash is spent by the marketing bods ensuring that 17 year olds get the right feelz.

I just can't think of any other situation where a 17 year old suggests borrowing sixty grand and a parent wouldn't reply 'let's have a look then'.

C8 - if everyone else is in parent-child dyads, it's going to be a boring day for you by yourself (as my dd found), so you take a parent to the next one.

Yes I can imagine that - i just think its a shame. Mine generally found someone else from their school or other group was going and hooked up with them. One other thing I remember their school doing was proactively putting them in touch with past pupils at the same University (and they in turn met up with prospective students in later years).

Thinking on it that school former pupil contact was really valuable in helping them break out of the crocodile between sessions. I don't know if all schools do this but it certainly was useful (bog standard comp btw, nothing fancy about it!)

My daughter went to a specific open day for women in science day (was a specific subject) It wasn't open to parents but one father decided to attend. It was a full day, talks, tours, sample lectures. My daughter who is generally a quiet non violent sort of person wanted to kill that father by the end of the day. Apparently he never shut up from start to finish, staff tried to get him to leave at coffee break and lunch and short of calling security couldn't manage it. I suppose it would have been upsetting for his daughter if they had him arrested. No wonder some kids don't want parents to attend.

C8 I think your DC may have exaggerated.

Oh this is entirely possible . However for the day I was present working in cafe it fitted what I saw. Parents and children together rather than the prospective students together - I remember learning a lot from my peers on those days as well. It is also consistent with reports from other offspring less prone to exaggerate.

Thinking back I did also snoop in one other open day - different child but open day for my old place and whilst she went off for the open day I did snoop a bit around my old stamping ground.

There was one place which tried to split the parents from the children for separate sessions (which may be the best compromise) although some parents promptly split with one going to parent session and the other following the child.

As you say - so much info is on websites these days that most parental questions can be answered there. I just feel its really important that the child gets a good feel for the place, the students etc and I'm glad my parents let me do it alone.

Briefly, as the UCAS manager at a private college:

• I run a UCAS day with my students at the end of L6 which includes a session on researching uni choices and do encourage the kids to attend open days over the summer if possible to avoid taking days off school in the autumn term. I leave it up to the students themselves if they want to arrange it with parents to attend the open day at x university
• Unless they're applying for a 15 Oct course, most forms go off mid Oct to end of term. If there is a delay it is mostly because students are still mulling over their choices. It is much better to submit a well considered form than a rushed one. If the form was 100% complete from his side, it could have been the sheer number of forms queued up ahead of him, depending on how many final year students there are.

Oh we didn't all go to the talks.
DD went to her subject, DS went to his. Grandma just had a nice wander.

Most universities give preference to applicants in oversubscribed talks.