Uni open days- questions?

[Boxingshibes]

Dd is (hopefully) off to uni next year.
We are visiting Dundee next weekend as its her 1st choice. We live on the south coast so it's an 8hr there and back. So we're travelling fri open day sat then back sun. Costing £££.
This will be the 1st uni but she wants to go to more 3+.

Im not really very helpful as i applied to uni via clearing and just got on with it

How many should she see?
What do we need to know?
Any advice would be great

What course does she want to study? That should give you the indication of where she should visit.

I presume you’re aware of Dundee’s ongoing financial difficulties?

Does she know what subject she wants to study? Am doing open days for the second time but this time with twins.

First question: do you know what you want to study?

For DT1: we went to one open day to explore an idea she had about what she wanted to study; she loved it. We are going to another which she thinks will be her first choice. That's it for her, but we'll go to offer holder days after she gets offers if she can't decide (DS put somewhere on UCAS he hadn't been to for open days but went on offer holder day and made it his first choice).

For DT2: she is torn between about three different variations of similar subject areas. We have done two so far, concentrating on getting a sense of what subject she wants to study. We will do maybe one more, or perhaps two. Then it will be narrowing down from lists, and then, as before, going on offer holder days. We are going to Edinburgh and were wondering about trying to do Dundee on the same day, but have decided we can rule out Dundee for now, so that helps.

Oh, and once you know what subject, it is worth going to look at the place / city / campus. So good questions to answer: how far away from home do you want to be, and how much will it cost to get home (time / money); how much is accommodation and can you afford it; do you want city university or campus university; do you like the location and feel you could live there.

And attend a guest lecture in the chosen subject at some point.

The answer to that question is how long is a piece of string! It will depend on how many run the course she wants to do, how far she wants to be from home, which courses are well rated, likely academic results and what else she wants to get out of uni. DD is doing Maths and wanted to stay in the North of England so had a wide choice. She did 9 open days but 4 of those were within an hour of home.

Youll need to know important things about the course, and any specific entry requirements, a look at the accommodation options, and anything she is particularly interested in in terms of wider uni life like societies, what the students union is like and the general area.

How many contact hours.
What percent local students that live at home, internal students and uk students from outside the area.

Gives a good insight on whether will get much interaction.

Has she a good reason for going to Dundee - very good reputation for her course, or she's likely to get the grades for the course at Dundee?

If it's just to go very far away, I'd try to disuade her you're going to be spending a lot on her transport over the years.

It would be quicker re travel, and cheaper re fees and accommodation, to do a degree through English in one of the Dutch unis rather than travel from the south coastbto Dundee.

Get her to do as much research as possible online first. After this first open day she will have more idea of what she is looking for. Get her to use this knowledge to check on uni websites how much they match what she's looking for, in terms of the uni itself but particularly the course.

This will save pointless trips to unsuitable unis!

How many contact hours, how many students on the course, try to get to a sample lecture if they have them.

I dragged DD to a good reserve option to lose the fear of not getting the grades for first choice. She saw that they had a similar set up, similar range of societies etc.

She wants to go to Dundee as its the number 1 for Forensic Science for her.
She is doing a Forensic Science btec and predicted DDD.
ideally Forensic Science then lab/crime scene scientist.

She'll need to take out as many loans as possible as we are a 1 income family and we rent so can't guarantee anything.
But as much as I can do I'll support her.

Obviously it depends on your income but lower income families are usually entitled to higher loans. DDs friend get max maintenance loan as she’s from a 1 parent family and her parent is on a low wage, she manages OK and has more money than DD who is on minimum (she’s very careful with money, but would ask me if she needed more). It’s just a lot to pay back.

I went with DS to see three and with DD to see four although there was another one that she saw by herself. I also work at a university that, amusingly, neither of them even considered going to even though they'd get a big discount.

Contact hours is important as are facilities. Review the university's website to get a feel for how important they view the particular course. If they splash it all over the website then it's important enough that they see it as a priority. If it's tucked away on the site and there's little information about it other than the base syllabus, it's something that might be at risk of being abandoned. Having a look at the last few years of the university's accounts would be worthwhile too as there is a number of unis that are in quite serious financial difficulties.

A city-based campus vs a self-contained one is a difference that matters to some students more than others. DS went to a self-contained one, DD went to one based in London. They've both got their advantages and disadvantages. First-year accomodation, and the availability of second- and third-year accomodation should also be considered.

I told my DCs that if it's more than a three-hour drive away from where we live then it'd complicate things. The vast majority of UK students come home for Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays and many come home for reading weeks, the occasional weekend etc as well. For the first two they'll likely be bringing quite a lot of stuff with them and for the summer holidays they'll be bringing EVERYTHING. That's difficult to do by public transport. I'm not saying that's a hard-and-fast rule but it was a guideline that I gave my DCs and I'm quite grateful that they both chose unis that were within that travelling distance. Between the two of them I spent a lot of time bombing up and down motorways with a car full of shite essential posessions as it is. The south coast to Dundee would have been a killer.

I believe she's only be entitled to minimum loans which is really frustrating as if we divided my salary in 2 we'd get max loan.
She's also has a physical disability so may be able to get help.

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/forensic-science

Strathclyde seems to be top of the latest one. Not convinced there is a huge difference between being 1st and being 5th. I’d try to avoid getting hung up on a single year’s ranking - alongside the usual caution of taking league tables with more than a pinch of salt.

Definitely question Dundee’s financial situation if she goes to their open day.

Thanks. Hadn't actually thought about the finance of the uni.
I went to uni in the late 90s when we still had grants.

I think if finances are tight going to a university eight hours away is going to be a pressure. My order thought I went to university 2 1/2 hours away so we could make it there and back quite easily in a day. We could go or see her take her to supermarket have a nice dinner then drive back home if we wanted to.

My second daughter has gone to university 5 1/2 hours drive away and longer by train. When we went to move her and we had to stay two nights, the whole thing cost us £500 and we are already talking about how she’s going to get back at Christmas as the train fares are expensive then but if we drive one of us has to take a day off work we have to stay overnight.

@BoxingshibesHave you looked into what courses are accredited - when u say Dundee, do you mean Dundee uni or abertay uni in Dundee?

Ok so get to grips with finance. DS gets DSA but for him that’s software and then extra time in exams not money. His course is 40 hours a week and he struggles so working part time as well in unlikely in Y1. He gets minimum loan which wouldn’t cover his rent. We are paying his rent and he is living off the loan. Look up Martin Lewis: he explains uni money really well including how paying it back works.

Trying to visit Dundee and Edinburgh on the same day is absolutely crazy! You will need at least a day for each and they are not nearby.

Nottingham Trent could be worth investigating. I'd be wary of Kent as they're looking to merge with Greenwich and so who knows what will happen in the longer term with that.

I visited five unis with DS1, he went to another four on his own / with college.
He didn't know what subjects he wanted to do though so it was as much about that as the actual location.
We live in the Midlands and he ruled out Scotland early on so we only had one overnight but some very long days.

We got a two together railcard for me and him which paid for itself.

Once an application has been made, there are offer holder days in Feb/March next year so she can always apply to a maybe uni and only visit if she gets an offer. Some universities do have travel bursaries based on your postcode, our train fare was refunded to one university offer holder day and we could have reclaimed the cost of the open day too if we'd realised.

There was a good thread about this recently on the Higher Ed board, and in fact several threads over the years suggesting how to get the most out of open days, so it's worth a look.

This is the one I was thinking of https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5422776-when-to-start-university-visits?reply=147751902

Otherwise, I suggest:

• Do the finance talk at one uni only
• Book in to talks on subjects she might want to study
• Look at accommodation and chat to the students showing you round about what it's like, what's nice, what's not
• Look at sports facilities if important as IME these can vary
• There is usually a marketplace event where you can talk to reps of (say) music activities at the uni or find out about volunteering or whatever you are interested in
• Try and look at different types of uni – campus/city/smaller town as you may get a strong steer on what is preferred
• It’s worth having a stroll around the city or town itself if relevant and there's time, just to get the vibe
• Take lots of pictures or even little videos as it will all merge – eg of accommodation you liked (include the name in the image if poss or make notes)

In terms of number, IME it's very easy to get open-day overload so I would suggest shortlisiting to possibles (eg DD didn;t want to be more than 2 hours from home, so that was an easy starting point). I would go to a max of 4-5 tbh.

Btw eight hours away – that is a loooong way. A friend of mine had DC at two south-coast unis (we are in the midlands) so between 4 and 5 hours away in both cases. She got very used to staying over if visiting or picking stuff up. My dc were/are a lot nearer and Ido think that has a value, tho obvs it's not the only factor. Eight hours is going to mean a lot of planning for drop offs and pick ups.

I see you say you are a single income family - soi the distance might be a factor. It's obvs going to cost a lot more if you have to keep staying over.

Not sure what you mean when you say you'd get the max loan if you divided your salary in two? Do you mean if you earned half as much? That's probs not true actually as the threshold for max loan is about £25k HH income, but the min loan kicks in at about £62k HH income. So a bit more than twice that.

Anyway it's good to think about the finances of it. Could your DD get a pt job to help over the next 18 months?

That is true, definitely look into help for disabled students.
We find that maintenance grant covers DDs rent, but we are lucky that it is relatively cheap. I give her money for food and other living costs. She’s tried getting jobs but nothing comes of them, just got another knock back today. Annoying but nothing you can do. Luckily, her costs are under control as she walks everywhere during a normal week, she sometimes shares food with flatmates and can cook from scratch.