Are university open days usually on weekdays or weekends?

[Stowickthevast]

Hi, just wanting some advice if people can remember whether universities tend to have open days on week days or not?

DD has just started Y12 and signed up for a taster day at a Cambridge college which is on a week day. Her school only lets them take off 2 days a year for uni visits. I'm just wondering whether it's best to leave this one and save them for the summer? I thought most open days would be on weekends but have heard quite a few are during the week.

This is a taster for two of her three A level subjects and could help her choose what she wants to do going forward.

At the moment, I think she is interested in Oxbridge so likely to be doing an early application this time next year.

They can be both / either.
We went to more on weekdays than weekends over the years.

Have a look on the websites of some your dd is interested in - even if it is last year's dates, you will see what day of the week they are.

They offer both weekdays and weekends. It can be difficult as many fall on the same date - so you need to plan ahead.

If you need to do more weekday visits, just do it. It does not matter if the school approve it or not.

Mostly weekends. Some weekdays.

Yeh as others say, both. And yes often multiple on the same weekend. I don’t advise more than one a day btw unless you are fine with missing all the talks etc on the second one.

My dc did a lot of narrowing down online so we went to 5-6 max. If you need a weekday just take it. I would deffo prioritise Cambs if it’s a possibility. And do as many as you can this autumn or next summer. Don’t leave it to Sept of year 13.

Mostly weekends. We didn't go to any midweek ones apart from Oxford.

Mostly weekends, occasionally Friday, Oxford was midweek.

A taster day sounds like a good idea though and if she is just starting yr 12, she will presumably get another 2 days off in yr 13 so can go to any September ones then.

We went to a few in the summer holidays, problem is there’s not a lot of staff about sometimes.

Quite a few were on a Wednesday. Foster son went to 4 only 1 was a Saturday others all Wednesdays.

One Friday, the maths teacher sent all the year 13s home early because so many of them were doing the Bristol and Bath Fri/Sat open days, it wasn’t worth teaching the few that weren’t 😀

I’ve been to 12 open days in the past 3 years (ranging from all sorts, Oxford to Brighton and everything in between) and all of them were weekends. I’m surprised so many say they have been to mid week ones.

You should do some now and some in the summer. Otherwise you run the risk of a clash of dates at opposite ends of the country. The taster day sounds good.

Thanks for all the advice.

I think she'll probably do the taster day and kick the problem down the road. She's never been to Cambridge so will be good to get a feel for it and the taster day covers both courses she's interested in - MFL and English.

No idea whether she'll even get the predictions necessary at this early stage but she's got decent GCSEs.

If any other Y12 parents are interested, it's Churchill College taster days for state school students.

Thanks for starting this thread OP, I have also been wondering about this as I have twins in year 12 and have been wondering how we will fit this all in. I am considering taking some parental leave to facilitate it. Has anyone else done this? I work FT and the idea of taking annual leave and / or giving up multiple weekends makes me anxious. If I took a week’s PL at a different time it would make it easier, not that all the open days would fall in that week but would just help me claw back some free time.
anyway sorry for the hijack OP!

@Aleveldilemma if you could take a week of parental leave and use that as a holiday week, then you’d have more leave for the more random days of open day travel. Would that work?

We have just had to pull DD out for some visits. Even when the universities have weekend days, the specific programs she wants schedule a separate tour on a weekday.

I’m just developing a thick skin with the school and if they want to be difficult I’ll deal with it. She is at the top of her class and applying to highly competitive programs. She is going to miss school both for visits and fingers crossed for interviews.

Yes exactly I think that’s what I was trying to unsuccessfully articulate!

Also you can only take PL until your child is 18 so I’m going to eke out a few more weeks in the next 18 months I think!!

You do what you need but honestly, we literally went to about five days with DD. She narrowed down her search fields (distance from home, content of course, city or town, campus or not, offer level). All were an easy drive and no need to stay over. I realise that’s different if you are in Cornwall or the unis are in Scotland. But no need to get stressed, even with twins. It’s an idea to go to a nearby uni if there is one then your journey is quick; even if they would never go there, you get an idea of what you can see and you do the money talk (one and done).

I would try to ID a couple for October, then get the DC to look at where for next summer. If there are any on both their lists even better. Don’t get stressed - it’s five Saturdays over 15 months.

I wouldn’t pay much attention to school trying to limit days off for open days. If it’s unauthorised so be it. My DD’s school were quite hard work with open days eg they rang me in Belfast to say she was awol (she was with me) - they knew she was attending the Queens open day Saturday but fact we didn’t to fly Friday pm seemed to befuddle them. We did several as her preferences changed over time and she hated some good on paper options.

We do both. We offer more on a weekend but we have a few mid week events too.

Oxbridge ones usually on Weds, Thursday or Friday … the other ones we’ve been to have been on a sat or sun

School can’t fine parents once kids are normal sixth form age so it isn’t up to them any more.

My husband works at a uni. They have open days on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Worth remembering when you’re thinking about time off that in yr 13 for Cambridge/Oxford and some subjects they may also have interviews (though some of these are online) or offer holders days which your DC may want to go to.