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

@Ivawindybottom anywhere in particular you recommend for Leeds? Parking? A nice spot for a picnic? Where you walked? Anything else?

That's the next one we are planning 😁

I think for some young people visiting the town or city is very helpful. They get a feel for whether it is their kind of place, whatever that may be and , in second year, it is the town or city they will most likely live in. For example, DS1 liked Nottingham as a place the minute he saw it, rejected applying for OBU and UEA because he got no sense of the cities from just open days and hated Aberystwyth the minute he laid eyes on it (no offence : there were his feelings and impressions!).

I also could get a sense of transport links, length and ease of journey in an emergency (easy to poo poo last year : seems more relevant now and a reason why I am glad he didn't like Aber) and relative position of uni and accommodation to facilities such as supermarkets.

@Ivawindybottom thank you, that’s helpful. Re Nottingham, were you able to look around the Jubilee campus too? Did you stay overnight? If so, where please? Huge thanks!
@Piggywaspushed they're really good pointers.

@GreyBow I find driving through the centre of Leeds tricky (one way system) so usually try to loop around to avoid that. You could park somewhere in the Hyde Park or Headingly area (which is where pupils usually live after 1st year) & walk to the uni from there. As most students are away at the moment parking should be ok. I think there is also public parking available on campus.

There are several parks around there too, eg Woodhouse Moor. I think there is a small car park there. Or just park on or off Hyde Park Road which runs along one side. Or Kirkstall Abbey is not too far away.

I think the walks that MarchingFrogs linked to at Birmingham, was just hastily prepared to give overseas students trapped here over the Summer a very simple 'round the block' walk for daily fresh air and exercise from where their houses were'. I've had a look and none of them would give you a feel for the University, student life, or even any of the lovely places to walk near to the university.

I do agree with @Piggywaspushed
I realise travel is expensive and not possible for everyone, but there is something very helpful about walking round and getting a 'feel' for a place if it is possible.

Although I'm sure my dc isn't unusual in that, at 18, she's traveled to various places round the World, at this age they don't really have that experience of looking at practicalities, and sometimes a bit of adult guidance can be helpful

I went with DD2 to Bristol after she accepted it as he back up choice having never even been to the city. It wasn't an open day. We just had few days looking around. She loved it so much that she rejected her first place (Durham which she had visited for an open day) after results day and went there instead. She adored her time in Bristol.

You’d probably be better looki g at YouTube videos.....the ones students do themselves, campus tours, etc

@GreyBow parking for Leeds was surprisingly difficult. It was the only campus which didn't allow cars. So we ended up driving around the perimeter a few times and were about to follow signs for a multi storey parking place when someone pulled out so we parked there- on one of the side roads. But because it's so quiet, it wasn't hassly looking for parking. We just walked from there around the campus. There is some building work going on but there were some green spaces with benches which we could have stopped for a picnic had we had one. There was also a small cafe just on the edge of the campus which I noticed was open but we didn't go in. Hope you enjoy your visit!

@NotDonna we didn't go to Jubilee Campus because my son's course isn't there. However it is open because we went into the main building and there was a very helpful guy on reception who gave us a campus map and asked if we were planning on visiting Jubilee. (We also used the loos there which was helpful). It was easy to park anywhere on campus and get out and walk around. We also peered into windows of the accommodation blocks.
Sorry didn't stay the night there so can't give you pointers but because the uni is easy to drive to, you don't need to stay really near the uni, so you might want to stay in the city so you can get a feel for that in the evening- that's what we did with York

Thank you @Ivawindybottom and @Decorhate

We went there today, had a wander round, drove past a few halls of residence and had Italian sitting outside a restaurant in Headingley.

Then called into hobbycraft on the way out of Leeds 🙄

It was fun!

Devonshire Hall looks a fab hall, and is where DD wants to be if she ends up in Leeds.

@Ivawindybottom - did you manage to park at York compus? We’re looking to just go and have a wander round as the website suggest this is fine but wanted to check how you’d found it. You mentioned parking in Leeds was hard. Was this for Leeds uni or Leeds Beckett? Wonder if it might be better catching the train or would it be best to just park near centre and walk to uni?

@GreyBow Devonshire Hall is where Dd stayed in her first year! Leeds was her insurance choice so she had to take what accommodation was available, sight unseen, but it worked out really well. She was in an annex, basically a large Victorian house near the main hall. Made really good friends there.

That's a blast form the past . My DH was at Dev in the late 80s!

he then ended up in a hovel on Burchett Grove, forever thereafter named Birdshit Grove!

@10km, going on my DSs experience, Durham is predominately white, with the vast majority of students from public/private school backgrounds. The biggest ethnic group would be S Asian - mainly Chinese. Barely any African/Caribbean students.
Quite a shock for an ex-London comp boy
But he does like it - landed on his feet with the college he was assigned.

@nameychange yes parking at York was no problem - we drove around, parked, walked a bit, repeat, because the campus is quite spread out. So that's probably one of the benefits of visiting outside of an open day.
Re Leeds- it's all relative- I meant it was hard to park compared to the other 3, in that we couldn't drive onto the campus and the roads immediately around the uni were surprisingly full. But I would suggest driving there and looking nearby because if there's nothing on the side roads, there was a sign to a parking area nearby which we didn't need in the end but just look it up before you go and it can't be far from the campus. Hope your trip goes well. We liked Leeds uni more than we thought we would and York less. It was Leeds Uni we looked at, not Leeds Beckett (at least I hope it was😂 I didn't know about Leeds Beckett until after our visit...hope we weren't in the wrong place!)

Thanks that’s really helpful - were planning to do both Leeds and York this week.

@GreyBow I’ve just seen on another thread that your Dd is applying for medicine- that’s what my Dd is studying in Leeds (about to start final year) - so happy to help if you have any questions about the Leeds course (sorry if this sounds stalkerish!)

@Decorhate thank you 😁

DD is still wavering a lot over which courses to do.

We drove past the medical school attached the hospital. Is that where most of the teaching takes place?

Yes lectures are generally in the med building at the start. Once they get to the stage where they are mainly on hospital placements, lectures are mostly at the hospitals I think. They do get clinical experience very early on, which Dd liked. I was hire astounded at some of the procedures she could do by the end of 1st year!

Not sure if it has changed now but one benefit of applying to Leeds is they didn’t tend to over-offer places so if they made you an offer they tended to take you even with minor blips on results day. In terms of the application, some of ds’s friends helped out in admissions last year - they call to interview purely on the basis of results. Don’t consider personal statements at that stage (if at all).

I have a friend studying medicine at York and she loves it. Says the course is great.

My brothers went to York uni (not medicine) and had a blast. They both stayed there after graduating. Nice small city, good student scene. The campus is nice if you like campus unis.

We visited UEA today, was really worthwhile. Drove round and looked at different accommodation, great for getting an idea of layout.

We then drove to the City and again a good experience. Dh was sceptical it be worth going, but actually now we are lining up a few more to visit.

Visited York and Leeds today. Dd really liked Leeds, and having parked near some of the mid point accommodation walked to the campus which showed it’s not that far away. Not as keen on York, guess it needs the students there, felt very empty and soleless.

Did you visit the city of York, or just the campus? I am amazed if York itself was empty but I guess tourists are thinner on the ground.

Just the campus- we’ve been to York itself many times.

Didn’t fancy the city centre at the mo. Love the cobbled alleys and main centre but not with face masks and social distancing