Open Days

[LittleGreenDuck]

DS is in year 12 and is starting to look at booking into a few uni open days. A couple of them have dates available in early July or October / November. I’m assuming most students will have left for the summer by July, so I’m wondering if he’d be better waiting for the autumn dates to see the uni “in action” as it were.

Does it make any difference to the open day experience if there are fewer students on site, or should he just go for the soonest date?

Not Oxbridge or medicine etc. by the way, so no immediate rush to get his application in early.

Thanks

Hi OP, open days are usually on weekends when campus is quieter anyhow, although some places do them midweek, partic Weds.

It is also worth trading off the weather as there may be quite a lot of traipsing around. Some institutions are quite sprawling, and / or you may wish to visit different sites, and/or you may visit halls or the local city which may be a slog.

I'd just go with the first convenient date tbh.

I would definitely go to earlier ones unless you are only planning to go to literally a couple.

My DC formed views re what they wanted on viewing the unis (eg big city or campus), so if it had been November when most have happened (apart from real recruiting unis IME) it would have been a bit late.

Also the dates often clash. It’s good to go in the summer and get an initial idea.

I'd suggest starting early. If your DS has some he would definitely like to visit, go see them. He may change his mind about place or course, and then you still have time to go and see others. Don't worry too much about the students, the only who show you around will always be the ones who like it, no matter when or where you go 🙂

Had two DCs go through the uni experience. From experience it diesnt make a lot of difference whether the uni is 'open' or 'closed' as there will be so many visitors milling about.

Your DC needs to work out what is important to him. Both my DDs studied sciences so their open days consisted of:

• course talk
• labs
• library
• accommodation
• hot chocolate

After the first one we didnt bother with the 'introduction to uni life' talks. They are all the same!

Enjoy it, it's fun.

I would also say go earlier. And to note that if open days are held in term time then you may not get to see accommodation as students will be living in them.

Yes it is different if you go when term is out. Completely. We went to one and it was a campus uni and a ghost town and really off putting. The only downside with going during term time is you may not be able to see the accommodation, but there’s so much info online and on YouTube you can probably get a good idea from that.
And keep in mind there’s also offer holder days. If you don’t get to all the open days (we certainly didn’t) go to those.

Good to know, I think he will book in ASAP, thank you. I hadn’t thought about accommodation not being available to view during term time, so that’s a good point.

He is aware of offer holder days as well, if he has any last minute changes or we don’t manage to get to the ones he chooses. It’s all quite overwhelming, seems like a much bigger deal than I went back in the 90s, I don’t know why!

I'd echo others, just started looking with dc3 who's in year 12, we've done two. We just went to our most local uni to get an idea of university, dc was adamant that he was not going there its now his top university.
The second one we went to dc thought would be top choice (on paper it should have been), its no longer going on the ucas application. Dc also decided that they want to go on the course which is more specialist than the broader course (most students take) and although that makes me apprehensive he had good reasoning and it was an educated descion.
So from 2 uni open days we've changed direction slightly and that means looking at different unis (not as many do the course he wants) so I'm glad hes made these descions now because we've still got time to research and visit some other unis if required.

I generally do Open Day duties as an academic over weekends in July, and my place tends to be one of the first Open Days. It's really good, I think, to go as early as possible, as your DC can start to get a feel for what a university is like to be physically in, and they can start to work out what the deal breakers are.

I talk to a lot of Year 12 DC who are sometimes a bit like deer caught in the headlights as it's their first Open Day. They have no idea of the questions to ask & so on, but we try to help them to refine what it is they're looking for in a university - even without a lot of undergrads there, DC can get a sense of the place, look at facilities which are important to them (be it a good Sports Centre, a good campus theatre, labs, library, whatever).

So I'd urge you to go in July. If your DC is at all interested in the first one or two you visit, you can always go back to Offer Holder days. But early visits give you something to compare subsequent visits with (we pride ourselves on the feedback we get regularly about our early Open Day setting the bar high!)

Go early.

I don’t know about your dc but mine hadn’t set foot on a university campus until the first open day that he went to. It’s completely different to looking at it online.

What DS thought he wanted turned out to be nothing like what he wants now! So start early and be prepared to change tack.

Thanks all, you’ve reassured me that going early is good. He thinks he knows what he wants, but who knows if that will change?!

He has five on his shortlist at the moment, two that he’s especially keen on, so I’ll encourage him to book in. Do you usually have to book the specific subject talks separately?

He’s the eldest of three. Hopefully we will know what we’re doing by the time we get to the third!

I Recommend 3 in the summer and two in the Autumn. Spread them out. That will feel like too much but at least leaves a bit of room for a sixth if he changes his mind. They are long days with all the travelling etc. We started so early with DD (autumn of year 12) and did 4 in total of which she applied to 3. Was planning offer holders days for the other two but the dates haven’t worked out so get to where you can when you can.

Subject talks depends on the university. But if they do need you to book, there are often limited spaces, so make sure you book early.

Yes, definitely book anything that they’re interested in if there is the opportunity to. And do it quickly as they do get booked up. Same with parking.

you only need to go to one student finance talk though - they’re all the same!

Thank you everyone, you’ve been really helpful. Exciting times!

@ParmaVioletTea I’m intrigued as to which uni this is!

Haha yes me too!

Do you usually have to book the specific subject talks separately?

It depends on the uni. DD went to 5 different ones this year, only one of them asked that you booked the subject talks.

We are planning to visit 3 over May/June. Will definitely aim to see a couple more in Autumn, ds is also year 12.

I do subject talks and it depends. We like people to book in advance mainly to get an idea of how big a room we need but often get people wandering in at the start of the talks.
Offer holder days we do like people to book in advance.

We also went on a non open day and a member of staff agreed to see dd and we got to see some accommodation - not rooms but in general. If you don’t need detail ( because course content is on line) you can visit the city and university and have a good look around. DD did this at Durham and UCL. Open days can be an unbelievable bun fight.

do any year 12's ever start doing the open days in the autumn of year 12? Im thinking for medicine or vetmed... Seeing as they probably wont be able to fit in many during autumn in year 13. Or is that just too early?

I'd do the early ones to get a feel for different possibilities. Then focus on doing a couple again for his favourites, and/or the ones that he's most likely to get offers for.

Looking at a place as a would this be possible? Is different from "I'll quite likely end up here, would I be happy?"