Uni open days question please!

[CiderwithBuda]

How much do parents get involved?

Obviously DS is deciding which unis he wants to see, course etc.

We are going to an open day at Newcastle on Friday. Do parents go along or do I just let him go himself? I’m flying up with him and obviously can go but don’t want him to look odd having his mum there. Or odd not having anyone with him!

This is all new for me!

DD is on a very tight budget - must admit the shopping never crossed our minds when we were looking. See your point though.

Student accommodation has changed massively since I was a student. Main doors were routinely left unlocked. Locks on individual doors wouldnt have stopped a determined toddler so many students didnt bother locking their rooms. Difference was we didnt have much to steal. A few cassettes, an old cassette player.

Now a first year student may well have a nice new laptop, tablet, phone. More to lose.

Surely it is better for a question to be asked and answered? Parent (who may well be the one having to replace lost/stolen items) is reassured.

What may be perfectly obvious to one person may not be to another. Funnily enough we dont all have the same life experiences.

As a PP said, no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid answer.

Tbh, I've heard a lot of daft, illogical,
proving-you-haven't-listened-to-anything questions over the years (many from my own kids and also often from parents on that sort of situation * ), so I really don't agree with that particular platitude.

I maintain that for insurance and safety purposes that it would be incredibly improbable to the point of impossibility that bedroom doors wouldn't lock. If you want to continue to think I'm a monster for thinking that, that's fine Feel free to ask as many bizarre questions as you like at open days

[* GCSE option talk, with much emphasis on giving your PREFERENCES which they will try to accommodate. Q&A time. First question: can you guarantee my child will get X subject?

Not a good question.]

Atia I do sincerely hope you are not someone who advises on open days - or anything else for that matter. Clearly you're not cut out to help people.

Oh, I'm much nicer when I want to be 😂

Looking round one of the halls at Leicester, one girl's father was horrified that the cleaners had access to the flats, to clean the communal parts. I'd like to think that the rest of us were thinking, 'that's nice, at least the kitchen gets cleaned now and then'.

Q: Do the bedrooms in flats have locks?
A: Yes [then follow on with a bit of information about security within halls]

Perfect feeder question. I have heard the question asked during accommodation tours so why not at a Q&A session? It is often followed on with a question about what happens if students lose their keys.

Nice easily answered questions in a Q&A session which get the ball rolling.

An open day is an opportunity for students and parents to look around, absorb some of the atmosphere, get a glimpse of what is pretty standard across universities and what is unique to that particular university.

Behaviour of staff is part of this. If I saw a member of staff eye-rolling or making this face at perfectly reasonable questions in a Q&A session then I would certainly mention it to my son/daughter. An open day is the day when the university is trying to advertise itself. If staff are rude or dismissive on that day, what are they like on an ordinary day?

I maintain that for insurance and safety purposes that it would be incredibly improbable to the point of impossibility that bedroom doors wouldn't lock.
I think you will find it is not improbable and not impossible - ds1's was in UoL managed accommodation in his first year and none of the 5 bedrooms had locks.

A tip
Your house contents insurance usually has cover for students living away from home included. Ours is about 5k cover.
I know surrey had a problem with their outer door locks being inadequate. They ended up having to compensate a friend of ds who had something stolen that was left in the communal area because they knew the locks were inadequate and did nothing about it.

Insurance is usually included in halls, although it doesn't cover them taking their belongings out & about. I have never come across a student bedroom that did not have a locking door, even 40 years ago when I was at university!

"Oh, this was a parent, not a student!"

Ha, funnily enough I (a parent not a student) was wondering precisely this (about locks) last night! I think because the word 'flat' confuses the issue for me - in a domestic flat the bedroom doors don't usually have locks after all. Glad to hear most do, and less glad to hear the UoL accommodation didn't - that would definitely be a factor in choosing accommodation, although probably not the university.

I asked DD1 about accommodation at her uni (just finished degree this year). Apparently it depends on accommodation. Some of the halls (converted old buildings) only have bolts so the room can be made private when the student is in but not secured when the student is out.

Furrycushion I think one of the changes to accommodation over the decades is the introduction of flats within halls. As Surelyyoudontmeanthat wrote, that does confuse the issue a bit. Where is the front door? If you arent familiar with HMO then the door to the flat feels like the 'front door'.

Another thing which can confuse the issue is the way student accommodation is marketed. I remember one presentation which showed a group of students arriving in their flat, becoming bosom buddies and staying together for the whole 3 years. At no point did any of them retreat to their room, lock the door and have a little cry.

I meant on the internal doors, not just the door to the flat.

When dd went to the offer holder day in Newcastle there were lots of people with southern accents complaining about how cold it was.

It's a lazy wind in the North East. It goes through you not round you.

Furrycushion I understood what you meant I was just thinking back to my student days (also decades ago). Back then the arrangement of halls was different: big building with lockable front door then just rooms off corridors. Now far more halls have locked front door then locked flat. Asking if the bedrooms within the locked flat are also locked doesn't strike me as a daft question especially as it isn't an absolute given (DD1's experience).

I disagree about not looking at accommodation. My DS and DD were both very interested to see the standard available. It was a deciding factor for both when shortlisting down to 5 universities.

It's a lazy wind in the North East. It goes through you not round you.

Not much less lazy in rural Staffs, where we used to speculate that the wind across the playing field came straight from the Urals...

Well we are back. Survived. Even the massively delayed flight back last night which meant we picked up our car at 2am and I had an hour drive home.

I didn’t embarrass him too much. We both really liked Newcastle. I think it would be a great city to be a student in. We did lots of walking.

We looked at one accommodation. I asked one question! We were in a group of four though so didn’t draw too much attention to myself. And him by default!

All in all a good trip and it’s definitely a contender.

Thanks for all help, advice and suggestions. We saw Newcastle at its best in lovely sunshine. I did mention winter but as DS pointed out we lived in Eastern Europe for ten years so not unused to cold!

Glad you had a successful trip.
Dds going to Cardiff, we saw the worst of it in the pouring rain, but she still loved the City.

Back early from Nottingham. It is very popular with kids from our town. Course looks good but not sure it is the one for him. Has anyone got dc there already?

Can I help Decor? One just returned having done Sociology. The city is great, campus beautiful. Lots to do.

DD1 has just finished her degree at Trent (so not Uni of). Loved the city. Transport around was quick especially with the tram system which is useful if living off campus after first year.

Thanks both. I think we found the campus a lot bigger than we expected. And lots of open space with most of the departments clustered in one area. Wondered how students find it if their accommodation is at the further reaches or off-campus? Is it well-lit & safe at night?

Which campus are you talking about Decor? Trent or Uni of N? I can only speak for Uni for N. My very petite DD was a 'night owl' for 2 years - patrolling the streets (with others) until 3 or 4 am, helping to ensure students (generally drunken ones) got home or into cabs safely.

The only time she ever felt uncomfortable and unsafe was because of the druggie idiot in her flat in 1st year who started banging on and punching doors. He didn't threaten her though. Nottingham has a very large student population, which is good from a safety perspective - there are always people around.

Thanks Twitter. It's U of N we looked at. It's good to know your dd hadn't had any problems. Hopefully my huge ds wouldn't either!