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.

Op and her ds probably expected that a great university such as Warwick would make more of an effort with open days.
This is perhaps the first time that parents get to visit the university which their dc may attend and if it is not ticking the boxes then they are entitled to give their opinion.

@InMyRoom

Why have an offer holders day then? If nothing to see?

I think they're just a "slimmed down" version of a proper open day, maybe for the minority who missed the open days or who went but didn't attend the subject talks etc.

They're always going to be smaller low key as most Unis have different departments having their offer holder days on different days spread over many weeks, so are organised on a "per department" basis meaning much more limited resources, staffing, etc.

I must admit, we got nothing at all out of the 3 offer holder days we went to. We'd already been to the normal open days, toured the campuses, went to a couple of talks, looked at accommodation etc.

Son wanted to go to Leeds again, because "on paper" the Uni looked exactly right for him, i.e. the exact degree he wanted with lots of module choices, but he didn't like the place at the open day and thought a second visit may persuade him he'd like it - in the event, the second visit firmed his decision he didn't like it and made the decision easy not to go there.

For the York and Lancaster offer holder days, they were, both, a waste of time really. The "talks" contained no new information he'd not already heard from the proper open day or that he'd already read on their websites, and that was it really other than a pretty tedious tour of the Maths building at each, showing a succession of lecture theatres and teaching rooms and a few "break out" areas, which were all pretty generic. Son only really wanted to go to make sure he wasn't missing out on anything - at both, we left early at the mid afternoon break because he'd seen/heard nothing new and the remaining schedule was much of the same. I suppose things would be more interesting if you were doing, say, a science degree, and having a tour of their labs/equipment, etc.

We knew in advance that they had separate days for accommodation tours and that these wouldn't be available on offer holder days.

So, back to your point, offer holder days are more maybe for people who missed the proper open days, or maybe who need a personal 1-2-1 discussion with departmental staff. Most Unis seem to have specific accommodation open days closer to the application deadlines where there are accommodation tours (mostly run by student ambassadors rather than staff).

We went to an Open day at Warwick and son didn't really like it and did pick up on it not seeming to have many amenities compared with collegiate Unis which had their own common rooms, bars, etc., and that it just seemed to be a supermarket, cafe and student union in the central area, and not much else!

He ended up at Lancaster partly because of the course, but also because of all the campus amenities, all the different college bars, takeaways, restaurants, shops, etc. He's not a particularly social person, and when he was living on campus, he rarely left it, as it had all he needed (particularly the Greggs and Subway!). He did say he could tell when there was any kind of open day on at a weekend as there were people about, but when there wasn't, the place was mostly deserted! He gauged it on whether there was a queue at Greggs or not!

No, and I don't think they do now either. Not in all universities, which may be something else to consider. Maybe it depends what's on. What's organised. My daughter certainly doesn't, and her weekend is absolutely full on. She lives with 12 other people and the only person she lives with who isn't around at the weekend is a girl with a very serious boyfriend who goes to stay with him for 3-4 days every week.
As @PhotoDad says, maybe things have changed since our day. It was very definitely unusual to go home at the weekend more than once a term or so in my day. Maybe cost of living, Covid (in schools we are absolutely noticing an immaturity (not in a critical way) among sixth formers that even five years ago wasn't there.) Overall parental involvement is definitely higher and gets higher each year. Maybe that also plays its part.

That encouraging to hear, thank you.

Really interesting to read about the range of activities (or not) on OHDs! DD's art-school split them into the different art/design specialities. DD (an Illustrator) then spent a couple of hours completing a craft project to a tight deadline, and had a great time.

Go with your (ds’) gut feeling - my son loved his offers day - the university was buzzing, the lecturers were engaging and as a result he is so happy to be going there in Sept. It felt totally ‘him’.

It’s weird because these days are to seal the deal with the students, who let’s face it are the customers of these universities. Maybe they have too many offer holders days and they fall flat. My DS is at Exeter and every time we go there it’s busy and seems like loads is going on. I think your DS should visit again to make sure it wasn’t a one off.

@Lampzade

Op and her ds probably expected that a great university such as Warwick would make more of an effort with open days. This is perhaps the first time that parents get to visit the university which their dc may attend and if it is not ticking the boxes then they are entitled to give their opinion.

That depends on whether the Uni is popular or not anyway. We went to an Open Day at Durham and were very disappointed as they didn't seem to have made much of an effort. Yes, lots of students around, but the whole thing seemed disorganised. There were no "departments" as such to talk to students/staff, only subject lectures in random places (certainly for Maths), no departmental tours, etc. We got the distinct impression that it had been left to the students to do all the "meet and greet" etc. and the staff doing the lectures seemed to disappear at the end rather than hang around to talk to attendees etc. We asked an "ambassador" if there was anyone from the Maths dept to talk to (students or staff) and she randomly phoned a couple of other ambassadors to see if any of them were Maths students or knew any - she tried her best to be helpful, but ultimately, they couldn't find a Maths student ambassador and didn't know where any Maths staff would be! We asked another ambassador the directions to a particular room where a talk was to be held, and he hadn't a clue. We came away thinking that Durham knew it was popular and oversubscribed so didn't need to make an effort!

To some extent, we got the same from Warwick, but at least at Warwick, there were staff/tables, etc outside the lecture theatres where you could talk to students/staff between talks, and got the feeling they'd generally made an effort. But it was a proper open day.

Ultimately, the most sought after Unis aren't going to make as much as an effort as, perhaps, the less prestigious ones, so may just do the bare minimum and rely on reputation and achievement as they already get lots of top quality applicants based on reputation alone. Whereas less academically successful and less popular ones may rely more on "gimmicks" such as lots of stalls, freebies, entertainment, etc to ensure that they get the numbers they need based on a "feel good" factor rather than academic reputation.

@Badbadbunny

How did you miss the Arts Centre - cinema, two theatres, concert hall?

The sports centre isn't that far off the centre either.

I think Warwick might do a bit better if it did admit to itself that it is actually in Coventry. I live in Earlsdon and since I moved here 25 years ago our bus services have been revamped and expanded several times to cope with Warwick Uni students. We are 10 minutes on the bus from Warwick.campus - maybe 20 at rush hour.
Coventry isn't the most of attractive cities but is much improved and is undergoing a redevelopment which is transforming it and we are awash with students from both unis. Its never going to be great for shopping as Birmingham is so close but its got enough.

I actually agree with you. These popular universities don’t have to make the effort because they will always have students wanting to attend because of the university’s reputation
I am just saying that because of the great reputations of some universities parents and their dcs expect more at the open days.

Unfortunately, I think Covid has had quite an effect on Uni students. My son was at Lancaster during the covid years and it was like a ghost town because literally everything was closed for weeks/months. Students only left their campus flats to go to the Spar shop or the laundry during the lockdowns or a walk around the grounds.

You can't "undo" that poor experience so there's lots of students who aren't as sociable as they would normally have been, and that'll take another year or two, to move through until all students have had a more "normal" Uni experience, i.e. those starting in 2022 who've not suffered the same "stay in your room" experience as those starting in 2020 and to some extent in 2021 which still had a lot of online only teaching.

Even clubs and societies are only starting to get back to full speed. Obviously most couldn't happen in 20/21, and because they died out that year, there wasn't the students coming through to "take over" for 21/22, and it takes time to set up again from scratch as opposed to the more usual transition of last year's freshers taking over when they move into year 2 to run it for a new batch of freshers, who'd do the same. Starting from a zero base is always going to be harder and take longer than transitioning the organising team from year to year.

So, I think there were good reasons for students to "go home" at weekends, when basically, there was nothing going on to stay on campus for! Like I say, that takes time to work through. Students who went home in 2020 and 2021 got into that habit, and weren't doing the "socials", clubs & societies, so will have continued going home in their later years.

I definitely think that popular courses/universities might not put as much effort in.

I’m a lecturer on a popular course which I could fill 15x over. Offer holder days for me are just something which gets in the way of doing my job of teaching and supporting the students I have. We’ve been told to do 4x offer holder days this year- we only make 50 offers for 25 places. I think two dates would be ample. This is on top of open days.

So that’s about 10 Saturdays a year and I won’t get that time back. So yeah I’m not putting effort into preparing for them. I’ll turn up and talk to people. I’ll do a mini lecture (just use one I already have) If they decide it’s not for them it’s no skin off my nose. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I work at a campus uni and at weekends it’s dead until late afternoon.

It was definitely rare to go home when I was at university, which was why it felt like such a big deal when you went away to university.

Now, some dcs are home practically every weekend . Their parents don’t even have enough time to miss them

When we toured Oxford they did a massive effort. So I disagree that it’s because the most prestigious don’t need to put in effort.

Wasn't expecting fanfare, just people to be going about their business. Not a depressing ghost own. Term was still on for those who keep saying it’s finished!

Our suspicions are the students were either elsewhere (home, etc) or in their rooms for hours. Neither great when other campuses seemed lively enough.

DD is in second year at Warwick and has never come home for weekends. We normally have a video call with her on a Saturday. On a random Saturday in first year she would have been in one of the study spaces catching up with the work she hadn't finished in the week. She tried a few different societies in first year and was busy a lot of evenings, so used weekends to catch up.
The weather also makes a big difference, the circular area outside the SU is busy in nice weather.

Ah, you're London. I find on MN that posters with London experiences do seem more troubled by relative quiet.

Thing number one is that Warwick is easily a top 10 (5 even) university. and top of the pops for maths and economics if that's the course.

DS has a friend at Warwick who he has visited and the friend has visited him. DS doesn't much like the Warwick campus and they both prefer the Birmingham campus but, at the end of the day, his friend is studying economics at Warwick.

Will Warwick have a campus issue at weekends because most students live in Coventry?

The shambolic course at Birmingham was relatively small and niche and a combo of several departments so no one seemed to know who was in charge. It definitely isn't a large course although relatively competitive entry. Honestly, I heard the same thing about it this year! I definitely did get the sense the lecturer didn't want to be there (understandably I guess but he perhaps wasn't able to do 'teeth and eyes'!) . All of that to me matters more than whether the campus was a bit quiet. (It wasn't especially- because of all the offer older days)

They do only do one day for that course (and combine it with other larger departments). 4 is just silly!!

OP, did you and DS not visit Warwick before on an Open Day? Tends to be more accommodation open then and more of an atmosphere.

The point was for some courses/ universities the organisers don’t feel that they have to put the effort in because they will still attract students. It doesn’t mean that other popular universities do the same

Fine if the lecturers can't be arsed, but the marketing dept should really come into their own here. We don't live anywhere near London and yet all my dds were drawn to a vibrant, busy atmosphere. Not sure what the weekend has to do with it, at Exeter for example the campus is buzzing at the weekend.

Well that's a bit shit of them. I would wonder if that arrogance would carry through to the actual teaching.

Prospective students or parents might not notice or realise the difference between offer holders days or Open days. Useful to find out here that it could be a different experience

A lot of dds friends only did offer holder days.

What a shame. Offer days at Durham, Nottingham and Southampton were really good.

Or maybe they’re just bending over backwards working 60 hour weeks to ensure current students have the best experience possible that they don’t have the time to do these extras? You do know lecturers have been striking due to unmanageable workloads (not me , ironically I don’t have the time).?