When did you start going to open days?

[mushmallow]

Dd is doing GCSEs so we still have a good while yet! But then again, she’ll be year 12 in September.

At her school they start ucas early and have them all sent by November of year 13.

When is the best time to go to open days? I’m thinking summer term of year 12?

Go for a couple in year 12 so you get a sense of what it’s all about - campus v town etc, looking around accommodation etc . City v town, Could just be local ones, and not even ones you think you’ll end up at.

DS started early in year 12. He wanted to apply to Oxbridge so needed to get his personal statement up and running as soon as he started year 13 and it was a really busy time.

We visited some campus and some city universities and he surprised himself by not liking a couple that he thought he would be applying to so it’s definitely a good idea to see a few if time and money allows.

With DS we started in June of Y12. With DDs we started in September of Y12. One DD changed her A'level choices as a result. They tend to do open days in Sept/Oct and June.

There are also offer holder days: despite visiting what felt like loads of unis, DS ended up choosing as first choice somewhere he put on UCAS form at the last minute, so we went to visit the two he couldn't choose between for offer holder days (March of Y13).

Narrowing down is good: ideal distance from home? city or campus? very specific course requirement? hobby requirement?

Can get overwhelming quite quickly, which is why having more time to think about it is useful.

I have a friend who starts with her kids in Y11.

Ah helpful thanks! Might get booked onto some October ones then…

If you can do a couple in the autumn of Y12 just to help visualise what a uni is and try to do 2 contrasting ones, as pp said, it’s really helpful. June of Y12 is massive open day season but it is not very realistic to go to one or two every weekend unless time and money is no object, but by June of Y12 hopefully DC will have a better idea of where they are aiming for and what they want to do. (One of mine did, which made it easier, the other didn’t, which made it harder).

There is another tranche of repeat open days in the autumn for quite a lot of unis and then there are the offer holder days. Ideally DC will at least have visited the location of the uni before accepting the offer though.

We did most in year 11 and a few in year 12 including repeating a couple we did in year 11 to see things we didn't have time for the first time around. But we ended up doing around 8 or 9 different Unis in total.

The thing is that a lot of them clash on the same weekends and we wanted to spread them out, not end up doing one on a Saturday and the other on a Sunday of the same weekend!

I don't think you can start too early really, especially if there's a lot of choice/uncertainly as to subject choice, general location, etc.

But then again, we also did the secondary school open days a year early too which also worked out well as he was ill when it came round to open day season the year later so would have missed out on most of the local options.

I'm taking DD to one next week, she'll be sitting her National 5s after Easter holidays and highers next year.

We went to 2 this last month (ds is y12) just to get an idea of what he might want (he knew general area but wasn't sure of what specifically). Going to two open days has meant hes narrowed what he wants to look at and also decided what he doesn't want to do. He has now chosen a few unis which we plan to look at over the summer. Our aim is to have a descion by September so then can concentrate on school work.

I think Oxford has subject days, so look at them. Otherwise y12 and y13 if you have a very long list. I’d discourage this. Look at the cities first - not on an open day! There’s simply not enough time. Try and reduce list to 4. Most dc can see themselves at shortlisted universities if they have seen the campus or city first. Open days give more info but they are a bit of a bun fight.

Also, don’t just stick to open days. If you happen to be in a uni town, then have a quick visit. You won’t get access to everything, but they tend to be fairly open so you could walk around a campus, get a sense of the town etc.

My DS is in Year 12 but some of the universities have their open days on the same day, which makes it difficult to go to all the ones you want to. Other open days clash with his end of year exams. So starting early is a good idea.
We recently went on holiday and visited a university nearby-not on an open day but to see whether my DS liked the feel of the place. You can do self guided tours at some universities too.

I’ve registered for a few in October / November though you can’t book yet, but yes already some clashes. I think we’ll aim for 3 during that period and then another batch next June.

last term year 12 .

DS is Y12. We have one booked at the end of this month, and a couple more in the summer.

DS is in Y12 and we’re seeing three top choices in the next few months, before the summer holidays. Hopefully that’ll give him an idea of what he wants and then we will book into any more that interest him in the autumn term.

If you’ve got a local uni with an open day in June that doesn’t clash with your commitments, pop down in Y11.

Can start them thinking about likes and dislikes e.g. going to a campus uni and thinking I really like/dislike this - then rules out or in plenty for Y12!

Thanks all. Nottingham are taking bookings for October so booked that ( 4 hours away!) and registered for a couple of others which haven’t released bookings yet.

@AelinAG Local university might have similarities with where dc want to go, but in our case it’s bottom of league tables, didn’t do the subjects and was not remotely what my dc would look for. Nor most in the better 6th forms in the area. I’d honestly say - don’t waste your time or theirs if it’s not likely to be of interest.

Summer Term of Yr 12

Yes exactly this. Our nearest is, dare I say, a “poly” and dd has zero interest in it. We’ll explore various distances and campus / non campus but she’d like to go to an RG.

Don't discount it. Your DD may have no interest in that Uni, but you can still go and sit through the various presentations such as finance etc which are basically the same whichever Uni you visit. If you do the "generic" presentations at a local Uni, you'll have more time to spend on Uni-specific presentations, course presentations, departmental/accommodation tours etc.

That’s fair advice, thank you.

We started right at the beginning of Y12 as we had twins to cover and we weren’t too flexible on weekends. Definitely helped focus the one into working more towards A levels than they did for GCSE too.

DS year 12. He popped to a local one in October. Will try to get a few in before summer. DC would not have been ready before. Will do 1-2 in autumn, Year 11 seems crazy early

God forbid a non RG uni