visiting uni towns when no open days...

[ghogday]

Do you think there is any value in going to visit towns over the summer when no students there? I'm wondering whether you would get enough feel for the place as a student? Prob too expensive, far and time consuming for my dd to do the shortlisted ones twice, so wondering whether she'd be better waiting until Sep/Oct when students (probably) back... TIA

I have always found a HUGE benefit of going to the open day, is to get to talk to students who are actually there. which you will miss in visiting in the holidays. Nor will you know what to look at, where the accomm. is, how easy it is to get 2nd yr accomm., what the part time job prospects are like, what the food is like (if planning catered accomm) or the 'none-show-room' accommodation, or the social life (for your dc).

I mean, if one or two options are in or near nice towns / Cities / parts of the Country, and you want to go for a couple of days beak and treat it as a holiday / weekend away, then fine, but if you are asking about which would be better, then the open days will tell you a lot more, without a doubt. We went to one of dd's possibles last year, at a separate time, as couldn't make the open days, but it was a nice couple of days away with dd (which we could afford) so nothing lost.

We've been wondering this, in the end decided against. What is the point? The town will be half shut down, have to book for lunch etc. It all just felt like it would seem more gloomy rather than helping! We decided to read a lot of local information and try to get a feel for what it was like, and grill anyone who we know who went there!

We did this once already and are now planning to do the same for another couple of universities.

Drove there, had a wander around a quiet campus, working out where things are, etc. In combination with extensive googling, online reading, talking to people we know who know someone there, etc etc. The one we did has already been a useful addition to the online open events universities have put on, which has been a bit patchy.

I very much doubt that open days will resemble anything near "normal" in the autumn, and DD has to get her ucas form in at school by the end of September in any case.

We took a picnic lunch and went on Sunday so free parking was available. We are planning next Sunday's trip now, but if it's raining, we'll do it another weekend.

Thank you for responses - it's really difficult, the virtual open days have been so mixed. I guess my main concern is that if we visit now she will discount certain places - more the campus unis - as they won't seem as 'buzzing' as the bigger cities but with the students there they are very different places. Doesn't help we are looking from Southampton to Newcastle !!

@ghogday Honestly, it worked for us. It was good to have the quiet non buzzing atmosphere as we could really get to grips with the layout.

Try a close-ish one and cut the costs by a picnic, etc and see? Even DD's "why are we doing this" siblings had a fun day out in the end as I downloaded a family walk around the city and we took the dog as we didn't need (or were able!) to go into any buildings. It ended up being fun. Though to be fair, lockdown has changed everyone's perspectives and lowered expectations of what a fun trip out is

@GreyBow you are so right, my son even wants to go to the supermarket
ok you are inspiring me to pack siblings and dog into car and head up the M1!

I have taken DD since lockdown because she had only visited a couple previously. She has a strong preference for a campus university so she was totally unimpressed with Bristol whereas despite it being empty she really liked Bath. I am intending to take her to Nottingham and Wawick before the end of the summer.

Visiting has helped her a lot because it gives her an idea of what the area is like and how the place is laid out. She can get the course information etc online but TBH most unis seem more interesting in discussing their covid arrangements than selling their courses. It also helps having an older sibling who took a gap year and visited mates at all of the unis she is interested in.

We did this last year with Durham, Edinburgh & York which are at the opposite end of the country to us and all made it onto DD's UCAS form. We found the trips more helpful than open days. You had the time for a proper look around, without feeling you had to attend a subject talk in a packed lecture theatre every 30 minutes.

Although we couldn't see the accommodation, it would have been largely irrelevant anyway. DD applied for a catered college at Durham, she was offered a self-care college which hasn't been built yet!

I doubt if open days will go ahead in the autumn, so have a few nice days out now and then think about offer holder days next spring.

When I went to University I hadn't been for an interview, or an open day or even visited the city. I only picked the place (Leeds) because a teacher told me it had a good reputation for the subject I wanted to study. Absolutely loved it from the moment I arrived and had the best time of my life there. TBH I think it's as much about the people you meet and the course itself, as the town or the accommodation - so lots of it is just luck/chance anyway. Hope that helps!

We visited Exeter and not sure what to think really. The campus itself is up and around and over a steep hill and would be quite exhausting getting around, as well as up and down into the town. Obviously it was empty.

The town itself is quite nice in itself, but sooo many crazy people. I can honestly say, we were confronted by more crazy people in 24 hours there than 24 years in London - inc being chased down street by a man growling and being confronted by the most huge woman who leapt out of an alley wearing what can only be described as a swimsuit at 7pm in the town centre, f**ing and blinding at pedestrians.

I’m not sure what to think really. I think DS might get a bit bored here. We left early.

We were thinking about visiting Durham, but DS is not sure as he thinks it looks very ethnically “undiverse” based on the website. I don’t know if this is a fair impression or not ... does anyone have a view / experience?

@10km

We were thinking about visiting Durham, but DS is not sure as he thinks it looks very ethnically “undiverse” based on the website. I don’t know if this is a fair impression or not ... does anyone have a view / experience?

This is intetesting as we had some questions about men/women split.

You should be able to find out - Google the question.

www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/statistics/summary/

Durham Uni stats

We did this. We were in Devon and visited Plymouth university. Most universities are fairly open so we wandered around some buildings.

My dc also visited a second uni if it were near the main one he was visiting. Ie. We looked at Aston whilst visiting Birmingham.

There’s a good Facebook page called WIWIKAU, (what I wish I knew about university), or something like that. Good for asking questions about courses at different unis, what to take, financeetc.

Thanks all for the replies, we are all looking at similar unis it seems. I agree @AldiFan, it is an element of luck. I never saw my uni, went on reputation alone and I think now there's an almost overwhelming amount of info out there = great, but lots of opinions.

@Standrewsschool how long did you take to look around Birmingham University (given it’s shut) and the city please? We don’t need to look at Aston.
@cakeisalwaystheanswer how long did you spend in each of Bath & Bristol please?

I think it depends what you want to see. I don't know Bath or Bristol Universities but at Birmingham just the campus itself is quite big - just to walk from the QE / med school / where the station is, across the campus in a straight line would take quite a while. If you want to walk up the hill to The Vale (where quite a bit of accomm is) and where you get to appreciate just how green and beautiful the site is, you are adding on probably another mile. Presumably you'd want to wander about to see the buildings of the particular subject your dc wants to study. Then I would also wander down into Selly Oak as it is the 'High Street' where the students shop and drink / socialise and is close to there all the 2nd and 3rd year accomm is.
If you want to 'see' the City Centre - it is only 10mins in on the train, but obviously it is a big City - what would give you a 'feel' for the place ? Shopping, architecture, nightlife, history, transport network ?

Would you be driving to the City or arriving by train?
Are you looking from a "how quickly can we do this and get out?" or "Will there be enough for us to fill 8 hours?" pov?

We spent about 1.5 hours in Bristol. I drove up to the main accommodation site so she understood where it is and then drove back and parked near the uni so DD could get a feel for the area. We popped into the town centre for a wander to look at the shops etc.
We then drove to Bath and did it the other way round, we spent about an hour and a half getting lunch and wandering about. We then drove up the enormous mountain that the university sits at the top of and spent about half an hour walking through the campus to understand the layout and see what is there.
I should say that I have visited both before with DS1on proper open days so I had a good idea of the layout and where to head for. It may be a good idea to look at the postcodes for the bits you want to visit and plug them into satnav as ther are not many signposts.
DD is pleased she visited, it told her a lot more than looking online.

@Notdonna, I don’t remember. It’s a lovely university. We then walked to where the accomadation campus was. That took a little while, but was worthwhile. Even if you don’t go into the halls of residence, it’s worth walking there to see the accomadation campus. You may find some of the main buildings open, even if the uni isn’t officially operating. Some of the buildings are beautiful.

The Vale is very attractive, but there is a lot more first year accommodation at Birmingham than just the halls there - Jartatt Hall and some of the newer halls in the Selly Oak 'Village' are actually quite a bit closer to the main teaching areas than the Vale, as is the Pritchatts Park aaccommodation. DD - going into 2nd year - was in Battery Park, the very new Unite hall of residence next to the canal and the Battery Park retail park, about a 15 minute walk in to lectures and very close to Selly Oak station (next stop out, a couple of minutes, from University). Most second and final year students rent around Selly Oak, where properties range from fairly basic (e.g. DS1's third year flat over a shop opposite Aldi) to very nicely refurbished, all en suite.

Thanks @BackforGood Would you be driving to the City or arriving by train?
Are you looking from a "how quickly can we do this and get out?" or "Will there be enough for us to fill 8 hours?" pov? Good question! And that’s what I’m trying to work out. I don’t want us to feel rushed so happy to stay overnight but at the same time don’t want to aimlessly mooch about when most things are closed or it’s a drizzly day. I don’t think visiting the city would be necessary tbh. Sounds like your your idea would be perfect. We’ll be driving as she’d also like to see Nottingham and then Newcastle so I was think a road trip of a few days.

Thank you @MarchingFrogs massively helpful! And @cakeisalwaystheanswer DD is pleased she visited, it told her a lot more than looking online this is what I’m thinking especially as we have no idea what will happen re autumn open days and applications need to be in shortly thereafter. Sorry to side track your post op @ghogday it is such a good question!!

intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/student/coronavirus/Walking-routes.aspx

Walks around the general area of the University of Birmingham.

I live and work in a university city on the south coast (mentioned up thread). I’m honestly not sure how beneficial visiting us is at the moment - the campus is very quiet, of course you can get a feel for the layout of the place, but it’s completely dead and doesn’t feel anything like normal. I can’t see me being allowed back into my office for several months, although I believe there are plans for some students to be back this autumn. I went into the city centre last week and most things are open, so you could get a feel for the place. If you do do that I’d try to seek out the more historic/picturesque parts of our city, walk the medieval walls, explore the parks, especially the common.

We did this last week: visited Warwick, Nottingham, Leeds and York. DD had been to virtual open days and although good for info on the course and accommodation, we found it really hard to get a feel for the place itself. I wasn't sure how helpful visiting an empty campus would be, but it was fantastic! It helped get a feel for the place itself, seeing the layout of the uni and the distance from the nearest towns. In most cases we could actually drive around the campuses, stopping for walks as necessary, so we probably saw more than we would on a normal open day. Of course we couldn't go inside any buildings, but they are the easiest things to access online.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this!