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.

Went to the open day which was much better but (Rookie mistake) didn’t get a chance to look at accommodation - time was tight and he was in the meetings about the course for most of it. Was hoping to get more of a real life feel at the offer day but…
Wasnt expecting (or looking for) London busy, just not a completely dead campus in term time.

Some do bother though, I guess that's the point.

Well maybe we have different workloads.

ironically at my uni one of the courses I see put most effort into open days, etc have a reputation for not being supportive or engaging with students on the course. Ie having an out of office reply telling students they don’t read or respond to emails.

So I don’t think there’s a correlation.

Getting the sense from this thread that:

1. Offer Holder Days are hit and miss.
2. University lecturers, students etc who have to run them find them a pain in the backside.

Add into this that a lot of universities do their final offer day long before all offers are made (looking at you Durham) and I'm starting to think is there any point in them.

Why not stop them altogether and make it clear that Open Days (June to October pre UCAS application) are the only times to formally visit ?

We live in NI so, due to costs, decided not to do Open Days (we did 1 in the end) and wait for Offer Days - however, if Open Days had been the only option, we would definitely have done a few more.

Our approach now - if DS gets more offers soon - will be to do flying visits during Easter break just so he can get a sense of the location, how far the halls are from the business school etc. Accommodation etc he can see online.

But surely if he does go there he won’t be wandering round a deserted campus on the weekend by himself? He’ll be where the students were when you visited. That might be in his room studying but it also might be in his room sleeping off a hangover, hanging out with his flat mates, out in local towns, at society events (like the climbing thing somebody mentioned), at a Saturday job etc. I highly doubt they were all sat in their rooms alone doing nothing.

I went to a city uni and our campus was pretty deserted at the weekend to be fair unless it was good weather. It may well be that it’s not the right location for him but I wouldn’t write a uni off based on it being quiet on campus on the weekend. Especially as although it’s term time by the last week people do tend to be focussing a bit more on studying/meeting deadlines and may have gone home early so you’ll get a different vibe to an opening day on a week day earlier in term.

Might be worth going for a walk round the campus in the week to get a better feel for it if that’s possible?

@bguthb90 if a student in that situation contacted me I’d happily meet them on a 1-1 to answer questions. Might be worth emailing the course leader and asking.

I think Warwick might do a bit better if it did admit to itself that it is actually in Coventry.

Oh I can see why they don’t reading this thread. Can you imagine a certain kind of parent admitting in polite society that their stellar son or daughter was at university in <whisper it> Coventry???

Although I really like Earlsdon -that huge park nearby and the high street has some great antique shops and restaurants and Coventry had the first city centre IKEA (that I know of).

Open Days are marketing exercises.
I'm sure a fuckton more effort is put into them when they're still trying to get bums on seats.
I imagine if there was the threat of their course being axed due to nobody applying, lecturers would miraculously find the time.

Holder Days are (or should be) much more specific and helpful. At my school we encourage all holder days, but tell them open days aren't as important.

What does this have to do with a dead campus on a weekend though?

OP, I know two current students there - both very bright and both quiet and studious. Both, to varying degrees, unhappy because they find Warwick noisy at night and a bit wild. One moved accommodation because of it. He indeed was one going home every weekend as they live within 50 odd miles and he was miserable.

Don't know if that makes it better or not - but dead it certainly isn't!

Because it's the next phase in their lives and they want to be really excited , a lot of young people find open days and offer days a bit of a let-down. But if your DS feels no glow at all for either the place or the course, he'd be best to head elsewhere.

What did he think of the course itself? You haven't really mentioned that?

I think Warwick might do a bit better...

I don't think Warwick has any problems recruiting high calibre students?

He loved the course presentation: ‘DS was set on Warwick, course impressive‘.

He’s just a bit of a party animal. So your story about others finding it a bit wild will enthuse him!

Course impressive is the most important factor , surely? He got it the better way round than my DS who loved the place and was worried about the course but the place lured him and the course was indeed awful.

I know a place can put people off but one Saturday in March isn't a full representation, genuinely.

Has he looked at Student Room? Often chat forums on there.

@Piggywaspushed

no of course it doesnt have a problem attracting students.

I was thinking more of the perceptions of Warwick.
I see regular threads at certain times of year that often show that people really don’t have a clue where Warwick actually is, that its no where near a castle, but is in fact near a city. So people have expectations and don’t always know what to make of it.
I don’t understand how people can visit, complain there is nothing there when it has a whopping great big arts centre opposite the student union and a huge sports centre.

@InMyRoom
I can’t see how any campus uni is going to be a hive of activity on a Saturday morning/early afternoon. I go to the arts centre at Warwick regularly, mid week and weekends, on the bus which goes through campus, it always looks busy to me, always a lot of students about.

I didnt go to Warwick myself, so not particularly ‘defending’ it. I went to Coventry - shock/horror when it was a poly and have encountered a very snobbish attitude from staff at Warwick when they realised where I did go.

Yeah, the arts centre is huge. DS just went there for UniBrass and it was heaving!

That was on a Saturday btw and the bar (forgotten its name) was packed, although I assume that was mainly musicians. They were certainly thoroughly sozzled by the end of the day.

Why do they call it University of Warwick when it's clearly on the edge of Coventry? And why do students generally move to all the way to Leamington Spa? Is Coventry really that bad (even by student standards)?! There must be loads of accommodation in Coventry?

@ort1gia

Coventry is awash with student accommodation. I live in Earlson - a residential area of Victorian terraces on the main bus route to Warwick.
A new block of 268 student studio flats has been built literally at the bottom of my road. I’m sure the pub and chippy opposite are very pleased, residents not so much as this is the latest in a long line of over development in the area. A number of other developments have been stopped following residents objections.

And no Coventry isnt that bad and is much improved since I moved here from Liverpool in the 1980s. We have thriving theatres, music venues, loads of new cafes, bars, etc -mainly because of the massive student population.

One of mine went to Warwick. Absolutely loved it. He lived in leamington for 2nd and 3rd years and loved it there as well. Good social life, good night life. Perhaps not for youngsters who have grown up in London but it suited DS.
He started climbing at the Warwick sports centre mentioned by @Dreamingofanewkitchen and did all the thiings she posted about. It's still a major hobby for him 5 years later.

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 found that Warwick's open day (in the summer of 2017) had more to offer than other open days we went to. It felt like they tried harder. Although I thought Newcastle and York did as well. We did some in the autumn of 2017 and the autumn of 2018 as DD took a gap year and they felt more lacklustre. I think in the summer everyone is in a relaxed and celebratory mood so the atmosphere (and the weather) was better.

The offer holder day at Newcastle merely confirmed that she had made the right choice.

The other campuses might have been more lively during a Saturday daytime due to their layout or proximity to local city or town making it easy for students beyond 1st year to get in to campus to go to the library.

I can't think what people would be doing out on a Saturday on campus unless the weather is good. Lots of activities occur during the week on campuses. They're buzzing and crowded all day. But on Saturdays, students are typically sleeping ( could be a good sign if your D's is a party boy), studying, playing sport, going in to town to go shopping. The few times I've been on Bath campus on a Saturday during winter, it's been dead.

Perhaps the campus that you saw that was buzzing on a Saturday morning had put something on to entice students out. Free food or something? Or perhaps had something big going on like a varsity match?

If it's any consolation, had she decided to go there, DD would have been more than happy to live in Coventry (what we saw of Earldon from the bus looked just fine and yes, we did spend time in the city centre, as I had with DS1 when I went to the open day with him. And as I did in my youth, when Coventry and Owen Owen in particular was a go-to place for my mum when it came to a day out 'doing the shops'). Weird that 'It's got a university of its own' should be a reason for avoiding Coventry - Birmingham's got about 5 universities altogether, but neither DS1 nor DD (both chose UoB) moved to Redditch or Walsall in 2nd year just in case they found themselves having to interact with someone from UCB or Aston...

No big events or free lunches. A lot of the halls were catered though and maybe that keeps them on site.

@Piggywaspushed

DS had a similar experience at Birmingham Open Day. He really wanted to love it as had already got a great offer but nobody seemed to know the answers to any questions and it was very disorganised. Both DS and another boy asked a very relevant question relating to the course and both were completely dismissed. I posted about it on here at the time and I was told by other posters that I was being ridiculous. It was to do with a very fundamental part of the course, without it the course is quite difficult.
He decided to not even bother going to the Offer Holder Day as the whole thing left a bad taste.
He is still waiting for his first choice so not even sure we will get to there for an Open Day.

I think I remember that mrsc !

I do think shambolic course information and lectures seeming dis/un interested is a much bigger red flag than campus atmosphere, to be honest.