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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

When do you start to look at Unis?

48 replies

LumpOfCoalAndASatsuma · 12/11/2022 13:41

DS is in lower 6th. He is just 17. So, his Uni entry will be Sept 2024.

When do we need to start looking at Unis and Open Days? I've heard a few rumblings from other parents and it has got me wondering if I am not on the ball.

OP posts:

CornishGem1975 · 13/11/2022 09:46

We'll do it next summer. DD is finding A levels quite challenging right now and doesn't want to think about Uni on top of that, so I don't want to heap pressure on.

PettsWoodParadise · 13/11/2022 10:45

The open days really helped DD decide between courses, particularly as she could attend sample lectures etc. so even if you don’t end up at that Uni any Uni visit helps the decision process of course, campus/city, vibe

BuwchGochGota · 13/11/2022 18:35

LumpOfCoalAndASatsuma · 13/11/2022 09:42

Only problem is, DS doesn't really know what course he wants to do?

Do you have a university near to you? Even if they wouldn't want to go there, it can be worth visiting their open day to suss out various possible subjects (no need to bother with the accommodation talks etc if they are unlikely to go). Obviously this works best if there are 2 or 3 different departments rather than if they have absolutely no idea.

PritiPatelsMaker · 13/11/2022 20:36

Only problem is, DS doesn't really know what course he wants to do?

Have they got any idea at all? Maybe if not, you could visit a couple of local Unis and have a walk around to get the feel of what they're like?

We went to a local Campus Uni when DC1 was in Y11 for a walk around and he really liked the atmosphere. It inspired him to research more about what he wanted to do.

Delphigirl · 14/11/2022 00:23

dd is y12. She has done 3 trips - one to Scotland (Edinburgh and at Andrews) one to london (LSE and KCL) and one to a uni abroad. She also went to Glasgow with her DS when he was looking, in her year 10. It has been helpful in getting her to narrow down what subject she might do, and thinking about different types of unis and what is important to her. I think she will look at 2 more and then be ready to apply. It helps that her currently preferred subject is not that common so there are limited options available to her.

Butterfly44 · 14/11/2022 00:25

@LumpOfCoalAndASatsuma
My DD doesn't know what to do either. She had a handful of different subjects in mind. We went to an open day - talked to those subject leads at the stands to get a feel. Also talked to another subject that wasn't remotely on her list. She found it really fascinating so we went to that subject talk. She came out saying that's what she wants to study. I'm quite glad we did an impromptu open day visit now for this experience. There's still some on next couple of weekends so worth going to one to see.
She may not choose that uni but it gives a feel of courses and structure

PritiPatelsMaker · 14/11/2022 07:10

We went to an open day - talked to those subject leads at the stands to get a feel. Also talked to another subject that wasn't remotely on her list. She found it really fascinating so we went to that subject talk. She came out saying that's what she wants to study.

You never do know what will come of these Open Days do you?

DN has chosen a course and a Uni which both looked perfect for her. Went to the Open Day and didn't like the sound of the course after all or the Uni. She's now been to a few more Open Days and has settled on slightly different courses in other Unis.

Delphigirl · 14/11/2022 08:10

I don’t think any uni visit is a waste for exactly this reason. You never come out with your preconceptions intact, and you generally come out having learnt something about what you do or don’t like or want from a uni or a course. My elder DD found her subject randomly at an open day. Has since graduated, and in the three years since done a masters while also working, gained professional qualifications and is flying in her career.

user73 · 14/11/2022 08:14

Definitely now if there are open days going on. Depending on where they want to apply and whether they might want to do medicine their applications have to be in by mid October. For the rest it’s end of January but year 13 is really busy.

PritiPatelsMaker · 14/11/2022 16:56

That's really good Delphi

Allthegoodusernamesareused · 14/11/2022 17:00

We did some open days in year 12 and a few more in year 13. All research and planning was done by DD, I think that's really important actually it's her future after all..

Delphigirl · 14/11/2022 18:13

Ahh thanks @PritiPatelsMaker

MarchingFrogs · 15/11/2022 09:22

There is an open day at UEA this coming Saturday, if you are within reasonable distance of Norwich. DS2 is a second year History of Art student there and I have been encouraging him to try to get involved with helping out at open days, but so far he has resisted. Possibly he was sensitised by one of the days last year when he emerged from his room in the Ziggs to find the flat full of strangers, having forgotten that one of his flatmates had signed them up to be a show flat.

Original poster

LumpOfCoalAndASatsuma · 15/11/2022 09:35

We have a lower 6th parents' evening coming up very shortly and so will get onto it after this.

Of course, it is up to my DS but he has both DH and I to support him like his private secretaries

If he is not sure then perhaps he should stick to a STEM subject for degree level. My DH says he has already looked at courses for Oxford, UCL, Durham and Manchester to make sure his A'level choices are appropriate, as he has shown an interest in pursuing Chemistry above everything else.

OP posts:

pisspants · 18/11/2022 06:35

I've also been wondering this but am not sure if you can do it properly until they've been given some idea of predicted grades? There are so many uni's and even one grade difference makes a difference so I'm holding off till get some indication fron the school as to what level she'd be looking at.

PettsWoodParadise · 18/11/2022 08:01

@pisspants we didn’t know DD’s predicted grades before looking around but did have a fairly good idea. The visits were also motivation for her, if you want to go ‘here’ you will need to do really really well and work hard. She is a very motivated individual but doesn’t like too
many unknowns.

We also looked at some we knew she would most likely easily get and she liked the syllabus of. Visiting at different points in the year also allowed us to spread the cost of the train fares too. In total she did about six visits. One she put on her UCAS form she couldn’t visit as it clashed with other open day dates so if she gets an offer she will aim to go to the offer holder day for that one.

For most open days DD went on her own as I couldn’t get the leave or the cost was prohibitive for my rail fare too. She was fine with that, However most open days seem to have families en-masse attending.

EwwSprouts · 18/11/2022 12:34

I took DS on a couple of day trips in the summer of yr 12. We managed to view 5 campuses/cities. It gave him an idea of city v campus, small v large. Almost any uni does the course he wanted so that wasn't going to narrow the field by itself. He was clear he didn't want London and we ruled out anywhere that meant getting across London as too far.

If he doesn't know what course he wants to do get him to some free public lectures in different subjects at your nearest university or view past ones from anywhere on youtube.

pompomdaisy · 18/11/2022 12:36

We started in September so my daughter is lower 6th but we have been getting a feel for courses she may like or types of uni eg campus versus city

Oblomov22 · 18/11/2022 12:44

He needs to decide on the subject first.

I really enjoyed the open day part. It's such a nice aspect of the whole process. I miss it!

And then offer days are even better. Because dc are with peers who want to be at that Uni, want to do that actual course, it's binding.

We did visit Nottingham on a normal day though (because it's a linked degree and the decision was made by the company quite late, so we'd missed all open days) and we just wandered around and he knew instantly it was the place for him.

caroleanboneparte · 18/11/2022 12:46

I got mine prospectuses when they were 14.

Badbadbunny · 18/11/2022 12:51

We went to our first open days when DS was in year 11 (old fifth year) final year of GCSEs. Then did others when he was in Lower Sixth. We knew we were "early" but DS hadn't a clue about which Uni he wanted to go to, didn't even have a clue about what subject he wanted to do. He found going early and doing A LOT of open days, very useful as he learned so much from attending the subject talks, touring laboratories, etc. If he'd been more certain about course, we could have done a lot less. It would have been a lot easier if he'd just decided to take, say Physics, as we could have concentrated on that. As it was, we went to a lot of different "subject" talks at different Unis, just for him to try to get enthusiastic about a subject, we went to Maths, Computing, Physics, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Actuarial Science, Accounting/Business/Economics, etc. His first thought was Maths, but went off it after the first subject talk, and so started the carousel of other options. Ironically, he's ended up doing Maths after all, but at least he now knows he'd explored alternatives and had reasons for not choosing any of them! It's also ironic he's at the first Uni he went to, after traversing the country looking at a lot of others! We often joke how much time/money we wasted touring the country, but he always retorts that he'd not have been happy had he not seen the alternatives. It was also lucky we started early as Covid hit his upper sixth year meaning he missed the offer-holders open days, accommodation open days, etc., so he was glad he'd seen enough in the earlier year(s) to make his final decisions.

Featheryboa · 18/11/2022 12:52

My dd is in y13, she went to 2 open days with college but that's it. She did apply to both places. I did offer to take her to visit others last summer but she was adamant she didn't need to do this.

I guess she will do the offer holder days in due course.
Eldest didn't visit any prior to taking up the uni place due to covid and lockdowns.

Shlo · 20/11/2022 06:26

We started in the summer of year 11 but that was because ds was saying he wanted to do economics and he wasn’t planning on doing a level maths. This really limited his options so we needed to check some of those out to make sure he’d be ok with them (or change his a level choices).

in the end he’s applied for a completely different course!

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