Exeter Open day

[stubiff]

For anyone who went last year, or recently:
For those taking the Westpoint P&R, what were the queues like (particularly on the way back). Was the travel time ok?
Any quieter decent eateries on campus?
Any accommodation stand out (good/bad)?
Any other tips.
Thanks very much.

I would say the use of library is a personal choice.DD, also humanities (History), used it extensively, and had books ordered in from specialist reference libraries. Plus there are several libraries across the campus.
For DD it was both a meeting place and also helped with self-discipline to get the work done as she also played sport.
And partied. A lot.

I was External Examiner at Exeter a few years ago, so used to be there to see student work etc a couple of times a year. It's a lovely campus, but hilly, but it always felt like going to the seaside for work!

Its Humanities offer is excellent and facilities are top class (I used to go back to my own place & tell the senior management this!) There's a great digital laboratory, and a cinema set up, and lots of really nice study spaces. I used to talk with my colleagues about the substantial investment the university made in the Humanities (there's a new VC, so I don't know whether that's continued).

Try to get to see the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum - it's world-leading and I seem to remember seeing student work that had done really independent research using the collection - it has all sorts of stuff not just film memorabilia.

About libraries: my own place has a "digital first" policy nowadays. They don't buy books, they buy digital packages. So be aware of this wherever you go for HUmanities students. It means they can get hold of up to the minute material without having to go to a physical library.

@stubiff We found Exeter horribly busy and when we went, it was well over a 1 hour wait at the P&R for a coach to the main campus. Half empty ones were going to St Luke’s. Hopefully that’s been put right. DD missed her subject talk and had to rebook.

Food - they ran out. Awful experience. Old hands were taking their own. Queues enormous. We got a bag of crisps.

Talks - full of parents. Staff - dominated by parents in the subject display hall. Hopefully this has been sorted out but parents here were easily the most invested of anywhere and that included Oxford. I’m talking of a few years back and I honestly hope they have improved the experience which, for us, was universality poor.

I think the library may be of use for DS, as there is a separate Law library. If we have time we'll pop in.

@TizerorFizz Thanks for the insight, hopefully things have improved as it's his (our) first one so don't want it to be off-putting.

Their brochure says "Due to space restrictions, subject presentations are for prospective students who have pre-booked only. Guests, and students who have not booked a place, will be admitted only if space allows." - so hopefully they adhere to that.

Will look for an early lunch! There is catering in one of the buildings he's interested in so we'll try there.

@stubiff Hopefully it’s better but they asked parents not to go into the subject talks when we went. They still piled in and had to be asked to leave.

Food - take something! We found talk schedule 100% messed up eating! We were so hungry we left early.

I have a DC at Exeter. I believe @TizerorFizz DC went to uni a decade (?) ago given they are now barristers etc so her open day reflections may be out of date

Our experience of the open day was excellent. It was busy and being booked onto the talks you want to go to is essential (like most unis). The staff were very accessibile and students who did tours were enthusiastic and keen to tell us about life at the uni. It left a good impression.

The campus is one of the nicest I've visited and DC loves it - often goes for walks and you can forget you are on campus because of the landscaping and routes available. Additionally the proximity to the beach and to Dartmoor means they have really explored the local area and love it.

FWIW DC has worked in the library, been to lectures and accessed lectures online ! They've lioved their first year and is impressed with the department, the facilities and the uni. I also agree with @WombatChocolate and the advice about being open minded about people. DC was in Lafrowda and loved it.

As a parent I would add that I'm
Impressed by the careers department - look online and you'll see the opportunities available for those that want to take it. You could also do your diligence on this at the open day

I did say it was a while ago and hoped improvements had been made but some of the issues we found are still mentioned here! It is always best to be prepared. I know people who have been more recently and some issues remained for them. Students are universally helpful everywhere so that’s not a massive plus. A poster said they were paid so are not unbiased - not me! Obviously those who go there aren’t put off! Same everywhere.

@Bigfatsquirrel Thanks for the insight.

The campus does look good from Google Maps and the Uni virtual tours - can even see where the talks will be.

Just been looking at Cardiac Hill, doesn't look good for those in Birks Grange!

Open Dats are often a bit chaotic. People are tired from early starts and long journeys. Sometimes parents seem to expect to be wooed by the university and both parents and students can get hung up on things to do with Open Day which really will be irrelevant when it comes to student experience. Likewise, some students and parents seem to take the fact some unis don’t make the majority of offers until April as a personal insult and decide to ‘teach’ the uni by not firming them when the offer comes.

All I’m saying, is don’t cut your nose off to spite your face. There might well be queues, over-crowding and things not running perfectly to time at some Open Days at what might be the best universities in the country. But get a feel for that uni, that city and make sure they’ve read up on the course in advance. Def take food as being hungry makes people grumpy and often lose perspective. If necessary stay over night for a more relaxed experience.

And help the students get perspective too. Some can become obsessed about wanting a studio flat, or if they see a number of people who look different to them, or swayed by very little things such a one student rep they didn’t warm to and make snap judgements against a place which possibly could be just perfect for them.

Also worth remembering that once applications are in, universities hold offer days to those students holding an offer, with sample lectures etc.
These are more focussed and provide a more realistic idea of what the campus is like on a normal day.

This is spot on advice from @WombatChocolate !

People are tired from early starts and long journeys. Sometimes parents seem to expect to be wooed by the university and both parents and students can get hung up on things to do with Open Day which really will be irrelevant when it comes to student experience.

DS1 was completely set against Durham after a messy open day experience (most of it not the uni's fault!) and convinced himself he wouldn't be happy there, even though I'm 95% sure he would have enjoyed it (and several of his friends went and had a great time).

It's honestly more important to dissect the course, understand what module combinations are available and how you will be marked and assessed, rather than worry about whether your en-suite in first year is a wet room or a shower tray!

I’m a bit sad DD has turned down Exeter. It is fairly easy for us to get to (so a noticeable % of her 6th form go there).

We went to the Open Day (around this time last year) and an offer holder day. The former was rammed; don’t let it put you off. I thought the offer holder day was infinitely better. Ideally try to see the city too.

Prices are probably a bit £££ now, but we tend to stay at the Holiday Inn Express as they are set up to deal with 17 year olds sharing, with free breakfasts, and you can pay to park by the 24 hours (think it is £15).

Be aware that some accommodation will be affected by building works.

Talks - full of parents. Staff - dominated by parents in the subject display hall. Hopefully this has been sorted out but parents here were easily the most invested of anywhere and that included Oxford. I’m talking of a few years back and I honestly hope they have improved the experience which, for us, was universality poor.

As a veteran of serving as academic staff through at least 2 decades of Open Days at several universities, this is really unfair.

I was once shouted at by a very pushy mother who took offence at my explaining to her that the room we were doing the talk in was getting quite crowded, and that we were prioritising applicants entry, so were asking parents, guardians and families (oh yes there were whole families there) to wait outside until we had seated all the potential applicants.

She implied that she couldn't leave her daughter alone in the room. Goodness knows what she thought we were going to do to her precious!

And in the general information stall bit in our Great Hall, I try really hard to speak directly to potential applicants, but if a parent asks me a question am I going to be so rude as to ignore them? If a pushy parent keeps barking quite antagonistic questions (Oh yes, such as "What's the point of her doing your degree? or "How much will she earn?" or any number of borderline rudely asked questions) am I going to tell them to be quiet?

So, you know, parents - step back. REhearse likely questions with your DC on the way to the Open Day, but once there, it is not in your DC's best interests for you to dominate conversations with staff. Push your DC forward - let them do all the talking. Listen & then you can discuss with your DC afterwards.

And behave with some manners, particularly to a staff member giving up a day of her weekend (and I tend to have to work pretty much 6 days a week anyway because inadequate university funding) which she could be spending with her family (and no, we don't get childcare for the weekend Open Days, nor are we paid, nor do we get a day off in lieu).

@ParmaVioletTea
Generally, well said.
There will sometimes be reasons why the parent needs to accompany, but they should articulate this.
Will be encouraging DS to do all the talking, although his list of questions, I think, will be a lot shorter than mine!

@Madcats
The accom you are allowed to tour is not affected by the building work, but yes may affect looking at the location/outside of some others.

@Jng1
Must be difficult if DC is put off by a small thing, whatever that is (and prop inconsequential), so will try to get DS to look beyond that. At the end of the day, it's can it facilitate getting the degree you want.
We are staying overnight, night before (will go round town), so hopefully can get a bright start in the morning, and both talks will be done by 12. Preferred subject is second so will know what's what from the first one.

@ParmaVioletTea if it is any comfort, as a veteran of three DC's worth of university open days and offer holder days (DS2 was 2021 entry, but still managed a few, and DD, two years ahead of him, more than made up for both her siblings and still ended up at the same one as her older brother), I can hand on heart say that I have never insisted on joining one of them at a subject talk, especially not one that was obviously oversubscribed with actual potential students and absolutely not where prebooking had been required and it was made clear that only that single person would be admitted. As was the case when DD, DS2 and I visited Exeter in 2018.

As for parents doing the talking, when I have gone to talks with our variousDC, I've been there at Leeds when a parent challenged the course leader as to why a not at all widely taught in UK schools MFL was only available ab initio, when her PFB was not only taking it at A level, but predicted an A* to boot?

And when one on the campus tour on the offer holder day at Birmingham demanded to know why the university was building a new library, when surely, all students could just log in to resources from their rooms (the answer being, that the student body had asked for it - and certainly both DS1 and DS2 made excellent use of the lphysical ibrary space in their time there).

And the one on the accommodation tour at Leicester, who expressed horror that cleaning staff would have access to the common areas in the flats (I mean, I'm sure said cleaners would be delighted with time to have a fag and a cuppa in that alloted time instead, while his DD did the cleaning to avoid having to have 'strangers' in the flat...).

@MarchingFrogs
Some people!

Gosh @MarchingFrogs - yes, I'm afraid those experiences ring true to me. Sadly. It's what academic staff sometimes face when we give up our time to help aspiring applicants determine the right place for them.

I'm not trained as a saleswoman - I try to be frank & open, and I sometimes advise applicants about other universities which might be a better fit for them. I'm lucky to work in a discipline where any of the universities in the top 10 will give them an excellent education (my place is usually in the top 3).

One Open Day I did last year was one of the first in the Russell Group, and we had streams of very shy young people, a little like rabbits caught in the headlights. I get that it's an overwhelming experience! So I try to talk them through what their real drives/passions/interests are, and suggest what might work for them.

I would always recommend that parents try to rehearse useful questions with their DC - rather than the "What's your degree like?" question that I often get. "Well, what are you interested in?" is my answer to try to give them more specific & relevant information.

Within each Humanities discipline there are different pathways: ancient or modern history? European or post-colonial? long novels or modern poetry? and so on.

To start to pinpoint these preferences is something parents could do on the way to an Open Day - then your DC are primed to ask about what really interests them. And then we can help them a bit more personally, rather than giving generic answers.

But most academic staff are committed to our work & to students' learning. We're not snake oil salespeople, and it'd be nice not to be treated with suspicion that we are trying to trick parents & their DC ...

@ParmaVioletTea Why have you said what I posted was @unfair and then went on to describe exactly what I was saying!!! Whole families. Pushy parents. No manners. These are your words! You agree with me!

You were blaming the disruption you experienced on the university (as usual), whereas it was because of pushy parents. That's what is unfair in your criticism of Exeter. A university can't control badly-behaved parents (much as we wish we could sometimes ...)

@ParmaVioletTea Do not be ridiculous! It’s clearly over invested parents - and I said that too. However if such issues keep happening, of course universities can introduce mechanisms to prevent the worst issues that arise and it would protect staff too. So don’t have a go at me for pointing this out.

Ok, let's agree that it can be fraught on both sides!
There will always be pushy/entitled/insert some word here parents so hopefully Exeter, and the others, can be firm with them.

So, lessons/advice we will be taking with us:
Probably drive into town (as we're staying outside town) and park at Howell Rd car park and walk up, rather than take the Westpoint P&R.
Take something for lunch. And snacks. Water bottle for re-filling.
Comfortable shoes.
Questions prepared, partic around the course.
Accom location options prepared to check distances/hills!, as can only tour 3 (all on the east side).

Have a good day! It is a lovely campus and if the sun shines, it feels like being on holiday!

DD at Exeter couple of years ago. She was post Covid cohort, so didn't visit the Uni, not the City, before tipping up on her first day. It has to be said, there's a lot going for that system. It was a lot less fraught, no second guessing. Just was the course right, and was it a reasonable city, with a campus. Sorted.

She enjoyed her time in Exeter, with the added bonus once she had passed her driving test, she drove up and down in her final year, which took the strain off us.
We did pop down a few times, and used it as weekends away, so always stayed in the Hotel du Vin, which has parking, although it is top end price wise.

She was in a block next to Lafrowda, forgotten the name, but near to the pool, which she made use of all summer. In her first year, literally no-one got their first choice accommodation, she got her second, both her boyfriend and another two best friends didn't get anything off their preferred list. That may have improved, but be prepared to not get your first choice.

@HostaCentral
In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t suggested the spring open days. The reason I did is that DS is also considering apprenticeships so was leaving the autumn for that, as think that will take up a lot more time.
Me: do you need or want to prepare anything (for the open day).
Him: no.
Me: when you come to filling your choices in for UCAS do you know what criteria you might use for deciding?
Him: no.
!

We’re going on Saturday too. I have a very hectic week so am leaving it to DS to work out where we’re going park and what he wants to see and ask me. I know he’s booked some talks, other than that I have no idea!