Where to start when looking for a uni - dd feeling overwhelmed

[Sadik]

DD (yr 11) needs to think about open days, but is feeling pretty overwhelmed and uncertain as to where to start.

She's interested in physics, so something that's offered pretty much everywhere. It's quite hard to predict her grades, but probably likely to be decent to very good. Knows she doesn't want to be in London, but otherwise struggling to narrow it down. Anyone else's dc in the same boat?

[Sadik]

Your DS sounds much further on First - dd has been feeling pretty overwhelmed with AS exams & life in general, so we've put off thinking about uni options until now that she's into the long holidays.

I hadn't realised they'd book up so much though - we'd been told that although you had to book there were generally plenty of spaces, so it's good to know we have to get a move on.

[TheFirstOHN]

DS2's observations so far:

Birmingham
Specialisms in Astrophysics, Particle Physics & Cosmology
Best lab tour.
Most present and engaging teaching staff.
Campus is nicely laid out.
Accommodation available close by.

Southampton
Specialisms in Photonics, Astronomy and Nanotechnology.
Prestigious third year placements (CERN, Harvard etc).
Strong links with local industry.
Green, leafy campus.
Accommodation nearby.
Lower grade requirements.
Scholarships: £5K each year for all four years.

Warwick
(Have not yet visited)
Best response to query about ASD support.
Early arrivals programme (can move in a day early).

Nottingham
(Have not yet visited)

Bath
(Have not yet visited)
Second best response to query about ASD support.

[TheFirstOHN]

Bristol didn't quite make the shortlist because big city / not campus uni / he thinks it would be full of confident extroverts who like partying.

[Warmhandscoldheart]

Try to book weekday open days because they give a more realistic feel of the uni. We went to my DC's preferred uni on a Saturday, there was no atmosphere and although the city was lovely we knew it wasn't the right place to study.

[Sadik]

Given dd's levels of anxiety around the whole process, I might suggest we try to come up with 3 to visit (campus / big city / smaller city) with a view to thinking about whether she actually wants to apply in yr 13.

If she does, she can then research more over the summer, & we can go to a more considered selection in September.

[TheFirstOHN]

Sadik
That sounds sensible. If she becomes overwhelmed by facing too many decisions, then just tackle one decision at a time.

DS1 was someone who easily felt overwhelmed by the application process. He only went to one open day, at the university where he is just finishing his first year.

[JaneGlorianaVillanueva]

Not read the full thread so not sure if anyone has already suggested these options.

I would probably look at bristol/bath if I were her. Both very good unis and Bristol is supposed to be great for students.

[Petalflowers]

Sadie - good plan. Also, you don’t have to go on official open days. We were near Plymouth during summer break between year 11 and 12, so had a quick wonder around there.

[Decormad38]

Start with campus (like york or loughborough) or non campus( leeds, Liverpool etc)
Go to university guides - ratings and explore those.

Studentroom website is great - you get honest accounts from students

[stucknoue]

We are a years on from you and please don't worry. In year 11 I would not worry about lots of open days but it's handy to attend one (perhaps nearby) to give them an idea of how universities are set up and see the course structure, what halls look like etc. The main thing from September (once gcse grades are known) is to think about the course, and a level work is a closer approximation so gives them an idea - as well as school subjects consider engineering for instance. By around March next year their school will give them an idea of grades and you can visit universities which your dc likes the look of and are roughly in the grade area (no point visiting Oxford on 3 c's or Portsmouth if predicted 3 A's). Look out for your regional university fair, all the universities nationwide come to one location and they can talk to reps and see prospectuses etc, they are held on a campus so a good opportunity to see halls. One of mine decided to stay living at home, the other half way across the country!

[stucknoue]

Most open days are in May, June and very beginning of July. Popular universities have less open days!

If they need extra support some are better than others. We have been super impressed, dd has a personal pastoral care tutor she meets with weekly to go through how she is, what work she needs to complete, the tutor liaises with academic staff to change assignments to asd friendly ones (eg less presentations more written work) got separate exam arrangements etc.

There's lots of different campus set ups, city based, large, small etc. Both mine chose small cities.

[LooseAtTheSeams]

I sympathise - I have a year 12 DS who is still trying to decide between 2 different subjects - and possibly 3 combined let alone think about uni. I've booked him in to see 3 unis this summer but I'm hoping there will be a lot of discussion at school this half term to get him thinking about it. It all starts to happen pretty quickly in the autumn!

[Sadik]

We've just had a very productive hour or so looking through the UCAS finder & talking about things - leaving DD to research now, but I think she's feeling much more positive about how to start this. Thanks all!

[LIZS]

Focus on smaller campus unis with good Student Support. RHUL is easily accessible from many directions with rail links to Reading and near M4/3/40/25. Birmingham is proving popular in dds year group. Is Lancaster an option for the course?

[titchy]

Lots of RHUL kids go home at the weekend - could be isolating unless she does also. Lancaster very good for physics, not that near home though. And at the top of a steep hill...!

[Sadik]

We're a good 3 hour plus drive from Bristol, more obvs by public transport, so regular weekends at home wouldn't be an option realistically

[Xenia]

My twins are at Bristol and love it and I think it's quite well regarded by employers. It tends to be sensible to work backwards from likely careers eg will she be employed by employers who are not too worried about status of the university or does the opposite so Bristol, Exeter , Bath as mentioned above would probably go on the good list unless she might have a chance at Oxbridge which would be even better career wise.

[sashh]

Could you have a short break in (OK I'm biased I live in the West Midlands) say the West Midlands and have a look at the type of uni.

I'm thinking Birmingham / Aston , Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, Keele.

Not for the actual courses but to go from big city campus, big city uncv in the city, small city central campus, small city campus spread out over the city and beyond and finally 'bubble' campus you don't need to leave for 3 years.

Obviously no help on the course or quality but it would give her a feel of the types of campus available and then looking at the universities that are similar to the campus she prefers.

[LIZS]

Ds hasn't found it an issue at RH tbh, in fact the quieter weekends has worked out well. It may be too far for op's dd though

[runoutofnamechanges]

If your DD has ASD, maybe have a look at this thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3534872-best-university-for-student-with-aspergers

[Itscoldouthere]

I’ve been through this with DS2 who is resitting A levels now and will hopefully go to uni in September. He has ASD and is studying Biological Sciences. He also didn’t want to study in London.
He spent a lot of time looking at the actual course content, Biology is a very wide subject but there are certain things he wanted to do from year one, so that helped to narrow the field.
Secondly we looked mainly at campus universities as DS currently isn’t into going out very much, doesn’t drink, so he wanted there to be stuff going on around where his first year accommodation might be so campus felt like a better fit.
We’ve visited lots of places and there were lots we liked.
Bath is a lovely campus and very supportive of ASD (look up their ASD summer camp) but in the end he didn’t shortlist Bath as they had a higher entry requirement than his favourite choice which is Birmingham.
I’d certainly consider Bath, Bristol (which has a bigger party reputation) Exeter, Southampton, Birmingham, Warwick, Surrey, Sussex if you are wanting to stay reasonably south/accessible to Wales.

[randomsabreuse]

My school did a coach tour around west mids universities- Keele, Warwick, Birmingham and others. Meant I considered city/campus hybrids (City with obvious campus as opposed to scattered buildings) in preference to campus unis. I agree with PP to find an area where there are lots of universities of different types and visit - even seeing the buildings can give a good feel - I hated crowded city centre type locations and preferred leafy campuses in/near a city centre over an isolated campus.

Would seriously consider Oxbridge (Natural Sciences) with those grades - at least to see if the small group teaching/college arrangements would be a good fit. Oxford is obviously closeish to the M4 corridor!

[BubblesBuddy]

The big problem with looking at all types of universities is that DC might fall in love with the one they shouldn’t go to. It would be like choosing Ecinomics at Wolverhampton rather than Bristol if you have the great grades. So I think making an informed list and then visiting is better. Don’t scattergun and you don’t want to waste time visiting places your DC really won’t go to. Be strategic or you will spend many days looking and probably be no further forward.

Bristol partying is very much in the non catered halls. Choose catered there. Less stress and no communal spaces for parties. Plenty of partying at Southampton and Nottingham so I hear. There is no such thing as a non party, non drinking university. Joining in is not obligatory though!

[Kernobhead]

I did engineering, so a subject available pretty much everywhere. I knew I definitely wanted a campus university, definitely wanted to do a placement year and definitely wanted to do a masters so that filtered out a few. I also didn’t want to be miles away from home, but still far enough not to live at home, due to the cost of travelling (I was a very poor student and my parents didn’t have a car, so train stations were important!)

I then looked at the entrance requirements, which filtered out quite a few. I wasn’t a straight A student so had to be realistic in my choices

I visited the 3 that I was most interested in, and quickly picked my favourite based on ranking, and how the open day made me feel. I had an obvious first choice after the open days. The others were then just added to my choices in order of distance.

[TheFirstOHN]

Plenty of partying at Southampton and Nottingham so I hear. There is no such thing as a non party, non drinking university.

I'm hoping DS2 will be able to find his tribe (quiet, geeky introverts) wherever he ends up.

I think he would really struggle to cope in noisy, sociable halls where they host pre-s (how do you spell the plural?) nearly every evening like DS1's flat so he is going to need quite accommodation if he's going to last longer than a week.

Southampton said they offer a quieter living option and recommended some smaller halls. Nottingham seemed less confident that they could help with this.