Uni open days - how many?

[NCTDN]

So ds wants to do aerospace engineering but doesn't have a clue where he wants to go or whether he wants a campus uni or not.
The issue is that all the top ten are a fair distance from us and most will involve overnight stays. I know we can combine Bath and Bristol as they are the same weekend but is going to all ten realistic?

@NCTDN I was able to book places with Bristol this week, Friday I think we got the email. But we're not in the UK currently, which might be why.

10 seems an awful lot to view and you'll probably find open days clash. Check out the virtual tours on line to help narrow down choices you wish to visit. Join Student Room to connect with students if you have any specific questions.

DS visited 2 and ended up at a different one

DD visited 8 which was far too many. We wondered if she’d ever find one she liked but the last two were the winners

It helped her whittle down what she did and didn’t like

So when she started she didn’t know if she wanted campus or city
She didnt know if she wanted to be close to a big city
She didn’t know if she was bothered what the department felt like or what the other students looked like

As visits went on she worked this out and is now very confident in her choices

DS OTOH knew what he wanted from the off

So depends on the DC!

I find it odd dc don’t know if they want a city or not. They do know what cities are. Also, do they go around looking at other dc who, like nearly everyone here, has a less then 25% chance of turning up. Or 10% if you visit 10. I get indecision if you don’t know the uk but I’m amazed dc cannot decide if Bangor or Liverpool will suit before an expensive visit.

For DD, she found it hard to imagine one vs the other. DS is at a city uni so she had visited him and thought it looked good

But then she went to a campus uni and realised the difference

Actually what she wants is a campus uni very close to a big city 😆

Oh and yes re the other people at an open day - offer holder days tend to be much more accurate than open days as they are usually on term time working days so you see actual students about and less “potentials”

I agree it depends on the child. For Ds1 (middle child) it was very important to him to visit in person. He was going to be young starting & had a tendency to be anxious about new situations.

We went to a couple in London on the same day in the autumn of Y12 so he could find out more about the different degrees and narrow down what he wanted to study. Then did some more in the June of Y12 and autumn of Y13. Around 10 in total.

Dd went to half a dozen. Ds2 went to none! (Covid era).

@Decorhate So is your “none” DS disadvantaged? Did he make a mistake?

I just don’t think DC can get a true picture from open days. Too many can lead to indecision too. I’m always surprised when posters say DC hated a uni on an open day. DD didn’t like the Exeter open day we attended. Full of over bearing parents and huge queues for everything, Her friends loved it but she preferred a city. She knew this though but used Exeter to compare as her friends were very keen on it. She thought it was like school. It was the only campus we looked at.

@SplendidRhododendronsDeirdre Exeter of course isn’t a big city. Nottingham, Birmingham, and York might suit?

So much of it is just down to gut instinct about what feels right. By the time they’re doing open days they will have researched the course so open days are the chance to get an idea of whether they will be happy in the place they’re going to be living in for the next 3 years. DS1 thought Birmingham would be ideal. Far away enough to be properly independent but close enough to get home easily. Decent reputation, course sounded right. But at the open day he just wasn’t feeling it at all. Crossed it off the list immediately. Likewise Durham was right at the top (and by the time we visited he had an unconditional offer), but actually he felt like something was missing and ended up rejecting the offer.
so it really is important to visit a few.

Yes, had offers from a couple of those! Fingers crossed she will get the grades.

@TizerorFizz Ds2 chose as his firm the uni his sister went to which he had visited a few times and his insurance was one he had been dragged along to when his brother was doing Open Days. I don’t think he would have picked random
places he had never visited.

I think 3 or max 4 is reasonable. He needs to decide on campus, read up on the course details mostly as the most important part, and narrow it down a bit.

I funny see who it was as op! How is he doing deciding NCT?

What's realistic depends on each family. My dd was looking at electrical and electronic engineering and went to 10 open days iirc ... a couple of them more than once, after GCSEs. But DH was semi retired and thoroughly enjoyed taking her (I went to three or four.). And then she had interviews at all 5 of her choices, and did some offer holders days as well! That's probably at the more extreme end and infeasible for many, obviously!

Some of them turned out to maybe have been a waste of time but the open days were what made her sure about her firm and insurance (loved them both) and completely wrote off a couple which had seemed like good contenders.

I find it odd dc don’t know if they want a city or not. They do know what cities are.
Yeah, and they're all exactly the same ... some cities (and the location of the uni within them) are vastly different to others, and it's not always obvious till you visit. Sheffield, for instance, looked unpromising on the map but actually much better in reality, in our opinion.

Do dc never travel anywhere? Surely they know Manchester is bigger than Exeter? It’s very odd that very intelligent dc are so indecisive. My Dads didn’t live such a sheltered life it seems.

Went to five, applied to five, to two not on visit list. Decided to visit the two, one on offer holder day and one next day (self guided tour) and is going for those two for form and insurance. So seven in total but over two years which was more manageable. DS also had a week residential at another uni which he then didn’t consider as a choice but that was through school.

It's not just a matter of size - the characters of cities and the areas within cities can be very different. As anyone who has travelled surely knows?
E.g Manchester. Birmingham and Bristol are all big cities but they - and the areas where the unis and student accommodation is - are very different. And it doesn't help that nowadays quite a lot of unis' descriptions are stretching the definition of 'campus' ... maybe this should be obvious from a map but the reality isn't always that clear IME.

It’s very odd that very intelligent dc are so indecisive.

Not indecisive. Some like to get more high quality information to base their decisions on than others I suppose.

How old is your DS?

I looked around seven universities:

1. one at the end of year 11 (I wasn’t sure what A-Levels I wanted to take so went to some sample lectures across three different degree courses to help me decide which degree I wanted to do and work back from there)
2. three in the autumn of year 12 which were those further away because at this point my A-Level workload was less intense so I could afford to spend a weekend in the car driving from London to Durham/York without it impacting my revision too much. 3)three closer to home in the summer term of year 12.

I did early entry so I wanted to finalise all my choices by the October of year 13 but if your son is doing standard entry he could go to the three furthest away during the summer term of year 12 and the remainder closer to home during the autumn term of year 13.

In summary, it’s possible to look around quite a few universities, but if you are earlier in the process then it helps to be strategic about which you visit at what point on the basis of when your DS’s school workload is likely to be at its most intense.

Also bear in mind that open days are either in October/November or in the summer term. So the sensible thing to do is to spread them out over the course of year 12 since by October of year 13 the applications start to go in and you really don't want to spend every weekend for six weeks or so traipsing around different unis.

For DS2 (year 12) we have done three and have three more booked in over the course of the next few weeks.

I did around 5 with each of mine. I was lucky that both chose courses that weren't offered everywhere.

We live in London, but they didn't want to study in London. I think they were both surprised at how small other cities were. DS has been in Bristol for 4 years and still frequently comments about how he must have not found part of it yet!

But no, neither had particularly visited other uni cities prior to considering uni. We don't have family elsewhere. We'd done holidays in the west country etc but no city trips.

But even if you like a city you won't necessarily feel at home at the uni.

DD hated Birmingham uni as soon as we set foot on campus. Couldn't really say why, just didn't feel right.

As others say, DC can make choices that subsequently prove sensible with few or no Open Day visits. However, if DC are the types who want lots of 'info input' before deciding, then Open Days definitely help.

The more you have in mind, the better it is to start early. Mine did Saturday work shifts, so spreading Open Days attendance out allowed for easier booking of holidays within holiday allowance periods. The big benefit of early engagement was that there was time to finesse subject choices, if needs be, in Y12 in advance of UCAS form filling in the Autumn of Y13.

I'd also say be open minded about other types of visit, as mentioned by PP, and about encouraging DC to do some Open Days and/or other visits solo. That can help stretch time and cost budgets further, build independence and helps DC absolutely lock onto the decision making. Not all DC want that, and that is absolutely fine, but it is an opportunity to be considered. I found mine really prepped what they were looking to get out of their visits knowing it was all down to them.

DS has no idea beyond subject choice so I've picked three within an easy distance that will give him an idea of what is available. We're in the Midlands so no shortage of unis to look at. One is an RG edge of city, one is what would have been a poly and would be a good insurance place for him, the other a city campus. We also have one in our town we can visit, which is a small campus. I'm hoping that helps him decide what he might like. We have been to all these places previously but it's different to making a decision about unis.

I think we did 7. Planned them as dates became available from about Feb.

1 was done with school. There were 2 that DH, myself and DC all went to together (including likely favourite) and then DH did a weekend away doing 2 Midlands ones with DC and an overnighter staying with friends for a last one.

It was expensive because it involved about 3 nights in Premier Inns and lots of car and train travel and meals. We were lucky in that for 3 trips we could stay with friends or family who lived within half an hour.

5 of those 7 made it onto DCs UCAS list. And then didn’t do any Offer holder days as all had been visited and decision already made.

It was a busy but pleasant spring travelling round the country and getting to talk about it and hear what DC thought about each place and see their process if working it all through. Will remain a happy shared memory I think.

It did involve us being quite invested in it and planning ahead and booking our spring weekends around it. We knew in advance that some planning was needed and we’re on it - booked train tickets and accommodation when they were cheaper,where possible.

10 is a lot! My ds was during Covid so went to 0 (but did visit his top 2 towns but that was after offers etc - there were no offer holders days or anything).

dd went to 3 - Durham, York and Birmingham. Durham we only went to as it was the day before York (which at the time was her fave) and she totally fell in love with the city and the Uni. She had thought Durham wouldn’t be her thing - the visit totally changed her mind - she is there now and v happy. York she really liked (just not as much as Durham) Birmingham Uni was amazing but subject talk was massively disappointing.

I also don’t get choosing on a single subject talk. Quite often they don’t represent a whole course. How can it? You have far more info on line. Thats why you can whittle down to a shortlist of 5.

Also why visit a low ranking uni if Dc might get AAA? All Dc need insurance but my “local” uni doesn’t offer that many academic subjects and let’s just about anyone in. Well not quite obviously but if just wastes time. What if dc actually likes it? Then rejects anything that’s a challenge to get into because an easy life is good enough? We just didn’t have this strategy, and my DC have been lucky enough to go to cities they thought about for uni and we don’t have family all over. We just believe in travel.