Offer holder days / did they help your child choose there Uni?

[iwantavuvezela]

So DD has her offers from and is deciding between firm and insurance. she is signed up to offer holder days where I am hoping that she might get a much more instinctual feel about which Uni might be best for her, and help her make the choice between firm and insurance.
Any experience from past students that these days really helped?

Certainly for DS2 the offer holder day changed his mind completely. Initial first choice he had been to an Open Day and all very positive. Offer holder day at that same Uni still positive, but Offer Holder day at Uni B at a completely different and much more personalised, from his pov, level.

DS1 never got the chance, it was all done online during COVID. He chose Nottingham having never even been to the city before and had a great three years.
DS2 did go to the offer holder days. He was leaning to York because of the structure of the course and campus set up and it reinforced this.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, good to read. I had not thought about going with DD, I thought it would just be students, so will think around that - we went to open days together but I thought this would be more a chance for just the student to hang out! we have 3 booked for her to attend before and after half term

Don't think there is a right answer when it comes to adults accompanying visits - but its definitely worth talking about.

When I was going to uni my parents didnt show any interest at all, I did everything on my own, which was kind of normal back then, including really long train journeys and stuff.

I have always encouraged my young adults to go to Open Days and Offer Holder days on their own, invariably they have declined. Partly for logistical reasons and partly because we talk stuff through as a family so its kind of normal for us.

I have also encouraged them to try and go with friends but that hasn't worked out in the end, partly because the other families wanted to go with their young adult.

As others have said, some Unis are really good at separating adult and applicant, which I thought was helpful.

Because much of Open Day and Offer Holder day stuff is curated by the uni I also encourage mine to wander off on their own, think about the people they met (student and applicant) because these were potentially their future friends. Its risky because you only meet a small sample, but it definitely impacted my eldest who had multiple interactions with the students at one particular Uni and she did not like what she saw. Offer Holder days can give you more opportunity to meet the actual and prospective students

I thought they'd just be for students but they put in Q&A sessions for parents. One of the offer holder days we'd never been to the open day, so I wanted to see the uni. The other one DH wanted to see the uni and 3 of us went so we could make a day of being in the city afterwards. We'd have left her and got out the way if they hadn't had stuff in for parents or DD had been happy to go alone parents and students were separated.

It’s worth checking what’s involved in the offer day.One we went was just basically a rerun of the normal open day with nothing specific for the course. Another was extremely course oriented with the students being taken off to do some discussion exercises and meet the staff etc - needless to say that was the one my DC chose!

At one offer holder day we went to the lecturer asked a question and DD's was the only hand up (reptile nerd). The Lecturer came and found us at lunch, chatted to DD and emailed her later to say that even if her grade was well below expected they would be delighted to have her. He also discussed possible future Summer opportunites for her on a project he was involved with.
At a different offer holder day she also spoke to quite a few people and explained why she had taken the route she had (which was a bit unusual) and when her grade was below what was expected for her core subject that Uni said that they would take her anyway. Could just be that there was plenty of room on the course but who knows?
It wasn't expected and not why we were there but I would suggest that all the DC who attend see it as an opportunity to make an impression on people who could be influential.
I would also urge Parents NOT to ask repeated questions of the lecturer in the Q&A to prove how special your child is.

The parents who ask questions are bloody hilarious!
Don’t turn up mob-handed. Space is often limited and I’ve seen times when a prospective student hasn’t been able to listen to a talk because some family with five kids all turned up. If you have you take your younger dc have the decency to make them give up their seat for someone who actually needs it.

I like the Sheffield physics open day - where the potential applicants went off to see the labs, and the parents stayed for a Q&A session. Apparently the applicants very rarely do ask questions and the parents do want to know things, so this seemed a good solution.

They’ve obviously had some horror parents. I think it’s crazy that universities are pandering to parents.

Yes. At one offer holder day it became clear that they might well not offer as many options in DD's favourite part of the subject, so that helped rule that one out.
The others gave a her much better feel for the place. There was more opportunity to look around accommodation, and more information about the courses and how they were organised.
She was annoyed that Cambridge don't do an offer holder day, as she was still in two minds (I think Cambridge don't expect people to consider turning them down), but when she contacted the college they were happy for her to visit again and arranged a student to meet with her.

She was annoyed that Cambridge don't do an offer holder day, as she was still in two minds (I think Cambridge don't expect people to consider turning them down), but when she contacted the college they were happy for her to visit again and arranged a student to meet with her.

It varies, some colleges do.

Given that parents will potentially be involved in the decision making (and possibly helping out financially) it seems sensible to pitch at the parents too - I have definitely seen some unis more engaged with parents than others and I assume that is why

FWIW my parents were going to have support me through uni and "told" me what subjects were okay (because they believed engineering was a better career than science) and what unis were okay (the decent ones that would lead to a proper job . . .)

My DC2 found the two offer holders days she attended very helpful. Partly because it was a subject specific day with lectures / seminars and partly because 6 months on from applying with offers in hand it was all more real.

One she went to with a friend and the other by herself. She’s definitely in the space of not wanting embarrassing parents on hand. Both places were 4 plus hrs away by train but doing that journey on public transport is part of the reality of choosing that uni.

Get into details.

Tinetables throughout the course. Where people live throughout.