2015 university open days

[hellsbells99]

So, following on from the year 12 thread, here is our open day visits thread!

Anyone else at Nottingham today? It was a lovely campus, even with building works at the sciences library. Hundreds of cars, thousands of visitors, yet it didn't seem crowded. DS1 very impressed, but it was our first visit. Have missed some due to his work experience week and a couple of Explorer camps he didn't want to miss, grr.

Shame we missed Birmingham. He needs to look at a range of universities (on requirements) until AS results come out, then he can narrow it down a bit.

His school are running two coache trips to Oxford and Cambridge next week, but they are a bit out of my experience. Does he need to decide on a particular college in advance or concentrate on his subject? (Maths)

*coach

We've been to Durham today and were told that you still may end up with a shared room even though if you put you don't want one. DD liked the look of St Mary's until bathrooms were discussed and shown. The toilets and showers were quite 'open plan' as in all in 1 room and split into cubicles with big gaps at the top and bottom - so not much privacy particularly as they are unisex. 2 toilets and 4 showers in 1 bathroom for a corridor of approx 14 rooms. I think the accommodation definitely didn't appeal to DD and the engineering course was not as impressive as Leeds yesterday.

hellsbells99 There are some colleges where there are no shared rooms at all- Van Mildert and Butler for example. Unless the policy has changed recently both St Mary's and Trevelyan rotate rooms each term so everyone will get one term in a shared room and two terms in a single room.

We were told a lot of students don't get their college choice OfHouse.

MrsUltra, thanks for confirming about housing for DC who already live near a uni. The uni would've been off DS' list without so much as an open day visit otherwise

OfHouse, thanks, I'm glad they do know what house they've got if Durham offer a place. Mumsnet is great for this sort of info.

EllenJane - we did Nottingham and Birmingham last year with DD1. I liked both campuses. I think Nottingham may suit my DD2, but DD1 thought is was too 'campusy' and quiet.

Dh and dd2 have been up north this weekend, and it'll be tomorrow evening before I get a chance for a full debrief and hear all the details. But so far I've had texts saying "Newcastle: good course structure, excellent facilities, 2k scholarship for AAA, affordable accommodation, very central. Downside far away. Durham: pretty little town, good modules, course structure not as good, no scholarship, small town."

Ds friend didnt get his college choice at Durham. Ds is choosing his college for Lancaster today, but i dont think there is much difference in the colleges there.

I think it is great that different universities suit all our different DCs! DD1 is hopefully going this September - we are Northerners. Her friends choices include: Durham, Newcastle, York, Manchester (Uni & Met Uni), Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, Bath, Birmingham, Nottingham and more. They all have their pros and cons, but I am sure that all the students enjoy wherever they end up.

Bruffin - what is Lancaster like? We are hoping to do the July open day.

We went to the Lancaster open day last weekend. DD really liked it. To me it seemed very "safe" - small, lovely campus, really neat and tidy. You are also not tied to your course. In the first year you can pick modules in any subject (as long as your A levels qualify you for it, so you can't pick Maths if you don't have Maths A level, for example). After that you can choose modules in other departments or switch entirely, so it's a good choice if you're undecided about which course will really interest you (as DD is).

We've been to Lancaster, Nottingham, Durham and York this week. I think Lancaster is DD's favourite and Durham her least favourite (which is painful for me!) but I would agree with her that the course description lecture we went to was extremely dull and the accommodation looked unchanged from when I was there 25 years ago. We liked Nottingham but the accommodation seemed really expensive. We haven't worked it all out yet though, so that could be a wrong impression. York is too close to home to offer the full student experience, but the courses looked good and I found the subject talk we went to very interesting.

I havent been, but its ds second choice and it would be first if it was a bit closer. (other offers were Southampton,Surrey, Birmingham; Portsmouth) It was also one of the lower offers

From what dh and ds said the course is good for mecheng, lots of money being invested and no problems with accomodation. Has colleges and the area is lovely. One of ds teachers recommended it as he and the HM went there and he felt it would be a really good fit for ds.
It was between Surrey and Southampton for his firm and went with Surrey. Southampton was his firm last year and he have him a lot lower offer this year.

Thanks, hellsbells. It's funny, I went to Leicester which had all the halls miles away from the university buildings and would have much preferred a campus with halls on site, as I thought it would be more sociable, certainly not quiet. Funny how you view things differently. And Nottingham campus is in the middle of Nottingham, so not out in the sticks like Warwick.

Birmingham and Bath Sept open days clash, we'll have to see how he does in his ASs and choose one or the other. I guess you can arrange to visit on a different day?

Haven't had the chance to compare any accommodation costs yet. Do they differ a lot between universities? Will have to look at the cheaper options, certainly.

Generally I think the northern unis are cheaper. But some unis dont have enough accomodation and wont guarantee that you get accomodation unless you firm. Portsmouth only have spaces for 80% of students. Even then you are not guaranteed to get what you applied for. DS friend at manchester applied gor non catering and got catered

The costs do vary, mainly London is much more expensive. Catered v self catered affects the price as does the ratio of bathrooms.
I went with DS to Nottingham yesterday. He's been to most open days on his own so I can't compare. He loved Newcastle uni and the people but not the course.
We've both been to Nottingham before, DS on a residential and me on an open day with DS1. He loved it.Loved the campus as much as Warwick and the course looks good. We know a few people who are at Nottingham and all very happy. The accommodation we looked at was nice enough but all fully catered. The only self catered is on another site. It's 30 weeks as well so they have to move out completely at Christmas and Easter. Some of the cheaper rooms not only shared a bathroom between 6 or 8 but shared study space as well. They had a tiny room with a bed in and the desk was in a study shared between two.
Having said that the priority is course first, then campus, then accommodation.
That's it we're done now. Wait for results and then narrow it down.

Thank you both.

Well done, SecretSquirrels, I wish we'd been a bit quicker off the mark. DS1 was still prioritising his social life (and an exciting WEx week at Airbus) over Uni open days so we aren't in such a good position.

DD1 has instrument specific open days at the RAM and RCM this week, followed by Cambridge on Friday. It's all go! But then that will be it - no more open days after that. She will probably apply to some universities she hasn't visited but they will be very much back up - she can visit if necessary if she gets offers (and anyway will probably have to audition). First Great Western have had enough of our money now, so have Premier Inn.

Who went to Loughborough? Has anyone any thoughts about this University?

School are taking them to Oxford this week and staying in colleges for the night before and after.
Also took the whole year group to Newcastle for some reason last Friday.Just seemed to be a jolly from what I could gather.Most of the kids had no plans to go there-did not even offer a straight maths course DS said.

Newcastle? Or Oxford? They both do maths degrees!

I seem to know an awful lot of people who went to Loughborough, and look back on it with great fondness. That is all I know about Loughborough, but it seems good

Did anyone go to Birmingham on Friday/Saturday? Thoughts? We weren't enamoured with the campus (though weather was miserable, so didn't help).

I was at Loughborough many years ago and my dc is there now. Accommodation is of a good standard. It is possible to live in hall for your total time there if you want to. Houses in town are reasonably priced too. My dc's rent this year will be £83 including bills. Obviously the sports teams are of a high standard but there is a very busy intramural sports programme between the halls that runs throughout the year. Loughborough scores highly on the student experience rating. The actual town of Loughborough is nothing special but it does have a cinema, sainsburys and an aldi!