Disappointing offer holders day?

[InMyRoom]

Anyone else been disappointed by the offer holders days? Would you see lack of effort as a red flag?

DS was set on Warwick, course impressive, open day welcoming.

Could not have had a more disappointing experience on the offer holders day. Hardly any reps showing people around, most accommodation closed, barely any students on campus (term time Saturday). The place felt abandoned and frankly depressing. There were no seats or benches on the whole campus, not sure if removed during the pandemic or they never existed.

Compare and contrast to his potential insurance day today. Was buzzing. Student reps everywhere, students all around, accommodation tours. Campus beautifully cared for.

DS is a social beast and reasonably is wobbling that there will be no one around and nothing to do. I think he’d drop it but the course is much higher at Warwick. I just can’t work out why they made such little effort and why no one was around.

We had a totally different experience at Warwick. We had seen the campus at the open day (on a much warmer more pleasant day) and been to look at the accommodation then. The chemistry department put on a great show. About 12 lecturers in, including head of school. All of them were extremely friendly and went out of their way to say we could email any of them. My daughter loved it and has firmed it, based on the day. Plenty of students around including a load picking up booze on the way to a ball.

Does anyone know the final offer holder days are for Edinburgh and Exeter ?

Still awaiting responses from both but starting to think if it's much longer DS will end up missing both.

Durham is already ruled out as their final one is next week, but he visited the open day so is happy with what he saw then.

That's sounds like a good idea!

A note on seating, as you mentioned it: there is a piazza in front of the SU building / amenities which provides lots of seating, a place to meet, eat lunch, events etc. There were definitely benches nearby the library, lakes and woodland, when I was last there, but you may easily have missed them, if you didn't walk or drive through certain areas of campus).

You can definitely be an extremely sociable person and have a good time at Warwick!

Leamington was also a pretty dead place- as far as student age people not being visible.
I can assure you the students are frequently visible in Leamington, maybe you weren't looking in the Old Town area?
I'm intrigued as to where the 'buzzing' OHD was held? Good to know some universities get it right. I accompanied DD1 to Durham and it was not a true representation of student experience and the same with DS at Sussex (must say, it totally put him off).

One of my DC went to Warwick and loved it. In halls year one then moved to Leamington to a house with a big group of the halls corridor friends. They all stayed at weekends, great social life and good sports and societies. We went to an open day there but not to an offer day, it does seem odd not to have many people about. Maybe it was the department? What subject is your son looking at?

My daughter has an offer day next week but when she has read the agenda is sounds the same as the open day. She has already booked her accommodation so we don’t need to see that and we saw that on the open day. Is it really worth attending?

Dd went to Warwick expecting to enjoy the large campus. In fact it was the opposite. She hated it and felt lonely and isolated. Nothing around to walk to either. She had to leave as she didn't like the course and didn't get much support. She's now looking at a non campus Uni and wants to be in town where there is some life. Sometimes you don't know what suits you until you get there and live it.

We all went to Aberystwyth for their offer holder day (one of three I think). It’s a long way- about 7 hours by car, so DH and I both went with DS. He enjoyed the two sessions, especially one of the interactive activities (was cross when it finished as he’d really been involved). We all found the talk on the structure/ assessment methods/ opportunities interesting.
Examples of accommodation were available and lots was guided by current students. DH and I wandered around, looked at the other facilities, we all had lunch (paid for by the university). DS could ask questions of the students and saw everything he wanted to see.
He came home and confirmed it would be his firm choice, so obviously it answered all his questions.

@bguthb90 edinburgh dates depend on college:
www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/applicants/events plus there are online events.

None of my 3 DC bothered with offer days. They had visited at open days and had already made up their minds preference wise.

My DD and I went to one on a Saturday at Sheffield a few weeks ago which was really good. They had really gone all out.

Although I didn't think so at the time, I now wonder if my DD was lucky to be choosing her university during the pandemic. No offer holder days or open days. We visited Warwick, Loughborough and Bath ourselves - and didn't manage to get near her other choices - to wander around all bleak, deserted campuses at the time. She had to rely on other criteria.

Perhaps, if they already have chosen their firm and insurance, they're better off not going to the offer days. There's a tendency to overthink these things.

Most campuses will be quiet during the early part of a Saturday and as Warwick's sports facilities are on the outer edge of the campus, you'd not even see students turning up to do sports.

If he liked the open day and the course is better, stick with plan A

Thank you @SandyIrvin - I failed to locate that page.

His would be a 5 April day, so I doubt we'll make that at this point unless an offer arrives this week.

Knows Edinburgh city well enough but would have been good to visit the halls of residence. Good job Tiktok and YouTube exist today 🙂

Sorry to hear this. This is what happens when you start charging teens 9+k a year

This.

My dd went there. Weekends are quiet. It's a fab uni.

This. Why stay on campus on a Saturday?

I went into work yesterday (after already working 5 days previously) to help interview and out of the 100 students who accepted on 25 bothered to show. Not making the effort works both ways.

These multiple poorly attended interviews, open days, keep warm days are pretty unsustainable now due to workload. Plus parents are probably unaware but home students are not profitable for universities. For every £1 of student loan the university loses 17p. Only international students bring in profit. It's here universities are diverting their efforts.

we withdrew from the presentation. There was nothing else to see. We gave up on it as a waster of time and money and we went home

My son went to the OHD at Warwick last Saturday too. I did think that the campus seemed quiet but it was a wet, cold, miserable day so I wasn’t too surprised that there weren’t many people around. In contrast we’d been to an open day in October on a bright sunny day and it was much more buzzing. The seating but by the SU was deserted last week but was packed on the Open Day. Also when we toured the halls on the open day there were lots of students around, including groups sitting around tables in the kitchen all chatting together.

My son is very sociable but didn’t seem too phased by the quietness of the campus last week. He really enjoyed the lectures, and liked the teaching staff, and is now deciding between Warwick and one other. I did think that he was probably seeing the campus at the worst possible time and was ready to point this out to him if he was put off but he didn’t seem too phased by it.

I do worry a bit about the remoteness of the campus but there are lots of buses so it seems like it’s easy to get into town. It’s such a big decision though that you want to feel confident in it and if your gut feeling isn’t right it is hard to ignore that.

Good luck with your decision.

Odd to have an offer day on a Saturday when nothing is actually ‘on’.

Yeah, we do that because we love working unpaid for around 8 Saturdays every year on top of what is normally a 60 hour week. Nothing to do with the fact that schools refuse to let students out for weekday open days and parents prefer not to take time off work to drive their children across the country.

Some sort of way of separating parents and children would be good. Having a session where the students are encouraged to interact with each other over coffee, maybe say 5 new students to each ambassador - parents elsewhere discussing finance, student support. Chance for parents to ask questions the students might not. Shared ?moderated forum where those students who have an offer can chat before and after the open day. I know there are forums such as the student room, discord groups, whatsapp etc but anyone can troll them. A link to a recorded tutorial maybe that they can watch at home. The student liked your uni enough to have it as a choice, they should have done most of the academic screening in terms of course content. At this stage I think they want to see whether their face will fit at your institution. That is what I would have liked in the offer day, but your students might be different. Maybe ask some of the first years what they would have found useful.

It’s towards the end of a long term/ semester. It’s Saturday I’ve just worked three Offer holder days in a row. Plus my normal working week. My students are currently flat out doing projects, essays, working on their dissertations or just, you know, enjoying their weekends (I haven’t had a weekend properly free of required work since term started in early January, and that’s why many colleagues are on strike).

If there isn't a programme of things to see, I imagine walking around a University campus is fairly dull? It's just a collection of buildings after all.

Mind you, if you build Uni up into something mythical it's likely to be a disappointment come the autumn

This. Absolutely this. We found that schools wouldn’t allow prospective students time out and parents complained. Be careful what you wish for.

My DD (now in her first year) only went to one OHD and she had already firmed that place. She still found it incredibly valuable in getting more of a feel for the city, and in meeting potential classmates (they set up a WhatsApp). Had fun doing a course-specific activity, too! There does seem to be a huge range.

Campus universities will be quiet at the weekend, it's the nature of the beast.

People saying there are shops in leam.

Yeah coffee shops and cafes. It's not great for student life at all. They've not got many bars and one weatherspoons which is always heaving and dirty.