2015 university open days

[hellsbells99]

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

I've heard that students with rich parents live in Leamington Spa, nice green town (from my one trip there for a funeral so not exactly in depth knowledge).

hellsbells99 Warwick campus is lovely, modern and leafy. His halls are 5 minutes from the Maths department, five minutes from Tescos and five minutes from the centre of campus. Night life does not feature on DS's radar, he chose it for the Maths course but some of his friends go out clubbing in Coventry or Leamington. In year two they are not allowed in halls and he is going to rent a house in Leamington with 5 others. Nothing to do with rich parents, Leamington seems to be the place most of the students live. He is hoping to get back on campus in year 3.
If your DD thought Nottingham too campusy then the same would apply to Warwick. They are very similar.
We live in a very rural area and I wondered whether DC, DS2 in particular, would "rebel" in a way by wanting to go for big city unis. It does not seem to be the case. DS2 surprised me by deciding firmly that he wants campus not city. In spite of that I have persuaded him to look at a range of different unis. He did like Edinburgh but not enough to spend four years on a degree he could do in three elsewhere. All very well for the local students not paying tuition fees.

Thanks for the feedback. How far is Leamington from the uni?
We are looking for DD2 this year - she is a lot less of a party animal than DD1

There's a UCAS webchat at 4 - just in case anyone is interested. DD1 has asked me to watch it because she will be on the bus.

I was tempted to tell her I would if she wrote my report for me, but she's got A2 general studies tomorrow so I thought better of it (also, while if she wrote my report it would be beautifully written, it would probably be a bit..approximate...on actual content).

I read the webchat about halfway through. Thanks for posting Narvinectralonum. There didn't seem to be any major revelations. Did you watch?

Ds told by school not to go to too many open days. We have binned one. Down to 3 this term and one definite next. I suppose there are always the post offer days. Does everyone do them? Should I be checking before we rule out open days?

Is anyone going to Sheffield? We are going in the autumn buT it is probably dd"s favourite on paper.

Ising - we are going to look at Sheffield. DD has applied for a summer school there. I know a few students there and they really rate it -and the cost of living is cheap--

Dunlurking

DS had post offer days for all his offers, however a little word of warning. Loughboroughs offer came in very very late and it turned out the offer day was two days after the letter arrived and there was no mention of the offer in the letter day so he missed it.

The course dd wants to do needs an interview, so she might not go and visit all the unis and rely on the interview to get a feel for the place.

DD1 only went to 4 open days* - 5th was Glasgow, so although she liked the course structure, she was only planning on going to a post offer day if needed. She did offer-holder days at those 4 too.

*one being Leeds, which she actually only came to after she had sent in her UCAS form, I just remembered! I was taking dd2 as an early "get your head round things" trip, dd1 looked at the course for her subject, liked the look of it so stuck it on her UCAS form (bumping St Andrews - phew, was NOT looking forward to that journey) and came with us :)

Thanks hellsbells - I would be interested to hear what you think. We don't really know anyone who has been or is at Sheffield but on paper it looks really good for dd.

I am fairly certain dd will have to go to interviews so the open days for us are as much about the logistics of getting to each place and to judge travelling times. I just looked at going to Sheffield by train. We live in the south of England and while the actual train times suggest we could go there and back in a day the cost would be nearly £400 even with a railcard!!!

That's a long way Ising! We have ruled out southern universities for that reason.

Were you looking at tickets well in advance? You can buy up to 12 weeks in advance and these are the cheapest. Or try breaking the journey up? To London and then London to Sheffield? Sorry if you've tried all these We're in Berkshire, and I sent dd1 up to Leeds for £45 for a day trip via London, with a 16-25 railcard. £400 even for two sounds like a crazy amount

(Obviously it depends quite how far south you are! But it's still that it's so prohibitive.)

I'm working my way through the details of post offer days/interview requirements for ds' chosen unis. Thanks bruffin

For those looking at SW/NE journeys (such as Durham and Newcastle and Exeter and Bristol/Bath) it's worth looking at Exeter/Bristol/Newcastle flights. If ds had been prepared to go to the open days on his own this would have been much cheaper than train, even with a railcard. For us if a parent goes with him it means paying to park at Newcastle airport though, which is more than the price of the flight Also flights are only once a day so accommodation needed as well. But if he ends up studying at Exeter or Bristol then flying will definitely be the cheapest/easiest way of going each term.

Have just realised that applicant/post offer days could clash with A2 drama practical exams - so we can't rely on getting to them!

ISing - welcome to my world. :( Everywhere costs a fortune to get to from here. For some reason (the government) train tickets here are way more expensive than practically everywhere else. I have a friend I go to the forty with who lives in York - way better service into London, way cheaper tickets. :(

Dunlurking - yes I did watch and in fact I asked a question. If you saw it you'll guess which one was me. I was v unimpressed with the way UCAS has now embraced it's responsibility for conservatoires (NOT). Not mentioning the deadline for them (which is EARLIER than for medicine, vet Ned, dentistry and Oxbridge) was shocking I thought. Doesn't bode well. Conservatoires seem very much the poor relation as far as Ucas is concerned. I think it would have been better if they had kept the systems separate.

Dunlurking - nothing involving Exeter airport or Flybe could ever reasonably or accurately be described as easy.

Yes I spotted it Narvinectralonum Hadn't thought about you at the time. I have warned ds he can't apply for musical theatre for 2016 if he has a change of heart as there is no time to get his act together - it would need a year out. It was a useful reminder to see your question!

Thanks for the warning about flybe at Exeter. What's up with it? Must admit I have only ever done the easyjet Bristol flight.

It's shit basically. they aren't known as fly maybe for nothing!

Having said that I'm trying to persuade DD1 to fly to London for a thing in a couple of weeks (I'll be meeting her there, travelling from Brussels). It's cheaper than the train (not to return though, that's double dear). She's not keen though. Note to self - years of slagging off a particular route/supplier may have unintended consequences (although I slag off FGW a lot too and she loves trains. But then, I love trains too, even FGW though they do annoy me sometimes).

On post offer days.
They are often held in the spring during peak A level revision time, so not necessarily the best timing.
DS1 had an offer from Durham who are notoriously slow at giving out offers. He got his offer very quickly but they allocate colleges in the spring (and he didn't get the one he applied to). The post offer days involved an overnight stay in the college, a good way to get a feel for the place. He didn't like Durham and crossed it off the list after his visit. His friend got her Durham offer two days before the offer holder days and it was too late for her to go.

We are going to do Leeds on 26th and Durham on the 27th (I think York is also the same weekend) - so we will stay overnight on the 26th between the 2 or towards Durham. We are trying to combine open days where possible to make the travelling easier but we will be driving as it is much cheaper for 2 than the train.

We are doing a bit of open day combining too hellsbells. Next weekend we are doing Reading on Friday and driving straight down to Plymouth for Saturday.

I have just looked at trains to Sheffield again for September - it is vastly cheaper to go via London than to go direct. I don't use trains very often so that was good advice Atiaofthejulii thanks! It is still more expensive than driving and staying in a premier inn/travel lodge but maybe easier psychologically!!

Oh, glad to be useful :) If you wouldn't naturally go via London, you can try just splitting the tickets somewhere en route as sometimes that helps too.

ISS

www.moneysavingexpert.com/split-cheap-train-tickets/