Blitzing it - from Devon to Sheffield AirBnB for half term Uni tour! Sensible or not?

[LingLang]

So, we are driving from home in Tiverton (Devon) to a lovely-looking flat in Sheffield tomorrow (Sunday) for half term. But chilling we are not (although DS’s Xbox will, inevitably, be accompanying us, plus ample wine!). DS vaguely researched courses etc (he is in lower 6th in old money - year 12) and reckons he will apply to Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Nottingham, Leicester and Newcastle (obviously only 5 of those 7). All quite close together, relatively (bear in mind we are in Devon), although Newcastle a bit of an outlier.

We haven’t visited any unis and have been warned off open days (marketing exercises and often overcrowded/shambolic apparently) so have booked a flat in Sheffield and plan to visit all 7 unis in 7 days. Much cheaper, more efficient (and less tiring) than doing 7 day visits from Devon!

The reason we going in half term (rather than Easter or Summer vacations - my original thought) is obvs that unis are open and students are in situ so we’ll get more of a feel. Wish us luck - it will be full on (but hopefully a lot of fun). Pls don’t @ me saying visiting a waste of time as virtual tours on uni websites!

Posting coz I am v interested in what other parents from remote/far-flung areas do when they view unis? We thought blitzing it was best/cheapest but may be wrong?

Hi @LingLang, it would be interesting to hear you report back after your tour, if you are willing to do that, both in terms of the cities visited and how the condensed roadtrip worked in practice.

Although I have sounded some notes of caution, your overall plan is eminently doable and I say that from the perspective of someone based outside the SE and who travels regularly across the North, Midlands and SW by road and rail (including past Tiverton!).

My DC were/are interested in locations far away from their home region, so I do understand the logistical benefits of a very focussed half-term holiday. Ours did/are doing it in a more incremental fashion but, as they say, there are 'many routes to the same destination'.

With regards to Offer Days being more useful than Open Days, I agree. However, I see on other threads that some Offer Days have been cancelled because of strikes, so it can be sensible for DC to factor in some Open Days in the summer of Y12 when daylight hours are longer and more manageable for very long day trips by road or rail (as have been the case for my DC). I hope that helps. Good luck with the week ahead!

Whilst it's good to get a feel for the city the course is most important but yes my dd loves the toon.

As mentioned above -
which course and what grade range might be expected?

Hmm if Hallam is his likeky insurance and he likes the course I'd put that quite high up to see. Also because everyone who visits Sheffield seems to love the city.

Hi OP lots of good advice here.

I think what you are doing will be really helpful and useful to your DS. But I agree with those who say please don't dismiss open days as just 'marketing' and therefore not valuable.

DS was unable to go to many actual open days (I think just one at Loughborough) due to Covid, so we did a bit of what you are doing (spread out more tho) - we got a decent idea of the vibe of the city, where the relevant dept was, what the campus looked like and where the accommodation was. But we couldn't go into any buildings (this will be different for you I guess? maybe?) or look closely at any accommodation, or talk to any staff.

With DD we went on several open days and they were really useful; subject talks, personal chats to tutors, tours of accom which does vary a lot, chatting to students who were there for that reason, talking to people about clubs on offer. All very useful; so I would suggest open days later this summer, even if only for 2 or 3 from your list.

The list is great btw - some good cities there! DD went to Leicester and we were just talking today about how good it was for her (even tho it was a clearing choice).

Of those on your list we visited Leicester, Nottingham, York and Newcastle and TBH didn't feel that they were aggressively marketing themselves. The open days were very useful.

DD ended up at Newcastle and loved the city so much that she currently lives and works there. The airport is easily accessible by metro and there are regular flights between Exeter and Newcastle.

Some of the university’s will have strike days during half term which may put him off/mean you have to cross a picket to look round. Based on my uni it’s also quite desolate on strike days so wouldn’t give you that fuller picture either.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/12759/University-strike-dates-in-February-and-March-confirmed

TBH when DD was looking at universities for post grad she was put off by certain universities who have had a lot of strike days, mainly Liverool where students were affected by having their final exams not marked in time for graduation.

We have been on open days and on other days just to look round and see what there is other than the uni.
my recommendation is to definitely go to open days… my DD second choice didn’t even make the UCAS form after sitting in on talks about the course… was very different to how it read on the website.

my DD second choice didn’t even make the UCAS form after sitting in on talks about the course… was very different to how it read on the website.

Same with Bristol for DD. She said it sounded perfect "on paper", but the reality was that she didn't like it at all, not helped by the fact that Cross Country cancelled our train home and we were told that this was a regular occurrence.

I'm a big believer in visiting the towns they might apply to. Walking around and seeing where you might be living can make a lot of difference. You could look around the campuses and get an idea of the town centres for Nottingham and Loughborough in one day if you really had to.

normal open days weren’t available because of Covid before my DC applied - we stayed in lovely cottage in the Peak District and were similarly able to tick off a few campus visits from there .

I went to Sheffield Uni myself years ago- a brilliant city to be a student . .

@LingLang how did it go? any lessons learned?

@LingLang any chance of an update? Was it worth it? What did you learn? It might help the rest of us who have year 12s.

We did similar (but not all in one go) but also a.mix. Have a year 12 and 13 who all wanted to see different places up and down the country so we did a mix:
Walk around the city and campus on non open days
Got friends already at the uni or friends of friends to show them around
Open day (one a family trip as very far and in half term, so combined with staying over;
The other, Ds and Dd took the train and went by themselves as I couldn't go)
Offer holder days
Dd1 was also lucky with a couple of them she got to stay in student accommodation and experience the student nightlife as she has older friends already at uni...!!
I hope you enjoyed your trip.and got a lot out of it.