2015 university open days

[hellsbells99]

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

'Horsemad - is it underwhelming? The people I know who read english there (admittedly a while ago) have done VERY well for themselves. But it was quite some while ago.'
DD is at a VERY high achieving school. The thought of wasting a big chunk of the first year ' learning to write an academic essay' and reading the Heany translations of Beowulf and Chaucer instead of learning old/middle English is a bit pathetic. Also, DD was considering the year in the US but the exchange unis are really 3rd rate. They actually admitted in the talk that they ask for AAA but will almost certainly take you if you slip to AAB!
On the upside, DD thought it might be fun to do a course where she could knock off the work in a day or two and spend the rest of her time partying.

Ah. I see. I asked because DD2 (who is some way off yet) currently wants to read English and Exeter is our closest university and, as I said, knowing a small number of people who sing its praises to the heavens having read English there and having gone on to have exactly the sort of careers and life that she basically dreams of, I was hoping it might possibly be a reasonable choice for her should she fail in her primary ambition.

She is also at a VERY high achieving school.

PMing you

Hi eatyourvegveg. I know a couple of students at Sheffield
Hallam - both having a great time, but 1 is disappointed with the lack of contact time which may be down to the subject she is doing. 1 of DD's friends is at Hull and again enjoying it! I also know a couple at Leeds Met/Beckett who are enjoying it there.

V interesting what you say about SH's contact time. I've just looked at the very comprehensive spreadsheet ds has made and the contact hours for the two courses he is looking at there are lower than any of the other 22 courses he's listed. No idea however if 18% and 20% in itself is a bad thing or whether the 26% and 30% other courses have are actually the exception.

A lot depends on the subject. Science subjects often have more. DS has relatively few contact hours at the LSE, but is working very hard. It works for him, and he seems to have mastered the art of independent learning, but it would be quite easy for a less-motivated student to get lost.

My DD visited a couple of universites beause they offered unique courses. She visited in Yr 12 and then rejected them. We started all over again!

On an open day you will not really get detailed information about the course. There just is not time. However, you will not find huge changes year on year. You may find options can change for 2017 but that should not stop anyone visiting in Yr 12. However, I would do a private visit if a young person has medical problems because you might be able to talk to the welfare team. You may not have them available on a standard open day. If you look at various university web sites, you may find they publish their open day programme, but you have to bear in mind, thousands attend. If you have special needs, I cannot really see that a crowded open day is the best time to look around. Try and go on a private visit. I am sure you will be accommodated, Woolly. You don't do the UCAS form until Y13, but if you have a clear idea of what university suits, then go for it in the normal timescale.

DS1 looked at Lancaster, Durham, Oxford and Glasgow last summer, and went to a Cambridge masterclass in Feb. He wants to visit Manchester. Bath, York, Leeds, St Andrews. Am trying to get him to cut the list down!

We'll be bumping into some of you at Bath (18th) Bristol (20th) Imperial (25th) Oxford (1st) Cambridge (3rd) - DS can't decide which one to apply for and anyway with the way the maths seems to have gone I'm not sure it's worth it! - and Southampton (4th). Also Exeter on 5th September and Surrey on 12th.

DS is quite sure he doesn't want to go to London, but still wants to do Imperial!

It looks like a fair few of us are planning Exeter in September. Can anyone explain the preregistration system? When ds couldn't get onto the talks he wanted for the one just gone the system told him he could pregister for the september one and we thought it said he then could get priority booking from yesterday for those talks. Now the system is letting everyone pregister for priority booking with proper booking opening in July sometime. Am very confused about when we are likely to get the email inviting ds to register

preregister even

We are avoiding London unis (cost) and ones very far down south like Southampton, Essex and Surry (distance) ....so at least we can eliminate a few!

We're doing two this month - Reading and Marjon on 19th and 20th and leaving the rest until the Autumn.

What is Marjon?

Nobody checked our registration for our talk at Exeter. Very popular subject.

Thank you for the Exeter detail horsemad. That's useful to know. Could you sneak into subject talks you weren't registered for then? Ds wants to go to 3 and system seems to only allow 2 subjects of interest.

I love the idea of sneaking in - I bet they would actually be delighted, but they won't even know because there will be no-shows. Sneak away!
(I was doing some work a few years ago at UCL ( business not related to education) and noticed a lecture related to something I was passionately interested in at Uni many years ago. So I sneaked in. Middle-aged woman in business attire, completely unlike any other student there. No-one blinked an eyelid.)

We sneaked in at Brunel last year. Their open day was dreadful and chaotic so was easy.
Ds girlfriend is already at uni and he has sat in at lecture without anyone noticing. He was also part od a couple of experiments. Turned out to be an outlier.

Open Days...sigh. I only say sigh as not coming from the UK - I don't even know where half the places are that DD is looking at let alone have been there! We went to some Campus Tours earlier this year (which were brilliant) which helped narrow unis down - I figured if DD didn't like the location etc then the course was irrelevant especially as what she is considering is pretty much offered everywhere. So for example while she liked the LSE course, she realised that she was not keen to live in London...yet...so that narrowed down a whole lot of choices!

Like Hellsbells I am trying to keep her relatively North so have ruled out Exeter and Surrey as well as London. So it is the Bath/Bristol and Oxbridge Open Days that we have booked into - all overnighters. Plus another look at Durham (her fav and a blissfuly a day trip). We will have to leave Leeds/Nottingham until September as their open days conflict with her DofEd expedition and a place she managed to get onto for an Oxford Day course.

Then of course her results might dictate a whole new range of choices to consider!

We are visiting Leeds next Friday (my preferred choice as that's where her dad and I studied and is only 1 hour away), Warwick, Oxford (big eek!) and hopefully Nottingham Newcastle and Sheffield. DD wants to study chemistry.

Are we all wearing "the scarf" and doing a secret MN hand signal so we can recognise each other?

It will be second time around for me, DS1 did open days in 2013.
Hard as it is to cram them in in the summer DS doesn't want to do any in September if possible. Starting Year 13 and into lots of new work after a summer off is tiring without long trips at the weekend.
He is going to several on coach trips with college, although experience tells me at least one will be cancelled at the last minute. These are Oxford, Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield and Durham.He's not planning to apply to Oxford but fancies the trip .
Then I am taking him to Nottingham and Warwick. Plus UCL, which may have to be September. DS1 is at Warwick so DS2 has already seen and fallen in love with the campus there.

Having spent many hours going down and up the M1 to DS1 in Warwick I am concious of the logistics of studying too far from home. He hasn't shown any interest in Exeter, Bristol or Bath so I won't encourage them

'Marjon' is University of St Mark and St John in Plymouth. Dd is looking at Speech Therapy.

Thank you for the tip about speaking to Uni Welfare.

DD2 plans to do what DD1 did. Go through UCAS and make a list of unis that offer the course(s) she wants to do. Then cross off any that are in London (too expensive) Wales, Scotland and NI (too far to travel). Current favourite is an hour away by train but anything can happen between now and her UCAS deadline.

Secret - what do you think of Warwick? I know it is in Coventry and not Warwick. Is it quite isolated or is there a reasonable night life? Is your DS enjoying it there? Where do the students tend to live in the 2nd year? Thanks!

Secret - We did Manchester and Nottingham last year with DD1. I liked Nottingham a lot but she found it too 'campusy' - she did get offered a place there but much preferred Manchester which I found not campusy enough.
Manchester is busy and bustling and has the busy Oxford Road running through it, whereas Nottingham campus was quiet and the facilities for the subject she was doing seemed a bit tired. Manchester does have a separate large accommodation campus though which is a short bus/cycle ride away (plus some nearer accommodation).