Process for applying for universities (open days etc) what do you wish you knew now!

[iwantavuvezela]

DD is currently in Y12 and starting to think about possible Universities and courses. Am I correct in thinking that next September (start of Y13) we could do a whole lot of visits to different universities and then you apply with mock results from Y12 - is that towards the end of the year?

Can anyone give me some good tips around this whole process (we are the very tip of starting this) but need to start thinking around it.

what do you wish you had known?

Help a fellow parent out here.

UCAS deadline is January for the following Autumn (with a few exceptions like Medicine, Vet Med, Art school, Music academies, Oxbridge) . Ideally visit on open days towards end of year 12 and work on personal statement over the summer. The school/college will create predicted grades early in y13, partly based on y12 exams and assessments but also knowledge of the student and likely progress. Most schools run information sessions and may use a platform like Unifrog to support the process. There is information for both parents and students on the UCAS website.

Go to open days in June a d July of Yr 12 roo as they will clash in Sept!

Im now on my third (and final!) child going through the process and I’d suggest lining up a few visits in Yr12. It can sometimes be hard to schedule a lot of visits in Yr13 as their workload is high. We also found that although ‘on paper’ a uni can look like a good fit, sometimes they just don’t vibe with the place in person.

My youngest son is Oxbridge material but he absolutely did not connect with either the colleges or the course. He’s autistic and I knew he needed to see everywhere for himself so we started super early in the summer of yr11.

His UCAS application is going in soon and after seeing lots of potential unis, his top choice is one I never would have predicted he’d choose if we had not visited.

I’d advise to attend subject talks (such a wide variety of teaching styles of the same subject across different institutions) and look at the accommodation available.

In my experience it’s never too early to make a start on visits. Definitely visit a cross section of choices. Sometimes seeing an ‘aspirational choice’ that really clicks can be an incentive to work extra hard for the grades.

okay thanks for that @clary will start to draw up list for June/July that's a good tip - do all the universities do it over a week or two. Is it necessary to book for pen days.

I think the school help with personal statements - career advice has been a bit sketchy!!

Even if no open days visiting uni when in area (on holiday etc) can be useful to rule in or out. Going to open day at local uni this year even if no intention of going can be useful to get used to open days (see thru the marketing) or rule out courses.

If applying to competitive courses then don't get fixated by a top choice (you might not get an offer and if you can see positives in your other choices you will cope better).

Devil in the detail. Look at the module catalogues. Placement/internship/Year Abroad opportunities. Graduate opportunities.

@JediKnightingale that is so useful to know you. can go to some subject lectures - yes I am hoping that the "right fit university feel" and feeling connected to a course will make studying for the grades feel worthwhile

Unis vary. Some need booking well in advance especially for parking, subject information sessions and tours. Others are turn up on the day.

I have started earlier so autumn year 12, maybe even June yr 11 after GCSEs when they have nothing else on.
We did 6 in June/July yr 12 and it was a lot. Every Saturday and expensive. Spacing out better. Tried to fit in some Autumn yr 13 too.
One that caught us out was a need to no only sign up for uni open day but for subject talk too think it was Kings London.

DD is in Year 13 now and has just submitted her UCAS application. She did the majority of her uni open days in the summer of Year 12 and the rest of them this September and October. You will find that a lot of them fall on the same weekends and if you leave it all till now you might not get round them all. Also something to be said for looking round unis in nice weather! DD started looking at potential courses/unis around January of Year 12 and we booked the summer open days around April/May time. It will probably be worth registering your interest on the university websites and then they will email you with open day dates and booking information.

Yes agree, worth just going to possible cities to get a feel, look at campus etc. We had to do that with ds2 (Covid) and it was useful.

Yy book open days, book subject talks. Also agree going to local one is useful eg to rule in or out that type of uni (campus, city etc).

Do not try to do more than one open day in a day - they are surprisingly tiring.

Have some qus for subject staff - dd asked about his assessment was done for example.

Don't do Bath and Bristol open days on the same day. Or, if you do, spend a weekend in the area so you can do both cities justice.

Can I also recommend just visiting the uni town/campus on a weekend or half term ie when the uni students are still there. Lots of open days are when the uni students have left for summer or before they return in Autumn, and some places are just dead if there is a large uni population compared to the town. Uni students have long holidays so check dates. Dc has 4 weeks at home for Christmas and 5 weeks for Easter, finishes end of May.

Mine visited campus, small city and large sprawling city unis to get a feel for each one. When they narrowed down their choices we booked open days and they attended their subject talks, talked to other students about assessment etc. Lots of open day dates clash so this helps narrow down that preselection knowing what they want to prioritise.

Re personal statement, get her to look into that now, I know it seems like a long time away but Ds2's is in already. He is year 13. If she knows what subject look on Youtube because lots of students will talk about how they put theirs together and what is on it plus online examples. Consider what she will add to hers in terms of what she is doing outside of her A levels for her subject.

As a parent, get as informed as you can about it all too.

Start visits in the summer of Y12

At open days speak to department admissions staff and find out how many students they take each year, if they ever accept dropped grades and ask generic accommodation/admissions people what their policy is with guaranteeing accommodation if it’s an insurance choice. Also check any accommodation issues in Y2/3 - if they was not enough student accommodation it’s a real headache.

WIWIKAU on Facebook is a useful resource.

Check clearing this year on 15 August to see what is available which gives an idea of course popularity/competitiveness.

Go on uniguide dot com and put in subject and location of uni click on course and scroll down to see what actual grades students have vs what the entry requirements are advertised as

But the MOST important piece of advice is to have your DC work hard from Day 1 of Y12 - predicted grades are VERY important to get offers and these are usually based on Y12 performance alone.

Thank you so much for all this useful advice everyone its much appreciated and @SooperOuting for those resources.
Im glad I asked the question as it will help me prepare the summer visits, and might start to do a few just to get the feel of them. @CloudWhisperer definitely feeling the need to get informed!

@iwantavuvezela MN is great for getting informed. I agree about being on this board for students getting their offers in from unis, certain ones are always absolutely last minute with their decision making. Being here for results day and paying attention to what is going on in clearing, what courses are available etc. Then you can see what is normal.

Basically year 12 is keeping a note of everything she does outside of school so anything she reads, watches, visits, listens to (podcasts) what she learned, what did that lead to ie she read something on X subject did that lead to her finding Y interesting and what more did she investigate? If she has a job/volunteers what skills does she get from that? There are often year 12 summer schools some in person some online, have a google for her subject and see what takes her fancy.

And predicted grades are everything. Entry grades like are the lowest grades to be accepted on a course so if it is AAA then a lot of applicants will be applying above that level ie 3 A stars or 2 A stars and an A etc especially for the top universities.

Working right from the start of year 12 gives her the best chance. If she struggles with any of the work see her teacher immediately to get on top of it. Don't let it slide. And any more questions, post on MN.

Loads of good advice above. A few thoughts from our experience:

If you can, encourage DD to do some research beforehand so you can focus on what to see and what to ask on the day. It's impossible to get round everything so you need to prioritise. E.g. My DD hasn't bothered with accommodation visits yet as she views that as the next step when offers are in, but attending subject talks was very important for her to compare course structures and get a feel for the department and staff.

Allow as much time as you can afford, especially if you're thinking of Oxbridge and need to view multiple colleges. All of our trips bar one involved one or two overnight stays but it was totally worth it. Open days are tiring and it was really useful to explore the cities. Buses are great for this if you are short on time or weather is not good. (For us, the heatwave was a problem. I have terrible hay fever and wasn't really capable of doing much active exploring while DD was fatigued, so we had to cut the day short.)

Spread them out and take lots of notes, and photos if possible. It's easy to get overloaded. We did the first in Y12 October (Edinburgh) and the last one this weekend (Exeter), all the rest in summer.

Talk to the students. They are honest and friendly.

Try to balance letting her lead with making sure you get everything you need from the day; but many universities have offer holder taster days later on, so there's another opportunity to get a feel for the place if needed.

Enjoy it!

Do not stress about the personal statement. They matter vastly less than schools seem to imply. Many if not most offers now are made without even reading them. But do keep a copy of it to hand if applying to any course that does or may interview, as it's often used for an opening question. (Have been involved in admissions for multiple universities.)

Realistically, the quality of the experience has been significantly degraded in many "high ranking" universities over the last few years by over recruitment -- taking many more students without increasing staff numbers. Try to find out how admission numbers now compare to 5 or 10 years ago and avoid any dept which has seen significant recent expansion would be my top tip.

This is really interesting, thank you. 😊 Is there somewhere I can find out what grades students actually got in their A'levels? So what the course intake actually gets, rather than course requirements set in advance by the uni?

@Porridgewithnuts, the Discoveruni website shows, for each course, UCAS tariff points (under the 'Entry Information' tab). This gives you an approximation eg % achieving more than 144 points which is the same as AAA or AstarAB.

The other source is the Uniguide website which, for broad course groups (eg all BSc Psychology course variants at uni of x), shows most common three A levels taken and grades achieved.

Best to use both sources as rough indicators rather than precise guides.

Don't get hung up on overall league tables, the subject-specific ones are much more relevant. Agree with @SandyIrving that the devil is in the detail and your DD needs to dig down into the modules on offer (once she has some idea what she wants to study, of course!).

And beyond the subject, also get your DD to think about which factors are important to her ie big city v rural location (and anything in between), campus v not, 3 years v 4 (placement or integrated Masters), accommodation, sports facilities and so on.

Loads of good advice. Key thing is appreciating the need to hit ground running in Yr12 as time whizzes by quickly and those all-important predicted grades will be determined this year.

Start looking at Open Day dates in Jan and work out where you want to visit. Know that the far flung places in distant north, south and Scotland will see their accommodation all booked up pretty early and if you want affordable and nearby accommodation, you’ll have to get in early. Likewise if some journeys are too long to drive and you need to go by train, the cheaper tickets will sell out early.

Looking at Clearing in the summer of Yr12 can show you some useful things about which courses don’t fill and how low some offers can go.

Enjoy the process. That phase of visiting university cities with DC and seeing them thinking it through can be a lovely bonding experience. Don’t try to do too much in a day or weekend….doing 2 in a weekend might be okay once, but most people find that exhausting. And there might be a cheap way to do it all, but I didn’t find it! Train fares, petrol, nights at the Premier Inn, lunches, the odd evening meal….it all added up and I can totally see it’s another barrier to equal access. Where we could do the journey in a day, we did, but there were some we had to stay overnight at. We used the opportunity to catch-up with a couple of friends and family members (often the Open Days start at 9/9.30 and it’s Sod’s Law that the talk you want to go to will be first) and stay at their houses, but also had to have a couple of nights in the Premier Inn too. It sort of became part of our summer holiday plans - some weekends away and we tried to see it as that instead of a chore.

Know teens are switched on and off places by all kinds of odd things. I was struck my MN threads by someone who said their DD said a place had ‘posh mean girl vibes’ which the mother had zero sense of, and others where the child became enamoured with a place due to a burger he had there. Be aware if your teen (or yourself) have strong prejudices for or against geographical regions, accents, students from different types of school/college to the type they attend and if possible, help them to be open-minded and be open-minded yourself, even if you remmeber stuff about a particular uni from 30 odd years ago!

Like all these things in MN, it’s a phase and this too will pass and none of it has to determine the child’s whole future, so hold lightly to it all and enjoy the ride.

you can also get a lot of information online and don’t need to visit every possible option imo. You can also visit on your own. Dd and I were in Bath over the summer and visited the university and there is a guide you can download which takes you to all the key areas, no lectures or anything but it was calm and dd had more time to think - would I be happy living here?
my ds did not visit a single university, used online info and was only really concerned about sports facilities and proximity to the airport.

Not a uni part but DP went to uni as an adult and we did open days together. If your child is going into something technical, make sure you ask the uni of first years/ undergrads get to use the thing they are showing

Ack finger slipped!

Southampton loves to show their towing tank, for example. But it's phd students and companies coming for consultancy that get to use it.

You can do university open days from June in Year 12. I suggest doing some then and then some at the start of Year 13