Preparing for uni, visiting uni towns

[Umbongoumbongo999]

DS 18 has his 5 offers, all conditional for roughly equivalent courses. He has applied for a course in one of our home city units, plus four others in North of England. He doesn't know if he wants to move away or stay at home. As well as the home town uni he has applied to another course which is commutable in a city where I work. I would really like him to go away for the full student experience and to develop his independence.

The choice of unis seems so arbitrary when we have had no opportunity to go to open days, campus tours prior to applying.
He has literally found courses that he is interested in and judged the unis by their websites! He needs to choose a firm and insurance by 10th June. I'm interested to know how parents in the same position are approaching this. As the country starts to unlock somewhat I am thinking of a couple of trips to at least wander the campus and the city centres (Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield) as I fear he will need to have made the decision by the time unis are welcoming visitors again.

Is there anything you/your teen are doing to help make this decision or get more information?

Same boat here - I think some unis are starting to do private tours or similar - in may I think. Maybe drop the unis an email to see what they say. We def want to visit a couple of we can. Tricky isn't it?

It sure such a time of uncertainty for our children leaving school and going to uni.

Dd is staying home for uni, minimise debt and she will only be 17 when she starts so wants to stay at home, she has 5 unconditional covering 2 universities in the city nearest to us. She has gone on virtual tours, talking to students from those uni’s who she knows from older years from school and also on the details of the course. A tour would have been great but it’s not to be.

June will be here before we know it,

There's a Facebook Group and a website called WIWIKAU (What I wish I knew about University).
People will often ask on there questions such as
'Not having been able to visit, my ds has narrowed down and had offers from Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds. Can anyone give us information or opinions that might help him decide ?'

I mean, it clearly isn't the same as an open day, but it is another tool, alongside the virtual tours, the websites, and visits to the city.

Thanks @Backforgood I'll check that FB group.

My own experience of choosing universities was pre internet and involved getting the prospectus I'm the post, and visiting the careers library to peruse one of the chunky good universities guide tomes. We did, however, get to attend open days in my dads Rover Metro and once, even on the National Express! At least teens today have all of the data at their fingertips, but I think they are really going to miss out on getting the 'feel' of a place before making the choice.

One of the things I told my offspring was to think about how far away they wanted to be. We live in London. My daughter went to Birmingham and loved it and could get home at any time on the train. In time of family emergency she could get home quickly. We used to call in and see her on our way to other places. She moved to Leeds for her Masters and then could only afford to come home by coach.

My friend is in Leeds today having a mooch round the city and uni to get a feel for the place.

I know some unis offer self-guided tour packs (Warwick eg). so it would be worth checking whether the ones he has offers from does this.

I went to Leeds university and bloody loved it.
The campus is on a perfect location, right on the edge of the city centre so easy to walk to shops and bars and restaurants and the train station for trips home, but the campus is pretty much all on one area so very much feels like a campus/student city.

Facilities are excellent, great range of halls for range of budgets (though none are exactly cheap) and housing for 2ns and 3rd year is in Hyde park/heading key which cost me half as much as halls did!

Definitely worth going to look at the campus and city to see if it seems the right distance away and somewhere he can see himself living.

Sheffield university is not really in the centre of Sheffield but it’s easy to get around Sheffield. My friends’ DS lived in the big student village and loved it. Sheffield students always love Sheffield.

I don’t know about Hallam students - so which universities do you mean?

The staying at home idea is a bit of a non experience in my view. It’s not really what being a student is all about. Commuting makes nights out far more difficult. Your friendship group might be compromised. Being a student is not just about the academics. I think home town universities have made great links with schools but you must look at how well respected the university is and how highly the faculty is ranked. Why have a loan for a lowly ranked uni when you could have done better. Choices should never be random. Look at The Complete university guide for rankings.

If he want a job at home after it might not matter but in competitive areas of employment it might. If he’s doing something like History, Politics or similar courses it really does matter. However Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester universities are very good. Hallam, Leeds Beckett and Manchester Met are not the same but have their own strengths.

Paying off the loan is a red herring really. It’s not a bank loan and over 50% of students don’t pay them off. He would need a very good career to pay it all off. The best universities still give an earnings premium.

Thanks all. Unis are Beckett, Hallam and Met respectively. He's not Russell Group grades level unfortunately! In a different year I may be supportive of him taking a year out or looking for a higher level apprenticeship, however even his careers advisor agrees that this year will be short on options with the high unemployment and reduced opportunities due to Covid.

I absolutely believe that having a degree, any degree opens doors. And that he will likely be doing a job in the future that doesn't even exist yet ( digital technologies- type courses). I'm not so worried about the debt. I came out with 27k of debt and will finish paying SLC back in the next two years. Getting a degree/access to graduate level jobs has been so worth the cost.

Thanks for the advice on self guided tours. Sheffield Hallam has exactly that. Some of the accommodations are also open for visits with prior booking to I think a few day trips will still have benefits even if we can't visit the uni facilities.

It’s not that difficult now to visit the cities and look around where the universities are. You unfortunately won’t get a student vibe but hopefully you might from 17 May. The location of the universities within the city can be ascertained and at least you can see if the area appeals.

Often university is the overall experience and the friends you make. The only way to judge the courses is by league table but I guess there wouldn’t be much difference in them so I would say to choose the city he likes! All are fun in normal times I think!