University Open Days - what to look out for/find out?

[redskyatnight]

As per title - we are going to a university open day next week.

DD is only just about to start Year 12, so we have time ... but we wanted her to at least see what a university was like to give her an idea about future options.
I suspect we will just go with the flow and join in with the general tours/talks, but is there anything anyone would suggest is worth finding out/asking about?

Can I just ask what happens when talks are fully booked , can (and do) students just turn up anyway ?

At my place, we would ask that the parents and others accompanying prospective students wait. We would seat the prospective applicants/students first, then allow a parent /guardian in for each student, then others to our room’s capacity.

Our discipline talks are aimed at prospective students, not the rest of their family, so we ask the families to step back.

We also run the talk twice, plus have academic staff on our stand all day, with current students there as well, and at least 3 tours of our facilities taken by another member of the teaching staff again accompanied by current students.

So if you haven’t booked you should still turn up. We may ask YOU as a parent to wait until we’ve seated all the prospective students; you may have to stand at the back of our teaching space, but we’re unlikely to turn any prospective students away.

Thanks @LuftBalloons that’s helpful to know .

As long as you’re understanding and gracious about having sit out a talk so your DC can be squeezed in, I think it’ll be ok.

Basically, we want to talk to as many prospective students as want to talk to us!

@hetty74 often people book several unis for the same day and then forget to cancel so I've only been in half a dozen talks where places were full to over flowing. Most people take a parent or two for the day but it is polite to just to go to a busy talk with one person to support you. Where are you looking?

It’s Bristol for next weekend . My daughter has booked onto the open day but the subject talk she’s interested in and the accommodation tours are coming up as fully booked . We don’t want to travel there for it to be a wasted visit . I’m more than happy to wait outside .

@hetty74 I have never been turned away most places are keen to get engagement from the child and the parents as they are investing in the education - find that early subject talk (they normally have 2-3 per day) is often quieter than the later one. What is the subject - friend has a son at Bristol and loves it. What other places do you plan to visit.

@LuftBalloons you may not like it but my daughter has panic disorder and I think given she has hidden but severe disability currently it's tough that you don't like it! Plus parents are quite often paying £350 plus a month for accommodation now to support them. We need to know what we are forking out for.

@honkeytonkwoman38 I'm not sure why you're so aggressive. Of course, f you book into talks, then it's reasonable (particularly in your DD's situation) for a parent to accompany a prospective student.

But I was reassuring @redskyatnight (as the OP) that it's still likely that at least her DC could be squeezed into a subject/discipline talk, if they were prepared to be gracious about stepping back until all prospective students had been admitted - we have real concerns about health & safety post-lockdowns and in crowded rooms!

A subject/discipline talk is directed at prospective students, not parents. So our priority is talking to the prospective students. There are separate talks for parents - about finance, accommodation etc, which I would highly recommend parents attend - and probably their DC don't need to attend.

At my place we also do short 1 to 1 interviews/chats with prospective students - these would be very inappropriate for parents to insist on attending.

It's a matter of being flexible. We want to talk to as many prospective students as are there. We don't want to turn them away because of lack of space in a room or lecture theatre. And if one of the ways we can do this, is by asking parents to allow all prospective students to be admitted & seated first, this is a reasonable compromise. Certainly, at my place, we try to accommodate everyone! But everyone needs to be reasonable and understanding.