Open days - how important are first impressions

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We’re on our way from an open day. DD thought the campus was ok and the course looks amazing on paper but the subject talks were awful - death by PowerPoint and really uninspiring. Just thinking how much weight we should put on this - it’s given us a really bad impression of their teaching but it was only 2 teachers out of a large faculty.

I think it's important, but you need to think about why, what is it telling you to question. Ds1 changed his mind after visiting Southampton and Durham. Loved both places but the course wasn't quite right. He knew Nottingham was right immediately.

We were definitely put off by boring talks at some unis (along with awful accommodation, disorganisation and disinterested students). Our theory is that if they're trying to sell it to you they should send some of their best staff and most enthusiastic students, so if that's the best they have then it's not the place for DD. Luckily, two of the unis had great talks, great accommodation and great organisation, as well as being in great cities, having good range of appropriate societies/clubs and a course that ticked all her boxes, so those are her two choices. As she doesn't go until September, that doesn't of course that she was right to be swayed by the above!

I wouldn’t let a boring PowerPoint put me off a Uni. It is a factor though. My DC spent a lot of time reading posts on student room and looking at the videos done by current students at the Uni.

Dd had a talk at St Andrews this year and it has put her off history(not sure she’s gone off the uni tho a bit small).

I might suggest that there could be a correlation between the institutions that HAVE to put on gimmicks and all singing and dancing open days in order to attract prospective students vs those institutions that already know they will be very over subscribed due to how well their courses, or institutions are regarded.

Do go with an open mind, but also a slightly cynical one.

Totally. We get 500 applications for 25 places. I could not staff a single open day and we’d still be fighting people off with a stick

Honestly, that sounds shit and I would strike the university off the list for that. What kind of department would put someone uninspiring up for a "selling" slot like this? One that didn't care? One that was under-resourced? One that was disorganised? None of those are good options.

My ds has attended a couple and thought the sample lectures were engaging. These were good RG universities that will easily fill their places for this subject - and yet they still did a good job of this.

I think it's pretty important tbh. DS and I went to an open day at Edinburgh and it was so crap compared to the others. Badly organised, over crowded, and the people there were disinterested. Therefore he didn't apply.

First impressions counted for us. DS went to an "Open" Day at one prestigious uni where the department was closed - literally the room where the talks were meant to take place was locked. Hung around with a few other baffled people for half an hour but nothing happened so he went off. At a nearby less prestigious uni, we sat through a talk so brilliant I wanted to sign myself up for the course, even though I have zero interest in the subject normally. He got offers from both places and went to the interesting uni even though it was slightly lower down the league tables. Then bumped into people at the other place who said it was all a bit flat and dull. He is so glad he chose the place that felt right on Open Day.

I think the problem is that they're basically giving an "in person" talk about exactly what's already on the Uni website, hence why they're just reading off bland power point slides. We did, I think, 7 open days and the slides were virtually the same (same format, same content) in different Unis, so I suspect a fair bit of copying between Unis - the main difference was different colour schemes and different logos!

Sample lectures at offer holder open days were a lot better as more of the lecturer's personality shone through and their teaching style.

DD ended up at her first love (Bath), as soon as she walked on campus she knew it was the one for her and after her first year she was right.
Exactly the same thing happened to me 40 years ago!!!

DS was very put off at one open day during a tour of the Physics labs. The guy giving the tour was a senior lecturer, clearly knew his stuff and very enthusiastic, but he'd not got a clue where he was supposed to be going. He had us following him up and down corridors as he kept arriving at locked doors, or to a lab where the prior tour was occupying, and twice he led us back to where we started to ask the table staff where he was supposed to be going. So after an hour we'd basically just seen lots of corridors and looked into a few labs through the windows of locked doors!

The talk on ds's STEM subject at the offer holders day at Exeter last year was so good I wished I was going, despite being a die hard qualitative social scientist. He's just finished his first year and his expectations were well met.

she said on the way home - not sure I want to go and study English there if they have to tell you that - suggests that no one expects to have to read! (Eng lit degree obv involves reading many books - one to two a week at least)

Youd be surprised at the number of EngLit undergrads who are surprised by this and resistant to it.

My undergrad degree involved a level of reading which most undergrads now couldn’t cope with.

But really - it was probably an attempt at a bit of a joke or an ice-breaker. I wouldn’t take it as an indication of the actual lectures.

The other thing I’d say is that universities are not theatres, nor are academics performers for the crowds. Not all communications need to entertain students, and sometimes students learn best when they have to concentrate not be plied with bells and whistles.

I agree @ejbaxa. All the universities we will be looking at are top of the field for the subject - they don't 'need' to sell their programs. Neither did the sixth forms I referred to earlier - all were very selective with plenty of applicants for each place. But frankly @UsingChangeofName and @QuintanaRoo,
if an institution cannot organise an interesting and informative and well run day for potential students, who are the reason they actually exist, then what does that say about how well they run the university as a whole and how they treat their students?
First one tomorrow (UCA Farnham).
One thing I can tell anyone who runs these things: enough with the branded tote bags! We have half a dozen already! Four from open days, and two from short courses at unis.

Talks at capacity so couldn't get in.

Often because one potential applicant is accompanied by 2 or 3 family members. I’ve sometimes had to request that families step back so we can accommodate the actual applicants first. People can get very arsey about that.

Oh she didn't take it as an example of the lecture, she was just concerned at the idea that her fellow undergraduates might not be prepared to read! She's a massive reader and didn't relish the idea of her peers not being. Suspect she was right as well!

As a lot of us discovered in the cycle just gone, Durham put minimal effort into attracting applicants. Like Edinburgh, their approach seems to be "people will apply here anyway" so se don't need to try

At the busier Unis, you tend to have to book places online in advance. Then they have "stand by" queues to fill in the no-shows.

One of the ones we attended (maybe Warwick) only allowed two people per booking, i.e. student and one parent, and made siblings/other parent wait in the stand-by queue.

This is a good point, the prestigious Universities who are turning down more qualified applicants than they give offers to do not need to have slick marketing and spend money to attract students to apply. It’s the less good Unis that are more likely to dress their sow up.

TBH I'd feel arsey about this if I'd booked a place each for me and ds - my ds is autistic and I need to listen to what's going on as I'll be helping him apply to nearby unis. At other unis, we haven't managed to get a booking and that is life - we don't try to poach someone else's booking just because they booked first.

Strikes closed some departments at the Bristol open day last week - bad form I thought when people have travelled, paid hotels etc.

@L3ThirtySeven well if they can't rustle up a few student ambassadors and a few faculty to meet students and run some tours in an organised way that's pretty pathetic no matter how 'prestigious' they may be. Student experience starts on an open day. Whether I was a brilliant student who had my pick of several top unis or not I'd like to think they valued me enough to actually properly show me where I'd be spending three plus years and giving my money to. It doesn't have to be 'slick', it doesn't have to cost a lot of money (those ambassadors are probably volunteer and I imagine it's part of department heads' jobs). Every uni has a PR department who should be able to organise this.
I've been to unis with 10% acceptance rate who had great open days and really encouraged applicants, and others that could have done much more to make it a welcoming experience.

That’s absolutely fine that you judge a book by its cover and how flashy and entertaining an open day is. Many Unis do cater to those expecting a festive tourist experience.

Just don’t expect me or my DC to agree that’s the best method for determining if a Uni is right for my DC.