what happens at an offer-holders' day?

[IkBenDeMol]

DD has been invited to one of these. DS never had the option of any as he was the Covid cohort and all that sort of thing was cancelled.

She was at an open day for the same uni in September, I wasn't allowed to go with her and cramp her style as she was with a friend. This time I am allowed to attend.

Is it the same sort of stuff as open days - campus tours, accommodation tours, talks?

It's pretty much the same thing - she probably doesn't need to bother going unless she thinks it'll help her make up her mind.

It is the same sort of thing although when my dd went there was a mini lecture on the subject she wanted to study. No parents went to the lecture though.

My DD found offer holder days really helpful, as she was wavering between two different choices.

Hers included: a 1-1 session with a member of the department (nice, not an interview); sample seminar with a small group of other offer holders; sample lecture; coffee and a chance for casual chat with the dept (where she buttonholed the lovely HoD with some specific questions). She came away buzzing. Overall it was much more focused on the prospective students and the course than the generic open day.

Very similar to the open day. My DS only went to the offer holder days for the universities that he hadn't been to an in-person open day for (tail end of covid so some open days were still online)

Maybe a sample lectures/seminar, tour of department and accommodation.

DD had already "firmed" before her offer day, but went anyway and made some friends amongst people who were also definitely going there, and kept in touch with them over the summer; they had a bunch of activities for each course. That really helped her confidence when she started.

It's usually a sample lecture/workshop/event for the subject with a bit of q and a time too. Opportunity to help make decision on which offer to accept or else just get a chance to visit again if you know where you want to go.

The offer holder day for the place DD ended up at was far more subject focussed than an ordinary open day - we gathered in the relevant School building, had talks from head of course and current students did a Q&A then students were led off to the lecture theatre while parents hung around with coffee and biscuits. After that there was the opportunity to do campus tour and see accommodation (again if you had been at the reversal open day).

The Offer holder day for the second choice was just like a general open day, no special subject related activity and we discovered that it was after the date when accommodation booking had gone live and all the best places had been booked up by those who had already firmed so it was a complete waste of time!

Totally different to open days. Open days are marketing events aimed to get prospective students to put them on the list. They are "pick me" exercises.

Holders' Days are more serious and, if done properly, much more thorough. There are often separate events/workshops/information sessions for both students and parents. A tour of accommodation, maybe a session on the town itself, student finance, coping with workloads and moving away from home etc. Taster lectures, meet and greet with lecturers, heads of departments, group work etc.

There's usually a free lunch thrown in and a goodie bag 🤣 On a serious note, it's where a lot of the kids exchange phone numbers and form WhatsApp groups.

I tell all my students if they have to choose between an open day and a holder's day, go to the latter. Parents often think that they shouldn't go, but that is really really not the case. The University will absolutely expect parents to be there.

To some extent, offer holder days are also marketing events - universities want to convert the offers they've made into acceptances, so they are trying to persuade students who've applied but not made up their minds yet to pick them.

Re. parents being there - I've worked in universities where we would very much rather the parents were NOT there, but since they come anyway (much more than in the past) we always had to put on events for them. The ideal was if we could do a parents' talk where we could at least separate them from their kids so that we could talk to the prospective students on their own.

@ScentOfAMemory
Totally different to open days.

Not at NTU - total shambles, held after the accommodation opened for firmed candidates so really no point in going if the aim was to decide whether or not to firm!

ZacharinaQuack It's really interesting that you say the University would rather parents weren't there so put something on for them separately to give the staff chance to speak to the applicants. I took DD to a few and found that usually the applicants were given some really subject specific sessions (including practicals for DDs course). Parents were usually asked to go somewhere else for coffee/cake and a few sessions about student finance and wellbeing etc. DD found the sessions really useful in deciding which of her offers to firm. I found the parent sessions weren't really anything that wasn't on the website and were always dominated by a few parents who asked multiple questions (that had actually been answered already if they'd bothered to listen) that were clearly just a way of bragging about their child. I had assumed that because they had special sessions for parents they really wanted us to be there, but it sounds like the session were really just to keep us out of the way.

DD went to one herself there other week. She says she was very much in the minority but she still was happy with her decision to go alone.

She did say that she got a few comments from some of the parents about how brave she was for going on her own: she just replied that in a few months time she might be there on her own so what was the difference.

She is going to another one in a few weeks and has already said that she still doesn't see the need for one of us to go with her, and that one requires an overnight stay in a hotel.

It's Stirling Uni - we went to their Open Day and although I dropped DD off with her friend and went off for lunch, she was very very impressed by how it was organised and managed. Very slick compared with the other open days she went to. Both DH and I are going to the offer holders' day too, I am hoping it will be less busy than an Open Day and i'd really like to have a look at the accommodation options.

Good point about WhatsApp groups and so on. DD is very sociable and happy to chat to randomers so will be happy to join that sort of thing.

Often have parent talks while dc have time in department having lectures on subject. Look round accommodation and facilities.