I need Top Tips for University Open Days

[glitterbiscuits]

We are about to spend the next few Saturdays at Uni Open Days.
Can anyone who has done this before offer any words of wisdom please?
Are there things that make one University better than another? What things would put you off? What should we be on the lookout for? I get the impression that it can be a bit of a students market nowadays with Unis being more keen to have bums on seats than ever before.

DS is just looking at Russell Group where his course is ranked highly. It’s all about the label! I’m trying to get more of a rounded view.

I did a couple of open days with dd last year and she is going to several in the next few weeks & autumn, either with me, friends or cousin. From last year's experience, what I've encouraged her to do this year is to read the prospectus and course spec for each in detail, and also think about what she wants from university life, then make a list of what else she needs to find out. So the lists for each uni are things like:

Specific questions about course content, structure or options for field trips/year abroad (including costs), etc
Current interests/hobbies/sport - are there clubs/facilities for continuing these?
Things she might like to do (e.g. learn a language, take up a sport, etc) - would these be possible?
Where do 2nd/3rd years live - is there a specific neighbourhood or are they spread around the town(s)? Costs, social life in those areas, distance and transport to uni?
Different cultures in different residences e.g. are some more sporty, social, public school, etc?

After last year, dd decided the main things she needed to see were the university department (obviously), sports centre, accommodation, journey to city/town centre, and general look around to get a feel for the campus. She's also booked onto the relevant subject talk.

The best source of info we found last year was chatting to current students about everything, whether it's the course itself or social/student life issues, why they chose this university, what they like/dislike.

Like others, dd has ruled out London due to high cost of accommodation & also 2nd/3rd year students being so widely dispersed around the city and often quite a distance from university.

Senua, come now...

The friend whose DC struggled with the bus was a rural lad. An awful lot of Warwick's scientists and mathematicians need to be in for nine most days. He found he had to aim to arrive an hour early to be sure of getting there on time because so many buses were full.

On coaches, I really don't know, other than DD is surprised at how much some spend on train fares home, and indeed how often they go home. She uses the train if she can pick up a very cheap deal in advance, but the fact that there are very regular coaches to London gives her a lot more scope to save money.

25 minutes walk means over an hour to pick up milk or bread. Hardly "Retailers are canny. They tend to place their outlets in student areas", and a real pain if a flatmate's boyfriend immediately polishes it off, leaving nothing for breakfast or a packed lunch. And she lived in her University's main cluster of student housing. Only a minority resorted to stealing, but an awful lot seemed to be spent on Deliveroo or similar. DS may have spent his first year living on Sainsbury's Pot Noodles, no healthier, but easy to acess and cheaper. And indeed University societies followed by a group meal in ChinaTown, or a college disco, was almost certainly a lot cheaper than relying on commercial Club nights and a taxi home.

Housing is expensive, but because of accessibility and choice, other aspects of London living can/will be cheaper.

Our DC at Bristol is a big spender by nature. Our DC in London spends almost nothing, unless on food. But it cost very significantly more to keep a DC in London than in Bristol for three years.

Cambridge is a bargain! Especially with a bursary!

User, I agree. Not least the amount many dc seem to spend in Bristol is astonishing, presumably because so much of student social life seems to be City rather than University based.

Neither of mine spend that much, and happy with social lives based around interests rather than sport. The ‘need’ for a car is likely to balance things up. But then the mix of urban and rural experience and the hands-on nature of the course was something that DD wanted. (No car needed at Oxbridge as they do do any placements in the first three years!)

One big surprise was how expensive it was to play sport. Not just having to join society and gym, but all sorts of kit including a blazer. Plus the annual sports tour (though optional its sad to miss). A lot of these costs were loaded into the first term, and took a big chunk out of DDs budget, meaning she needed more spending money than her London DB.

Not true of all courses, but starting salaries for DS’ coursemates have been very impressive. London often outranks Oxbridge in terms of graduate opportunities, and the networking and internship opportunities can do no harm. If looked at from an economists perspective (which is how he tends to see things) there are some good arguments for taking a longer view, and not writing London off from the outset.

Advise to OP might be to start thinking about the issues early so that you can ask more specific questions p, perhaps to students, on the day. DD went to a couple of local open days early on which helped her understand better what she wanted and what she did not.

“Don’t do”

@Kitchendancefloor - Yes, I work in HE. And I share your views about the Russell Group. I used to work for a Russell Group institution, and both of my degrees are from institutions that are now in the Russell Group (although, of course, that "venerable" organization was only invented in 1994, long after I had graduated). I now work in a non-Russell Group pre-1992 university, where teaching quality and standards of staff behaviour are much better.

My DC at Bristol is the opposite, they saved enough to pay their rent for next year. They socialise but in each others flats mostly.

It's also worth asking about the level and availability of student support, be that academic or pastoral. Lots and lots of students struggle with the emotional aspects of being away from home for the first time and you'd be surprised at how many students who have been a big fish in their small school pond collapse when they encounter a less spoon fed more fluid learning environment with classmates who are brighter than them.

@Skiiltan thanks for the reply. I work in a similar HEI and get lots of students transferring after the first year in RG unis because of poor student experience and lack of access to research staff.
It's such a shame that so many schools sell the RG unis as the gold standard and dismiss other, often better, options for that student.

slug is right. Rather than hear the guff about how wonderful support services are, I would be tempted to ask a few "what if.." questions, perhaps based on problems students you know have had...

"what happens if one of my flatmates regularly wakes others up...or moves an anti-social boyfriend in?"

You would want an answer that involves speaking to a resident warden rather than a generic "call security". Few 18 year olds are confident enough to do the latter.

"what would happen if I because ill and was unable to achieve compulsory attendence requirements or placement requirements."

Again you want a process which has a clearly identified main contact point, rather than a process mainly based on submitting paperwork. Similar questions might be asked around what would happen if you found aspects of the course difficult and so on.

" how is group working managed. what happens if some of the group do not pull their weight. what proportion of marks is given to group working."

And so on.