Parents of prospective 2028 uni starters - open days?

We started Y12. I only think one was mid week though. School did allow time off for open days. But most were on a Saturday. My DD had a huge change of degree subject so the first four we went to were not suitable so we only got to two more, so three of the five she applied to we hadn’t been to. But that’s what offer holder days are for! We went overnight to Glasgow and Durham offer holder days and it let us have an idea of co hort too. She’s starting Y3 at Durham (Glasgow had best taster lecture but the distance and extra year - plus it was snowing in April in the way home- put her off).
Look at YouTube - tons of student made videos about the universities.

@Ironfloor269 Usually schools allow reasonable time off for open days. My DC were allowed 3 days, hence our fairly short shortlist . The annoying issue is wasting a day on a uni that dc then doesn’t like much!

We actually could not make Durham but DD contacted the department and someone saw her about the subject and we had a look around 2 halls of residence. They were helpful and UCL admissions had a chat too but as a result of that chat, she ruled it out.

So you can draw up a list of 5 and ask if you can visit in May half term if school won’t allow time off for all. Some open days are weekends of course. Plus there’s offer days. Dc can usually go to one or two of them in y13.

@Ironfloor269 won’t school authorise any days off for open days? DS did. If your dd needs her application in by October next year, she’ll need to get her choices clear in her mind well before summer holidays so that she can start work on her ps and prepare for any additional entrance tests. Year 12 is a very busy year!

@U53rName he loves a spreadsheet, we all do. My sons are maths nerds so like ordering and methodical ways to set out data.

It also depends what course they are doing too, my two took economics and computer science so at top ranking unis they are all pretty much the same maths heavy courses. My friend's DD took History and that was different at every uni.

We are in the final year for my youngest so we have done uni runs for the last 5 years. 3 year age gap. As one left, one started.

Thank you so much @MeetMeOnTheCorner , that's very helpful.

DC undecided yet but it's something STEM related for sure

How happy was your DS to create a spreadsheet? 😂 The reason I ask is because I had to force my DC to (not even create one, but fill in one I had created). They seemed to be going only on “vibes”, with a quick glance at the modules, noting that they were “all the same”. And whilst “vibes” are all well and good, the course content matters too! I’m a mean mum, so I had DC fill in the names of all of the modules, and choose which optional modules they would find interesting from the options list. This gave them a good look at what first year, second year, and third year would look like. We compared the unis that had the “vibes” that DC liked, and one of them really stood out as uninteresting across all 3 years compared to the others, so it was taken off of the list. I also noticed that some courses have 0 options in the first year, whilst others had significantly more. Some courses have an options list with of 5 or 6, and some have a list with 20. One uni offered DC’s course as either a BA or a BSc—looking at the modules and choosing a possible mock timetable helped them choose which was the better option for them on their UCAS application.

We went to visit several unis and their areas over October half term of year 12. Not open days at first but because some were campus unis DCs wanted to get a feel of it full of students so both October and February half terms means all the students are on site.

Open days at campus unis feel weird as they are usually held either before students arrive or after they have left. The pre open day visits gave them an idea of what they liked and then open days were booked from the narrowed down list.

We went to every one of them with the DC, most have a parent with them.

Oldest Ds created a spreadsheet with all the details on from course ranking from a couple of different sites, then entry grades, distance from us by car and train. General feelings about the time spent there so that they could actually remember plus filmed a bit and narrated general feelings at the end of each uni and town visit.

@nearlylovemyusername By subject area. You can look at subject area rankings on the Complete University Guide. Pay attention to employment stats! What subject area is dc interested in?

Where do you find info about which uni is good for which course? Is this a matter of uni rankings overall or by course?

@Stowickthevast There are different sizes of cities and the location of the unis are different too. So Manchester is very different to Exeter. Sheffield and Newcastle are not the same as Bath. So what dc want from a city does matter, or indeed don’t want!

I think this is what we might do. Our nearest one is UCL but the only thing she knows is that she doesn't want to be in London, which is fair enough. I don't think it's really worth going to the London ones as they're so different from others. Will try and arrange a few city breaks.

@AmberVerdigris You can go and visit cities if unis are city based. It’s easy enough to do without taking up space at open days in y11. My DDs knew they wanted bigger city universities very early on as we made some effort to vist a few on holidays. They also didn’t want smallish rural places so it’s easy enough to rule them out. Then draw up a shortlist based on where and subject league tables from the type of uni dc might be interested in. However having reasonably strong views helps a lot! We certainly knew where not to bother with early on.

We went to one fairly close-by in summer of Y11, two more in autumn of Y12 - then partly based on those DS actually changed what he wanted to study!

So then we went to 3 more in summer after Y12, and one in autumn of Y13.

He also went along to our local uni with his cousin (who isn’t local), but that was just for fun/nosiness really, he had no intention of applying there.

DS put down 4 he had visited on UCAS, and one he hadn’t - two we visited initially looked great on paper, but DS really disliked them on visiting. He’s off in a few weeks to study at the one he really felt at home at when visiting.
I think it was really valuable when it came to making the final decisions, to have some comparisons and know what he had liked and disliked about different places.

Dd, who’s now starting Y12, came along on all the visits, and already has two of the same places on her own shortlist, so we’ll just be visiting 2-3 more with her.

😅 It's not Oxford or Cambridge or Durham but very good nonetheless particularly for the subject she is considering!

@helenafalco My local RG is Oxford! Great if you have one dc might actually get into.

We attended open day on Saturday 5th September to our local, very good Russell group one. The subject topic she is interested in won't be running for the next 2 open days they have so thought we might as well drive 10 minutes up the road for it. Only attended for the talk, didn't do the campus tour or anything else laid out for the day as DD is fairly familiar with the university through projects in school.

@Stowickthevast Ha! That’s amazing! When I wrote my post I did wonder if you would say none of those! Maybe for going forward, look at syllabus, how well school does in each subject and enjoyment! But, you can rule many uni courses “in”. Keeping a MFL can mean a university is quite keen to have you.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner thanks. Totally by chance, her 4 subjects are English, History, Maths and an MFL so at least she's started well!

For a slightly different perspective.

Over the summer holiday between year 12 and 13 we visited some cities of perspective unis which dismissed a couple. He only did formal open days in the autumn term of year 13 and they were all on Saturdays. Just need to book in advance as the weekend ones get booked up.

This worked well - any earlier and we wouldn't have had a clue about subjects etc.

Get going as soon as you can.
All of a sudden, they’re not so keen on what they had imagined they would be looking for (in terms of course and university) and you’re back to square one.

Visiting any that are local even not in open days can be useful if possible to to get an idea of campus v non campus

If they’re thinking of Oxbridge and / or medicine/ dentistry the application needs ti be in by mid October of year 13 which comes around very quickly.

@Stowickthevast Cambridge university has info on their web site about choosing A levels. Yes I know not everyone is aiming for Cambridge but it’s good advice for anywhere. If not stem, they suggest 2 of: English Lit, History, MFLs or Maths. Yes, they like maths!

The third A level should complement the course dc might like and be a subject they are interested in. Some A levels are more directly related to degrees than others, eg Politics, Economics, Sociology etc but having 2 from the first group keeps more options open. They have quite a long list of 3rd A level options they see as suitable for their courses. So the 3 choices depend a bit on what you might want to study but 2 from the recommended group is a good place to start if career and degree options are not obvious.

@milkeyway I feel the same. DD has just started A levels and still trying to work out which one of 4 she may drop. I think unless you're doing STEM or something like law, it's very early to know what you want to do.

@U53rName They allied for 2 they hadn’t looked at. DD1 looked at 4 but wasn’t keen on one so offloaded that one and substituted another. Got offers from all 5 - but MFLs so only 3 were competitive.