How early is too early for open days?

[willow7612]

My DS is starting A Levels in September and wants to study medicine at university. Is it too early to start to go to open days this autumn? Will there be more next spring / summer before the early application deadline? Can't decide whether it is better to space them out so it's less of a rush or leave it until closer the time.

We did a couple at the beginning of year 12. DD didn't like them but at least it gave her more of an idea of what kind of Uni she preferred when we seriously started looking the following year.

Advice given to me by a mum who's been through it all before was that it's worth going to a few subject specific talks even earlier than that- end of year 11 if you can- if your DC has ideas about what they would like to study. Never too early to get a sense of what a course is like especially if it's one that needs particular A levels. Then do more in Y12.

No problem at all, we took our son to his first open days in year 11 before his GCSEs, and they proved very useful in getting him to start thinking about subject choices, not only for Uni but also for A levels.

My current Y12 DC did a couple of Open Days in Autumn Y12, has a non-Open Day guided tour booked soon and then a couple of Open Days booked/planned for Autumn Y13.

Spreading it out like this has been helpful as they have a job and need to use up holiday allowance carefully. They have also modified their thoughts about subject area and have had elapse time to allow for that. They are now confident and keen to travel to/attend Open Days/tours on their own as they saw the earlier Open Days as practice runs.

We did not attend anything prior to Y12 but have used family holidays and day trips in earlier years to visit a wide range of cities and towns and that has also been helpful in thinking about distance from home, general location etc.

Thanks for all of your replies, he is really set on medicine and has also got quite a clear idea on where he thinks he would like to go but I want him to have the opportunity to make sure he's sure.

I’d definitely start earlier with hindsight it’s been such a rush last few weeks.

My DD has been taken to one by school, we are going to another one and then maybe one in September.

She is starting a levels in September.

As others will explain better. If interested in medicine you apply to where your strengths are,. You can't afford to be picky. And for job prospects it doesn't matter very much (there are a few instances where I have seen it does help a bit when looking for sought after training posts).
We started late year 11 in our own city just to have something to compare with later. And to help decide if medicine dc3 (or law in case if dc1) was really what they wanted to do.

We did also visit various places during the school holidays, just to have a look.

Similar situation here with - DD has just finished GCSEs and pretty set on medicine.

Think we are planning to go to one or two this autumn - it does feel a bit early in some ways, but I think next summer might be quite full on with UCAT/learning to drive/mocks/work experience etc etc, so thinking one or two now would be a good idea.

I think at this point we are trying to get a sense of if she definitely wants to do medicine and what type of course she would prefer, and type of place she would like to live in. Then next summer we will try to be a bit more focused on places she will be relatively most likely to get an interview.

Both of My DS went to the local University open days in the summer after GCSE. Neither wanted to go there but they did the finance talks, so did we, and got a feel for planning the day and how to get the best out of it.
Another thing worth doing is having a look at student rentals for after first year. Uni make a big thing of their halls but most students only get them in the first year.

I'm with Notagardener. For medicine you largely apply where you are likely to get in. A medicine degree is a medicine degree wherever you study. By all means go to some open days and form a preference for where you might like to go and the style of teaching you might prefer, but be very thorough in your research of entry requirements so applications aren't wasted post UCAT (unless you have a ridiculously high score). The Student Room has an excellent 'which med school should I apply to' thread. As the parent of a high achieving, straight 9s GCSE student, I wish I'd paid far more attention to how competetive medicine is. My daughter wasted 2 applications on universities that would never have interviewed her on her first application. Ended up taking a year out, reapplying much more strategically and will be starting this Sept.