The Great Uni Open Day Tour Has Begun!

[Horsemad]

University of Manchester today. DH took him, no idea what either of them think of the place. Will quiz them when they return.

Just back from Bristol Uni with DS. An enjoyable day out - apart from the completely airless lecture theatres.

Have you got many more to do offtosee? We're doing Birmingham and Nottingham next week.

DS and I (and his 1 year old sister )are off to London on Wednesday for Imperial and then UCL on Thursday. We are staying for a bit of sight seeing on Friday too, I'm quite looking forward to it

We went to UCLAN today. DH and I were not at all impressed but DD loved it

The ones that do open days on Weds annoy me! Why, just why?

Bristol last Friday Warwick today... Imperial on Thursday. I want to sign up!

DH (geek) raving about M'cr. I can see him enrolling if I'm not careful. DS hasn't said much but DH said he was quite animated whilst there which is unlike him so that probably means he approved.

DD1 went to all but one of hers by herself. DD2 hasn't shown any interest at all yet - think we might have to take her!

Argh I thought we were doing all this Sept/Oct. Have we missed out? Y12 DD just taken AS.

Argh I thought we were doing all this Sept/Oct. Have we missed out? Y12 DD just taken AS.

The ones that do open days on Weds annoy me! Why, just why?

Because university staff generally work 50 hours a week, and sometimes we like to work only 6 instead of 7 days a week?

For anyone who has interested, hellsbells99 has started a thread in "Secondary Education" for people to post reviews of universities. It would be great if people could post comments there about the campus, accommodation etc for people who couldn't visit particular places. I have just posted about Warwick. What did you think of it, twentyten?

Loved the campus at Warwick- my dd did a course there last summer and was impressed. Not as impressed with the course now- seemed much more practical- mech eng than she had thought- preferred more mathematical course at bristol.

I work so my ds will have to go on his own or with mates

I work at a uni & am amazed at the number of parents trekking round

We all went on our own in my day

I think Lilaclily that the presentations I have seen are very much pitched towards the parents nowadays as it is a massive financial commitment.

The amount of loan my DD will get is not much as we are fairly high earners and not enough to cover her accommodation, let alone everything else. Her course is 5 years so wherever she goes it will be for a long time.

Both myself or DH have gone with her to open days. I think having been to Uni ourselves, we have an idea what is important and what isn't!

DD1 did most on her own because not only am I at work full time, but she didn't want parents tagging along. Most of her friends went alone, or with each other, too. The one I did go to was in the holidays, so I could go and we made a day out of it - I'd say it was about 50/50 with and without parents.

I think dd2 would want us to go with her, but dd1 much more savvy. Would never insist on it though - I think it should be up to the dc.

If I'm paying then I'm definitely going with him! Ultimately it's his choice where/which course he attends but I am keen to see the (sometimes vast) differences between the institutions.

I think another pair of unbiased eyes and ears can be useful.

Cooroo, don't worry, my Y12 DD is also not looking at any universities until Sept/Oct (after AS results). There is a website called opendays.com which I've found invaluable, mainly because you can instantly see where there are clashes of Open day dates.

Having said that, I'll be reading this and similar threads with interest!

Thanks for the tip OnBoyTox. I work but will be able to book a couple of days off for this - what are holidays for?

I went to uni in 1978 and just applied to York because itwas a way from home and sounded nice! No open days. No stress. No bloody career. .

Cooroo.

Horse DS is visiting Liverpool Uni on Wed with his 6th form. He has a list of others he wants to go to, but we have earmarked dates in Sept/Oct for those.
Now we have been to one, we will have more idea about planning the other visits. He booked the Bristol one and although he booked 2 talks on courses he was interested in, he didn't book the department tours and nearly missed out. Fortunately DH did his pushy parent act and blagged a space on a tour for DS.

cooroo CDH said the same yesterday. He doesn't even remember visiting Unis - he just picked somewhere as far away from home as possible - without leaving England- and went there.

DS has got a massive list of unis to visit, I'm not sure we'll do them all.

Does anyone visit a long list? I should not think that is really possible. There is a certain skill in working out which universities suit a certain personality or interests a young person might have. If you want a campus, small town, or city based university, then don't bother visiting ones that really do not match this criteria. Look at the subject content of the courses. They do differ, but some courses less than others. Where is the university ranked for the subject? What especially draws the young person to a particular course and university? How many universities offer that exact combination? My DD1 was greatly concerned about the where aspect as the courses were fairly similar everywhere. It saves a huge amount if time and effort if you can trim the choices down to a manageable number especially if you are just visiting in the autumn term with applications just around the corner. It is also good to look at aspirational courses and realistic ones if there are doubts about results. No point looking at all AAA if your child is BBB. Or vice versa.

DS has a week of talks about HE at College this week. One of them is entitled 'Go Compare'. I hope he pays attention so he can effectively cut down his list of Unis he wants to visit