Offer holder days

[robinwasntred]

I'm looking for tips about offer holder days. Dd has 4 offers (Southampton, Birmingham, Durham, Cardiff) and is really unsure about preferences, so is thinking of going to all 4 offer holder days if affordable & if she/we can manage the logistics.

We went to open days at 2 of them, so got a feel for the campuses & departments there, so will obviously aim to do the same for the other 2. She's been sent programmes for some (maybe all) of the days, so there will be organised tours, q&a sessions, etc & I think they all have separate sessions for parents (if I or dh are able to go), but I'm wondering what else is important to ask or look out for, either as a parent or potential student? She has has asked me not to say what subject she's applied for :)

For those of you who've been to offer holder days, what was the most useful aspect? Is there anything you wish you'd found out? Was there much more to learn that you didn't find out at open days?

I guess the reason why DD doesn't want an out of town campus is that we live rurally, and she wants to live near everything and not worry about missing the last train/bus home.

That's why she didn't like York or Warwick, and wasn't fussed about Lancaster either.

I think it's OTT to go to 4 offer days - not lest because of disruption to the school routine if they are in the week. This is the time to decide first and second choices. Can she really not decide which are the top 2? My DS went to 2 offer days at plcaes which on paper were the top courses he aplied for but where he had not gone to opne Days because of distance. It was invaluable because he actually hated the more "prestigious" of the 2 , and loved the place he will shortly be graduating from. My DD is now applying and we will be going to 2 offer days next month - she has pretty much made up her mind but wants to definitely rule out one and the offer day is at half term so won't interfere with anything. If it was on a school day I'm not sure we'd bother and just go to the one which is her favourite in order to see the accommodation again.

I have a DD at York. Although it's a campus it's a small city and very easy to get to city centre from campus, with night buses for those who want clubbing. Plus most students only live on campus in their first year. We live very rurally and this was as much of a big city as she wanted.

No, dd feels she can't decide at the moment and that the offer days will help. Only 2 of the 4 are on school days, so it doesn't make much difference to school absence if she goes to all 4. I don't think it's OTT, just depends on the person - an easy decision for some, hard for others. It's a shame that the two universities dd hasn't seen happen to be on the last of the 4 days, otherwise she could have gone to those and then decided whether she needed to see the others again, but I've decided she's right to go to them all if that means she'll be more confident about her decision.