Fully booked Offer Days?

[JediKnightingale]

My son has an offer at Russell Group uni and they have been spectacularly unhelpful regarding visiting on an offer holder day. He only got the offer a few days ago and immediately followed the link to book a place but they were all already full.

There was an email to make contact ‘if all dates were taken’. DS dutifully sent an email but was told they were full and to book onto one of the general undergrad open days (in July) instead. This is no use as he has to make his choice months before that. He is autistic so really needs to see the place to see if it is the right fit.

I called them today and explained the situation about my son’s condition and that he really needed to see the campus and department in person. I was told offer holder days were full and he should do the virtual tour instead - explained again this was not going to help. Then I was told to book the undergrad day in July - again not helpful for my son. I asked about a wait list - was told no. Asked if the disabilities team might be able to help - was told they only helped existing students.

The whole call left me with a bad taste tbh. I felt the attitude of the member of staff was flippant and bordering on rude. Yes, I know they must set a number of places for offer holders but surely it should be inline with the amount of offers given? He applied in Nov so not a late applicant.

DS has attended other offer holder days and they were brilliant. It really helped him get a feel for the course and the campus.

Should I try to reach out again or just suck it up? I know he won’t be the only one in this position and I don’t expect them to be able to just magic up a space however I feel they could have dealt with it better and more politely.

How ridiculous that a university can't offer an offers holder day to all students it makes an offer to. These institutions are a shambles.

How ridiculous they hold offer days before they’ve made all offers!

@BlueskyBluesea I’m wondering whether it’s Exeter you’re referring to, because I could have written that pretty much word for word after they gave DD the VIP treatment on an ad hoc visit. Very impressive.

Update: I reached out on Twitter - no response. Rang their disability department and I have been fobbed off again. Really disappointed and disillusioned with this place now. Compared to other places (including Cambridge when DS was considering applying and the course leader offered him a private tour) this institution (U of Southampton) seem completely clueless. I don’t think it will be suitable for DS who will be relying on the disability dept for support.

How ridiculous they hold offer days before they’ve made all offers!

If we waited until we've made all offers there's no way we'd have sufficient capacity at offer-holder days for everyone who wants to attend. The problem is that universities often schedule the last offer-holder day before courses that interview are anywhere near making all their offers.

How disappointing. Agree with others that this would be a huge red flag for me. I hope your DS is okay, mine would be stressed out by this.

This was about 6 years ago so things may have changed. DD's offer holder days were the same day. We visit the uni (Bristol) and went to the department to ask if they had any handouts, info etc, explaining why DD hadn't visited on the official day and the reception staff phoned the departmental admissions tutor and we spend a lovely 30 mins with her. The staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.

I say contact the department directly explain the situation and then visit - your DS will be able to get a feel for the campus at the very least and you never know your might get to talk to the admissions tutor.

Don't forget there will be a lot of students who applied early but didn't get into Oxbridge and will have been holding offers for months and will have booked offer holder days before offers have been received by others. Autistic DS2 has also been offered private visits. If a uni can't do that I would seriously doubt the support they offer

I told my son to not even look at Southampton due to their poor disability support. The equality act requires the university to fund extra costs for a student in halls with a disability and medical need for any reasonable adjustment to their accommodation at no extra charge. Apparently Southampton caps any subsidy at £1,400 a year - which while not ideal I have some sympathy for - but also means test this support to those whose parental income is less than £40,000. That their accommodation policy is against the law doesn’t bode well for other support.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne Thats somewhat arbitrary and certainly doesn’t give equal access to information. Why can there not be later days? Great if you have got an offer, tough sh!t if you are still waiting for inefficient uni department.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne The problem is that universities often schedule the last offer-holder day before courses that interview are anywhere near making all their offers

Not just courses that interview. A lot of RG universities - looking at you Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter - are still making offers for non-interview courses in April/May, long after their final OHDs.

Last year Durham’s last offer holders day was in March and they were still making decisions into May. To be fair they were offering Student Ambassador led mini tours for those that missed out and this year the last date is the end of April.

The disability team also arrange informal visits for students with autism. My son went in February, had a personal tour of his preferred college including seeing the different types of rooms and met with a member of the disability team. If he has gone of term time he would also have been able to meet with someone from his academic department.

@Jaxx It’s not really the same though, is it? Lots of activities from an offer holder day would be missing on a student led tour. Offer holder days are not just about halls and teaching rooms. I guess the unis who are selective tend to be later as they have to sift more. Recruiting unis presumably don’t have so many layers of sifting so won’t look at GCSEs, PS, or test results to make decisions.

My DD applied for an arts course and was interviewed in Feb. Nothing further was ever heard from that university. So by early May she had made other choices as accommodation requests had opened up. There needs to be greater regulation about offer dates.

@JediKnightingale this is exactly the sort of unhelpfulness which would have led my DCs to crossing that university off their list without a second thought. If a university can't be bothered to make any sort of effort re offer days, why would you think they'd be any better with existing students? IME, they probably won't be.

@thing47 It has put him off a great deal. He loves the course there but everything else is really not good. He would be entitled to DSA and I really think Southampton’s disability policies are the worst (by a long way) of every Uni we have looked at. I think he might go for the ‘lesser’ ranked uni (still RG) who have been incredibly helpful throughout.

@JediKnightingale Is Southampton really so far ahead in terms of quality of degree? Surely not much, if anything, would be lost be going elsewhere? What degree is it? Where else could he go?

Can universities really just ghost you? I thought they had to accept or reject?

when DD was applying in 2020 all open days were virtual and it was rubbish - you don’t get to see everything like you would normally and it’s just not the same

If they haven't replied by the UCAS cutoff date - mid May - you get automatically rejected.

Happened 2 years ago for a lot of Durham applicants.

Awful way to treat people, especially when some had started their A levels at the time

I think there needs to be regulation about opening accommodations up because universities use that as a threat/carrot to get people to commit to them. There is a date in May that universities have to have made all offers/rejections by. So accommodation should open after that.

People may get interviewed early but the interviews are probably still going on till April. So people might not hear as the university need to keep some people on hold if they are in danger of filling the course to capacity. Otherwise they run the risk of offering all the places by Jan and people who applied later (but in time) would have no chance of a space which isn’t fair. People are kept on hold until more people/everyone has been interviewed.

Not that many unis interview though. A few courses do. Oxbridge make decisions in January I think. I certainly agree about accommodation. Late decisions mean you don’t get to offer holder days in March. Late offers mean students miss opening of accommodation preferences. Not as bad as insurance candidates though!

I work in a department where everyone is interviewed. And even if it is only a few courses then you’d have to treat the whole load of applicants for the entire uni the same from an accommodation pov.

You can’t have the medics, the architect students and the healthcare students missing out on accommodation because they haven’t heard till May but everyone else found out in Jan and the accommodation was released in Feb. which to some extent is what happens now. You’re likely to hear later if you apply to a course which interviews.

Unis can be very late. DD2 had accommodation opening on 1 May but had heard nothing from 2. Of course she applied on time and had been interviewed by one. Not heard from the other uni at all! Nothing. So both declined. Accepted what she did have and got on with accommodation preferences. @mondaytosunday Yes. They do ghost applicants. Date for offers was 30 April back then but DD didn’t hear from 2 by the deadline. So it’s not a new situation. No accommodation should open in Feb @CormorantStrikesBack Does anywhere do this? Who gets all offers out by Jan except Oxbridge? If DC don’t hear until mid May and offer days are now, it’s hardly fair. Ditto with accommodation.

Whilst many unis open for accommodation bookings around this time, they don't allocate accommodation until after results and it makes no difference as to when you apply.

I know unis like Nottingham (and Birmingham?) do operate on a first come, first served basis which does seem very unfair.

@Seeline A protocol for allocation would seem a better way to do things. If you are still waiting, you cannot apply for accommodation unless you ditch the ones you are waiting for. You might prefer one of those but students get forced into making decisions without all the offers. As DD did. She did want that uni but not hearing from two wasn’t acceptable and both offer days were missed as she didn’t have one.