Should parents or dc contact the universities?

[Watermelon999]

…… regarding admissions information, course information or general enquiries, eg about accommodation?

I have tried to ask this on the WIWIKAU facebook page but it has been rejected, not entirely sure why!

I have been advising dd to contact them herself (being nearly an adult) but it seems many parents do it for their dc? Obviously I may be able to explain things more clearly, which could be more productive in the long term, and I don’t want dd to be disadvantaged. But on the other hand, I want to promote independence.

does it seem a bit odd if parents do it for them or do universities expect this?

Most of us go with dc on open days @RampantIvy and I’ve taken dc whose parents don’t go. It’s choice and depends on the uni and whether a train goes there in a timely manner. It’s not much fun on their own either. Plus the fares are sky high early in the morning!

I think the next step for many is then discussing which uni with DC and helping with decisions as opposed to sorting out every issue for them. It’s a handover from parent to your adult offspring so that when they go, they can confidently make sensible decisions and work out what to do if the decision wasn’t sensible!

Thank you @TizerorFizz .
I'm taking DD to a post grad open day soon. Again due to time constraints using public transport (4 trains), and the risk of train strikes.

We took DS to his Open Days apart from one where neither of us could get the time off so he went in the train with DD.

Don't think it's unusual for parents to go to Open Days, in fact on the ones we went to it seemed the norm.

Yes. It is the norm. I think you can chat about what it’s like and gives dc a sounding board. I’m not happy when parents go to talks and prospective students cannot get in though!

@Watermelon999

I work in admissions. Your DD should definitely just email the admissions team to check this is correct. They can advise her if it's an error, or if not, explain why the offer is higher. Use the contact details on the offer letter.

In general, DC should be contacting universities themselves, but we do get plenty of calls/emails from parents instead, it's no big deal so long as the parent is down as the nominated contact on UCAS. We're not noting down if a parent is contacting us instead of the DC, it isn't going to go against them. But your DC is preparing for independence so it's best for them to start taking steps now to being able to communicate for themselves.

Admissions teams are there to help. We get that applying to university can be daunting, and are happy to answer questions as best we can.

Regarding previous posts about Open Days, it's normal for parents to go to Open Days (but of course fine if DC just go by themselves). You generally get less parents at applicant visit days, but that depends on the format of the Visit Day.

I’m not happy when parents go to talks and prospective students cannot get in though!

I agree. It's not on. DD was interested in a popular subject and some universities asked parents not to go to the subject talk because there wasn't enough room.

The York open day was like a family day out with whole families there.
I felt sorry for the genetics subject lead at Bristol though. I think there were only about 6 people at the talk.

DD and DH were highly amused at the consternation of the helicopter types when they denied entry to the talk in the Cambridge engineering dept which was strictly students only.

When DD1 visited Exeter (now years ago) parents were actually just pushing in and had to be asked to leave as lots of young people could not get in. Some whole families were in there!

Always dc. University is for adults. Even those with additional needs should be working out how they can communicate with universities as they will need to once there - I helped my dd by prepping her with what to say, we wrote down a crib sheet etc but ultimately she had to do it. Dc not ready at 17 to send emails etc may be better off deferring and gaining more life skills to maximise their university experience, really helped my dd