2015 university open days

[hellsbells99]

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

hells my dd1's included various reading around the subject (not just "I read X" but "I loved the idea of Y when I read X because it reminded me of Z" kind of thing). Her extra curriculars were covered in two or three sentences and the conclusion was one short sentence. For Oxbridge it's about convincing them that you love your subject and have voluntarily gone beyond (doesn't have to be massively far beyond!) the a level course because of this love. There's really no way that a gold DofE award is going to make you better at computer science (for example), so it's just not relevant.

And clearly loads of unis don't even bother reading PS's, given the speed that some offers come back. (Dd1's fastest was 22 hours, we saw much quicker on TSR and elsewhere.)

Durham lets you submit an alternative PS if you are applying for different types of courses.
Ds had trouble getting his word count down. I think leeds said they feed the ps statements through plagerism software. They had 18 start "I became intetested in chemistry when i set light to my pyjamas"

Fwiw ds spoke about his interest in nuclear engineering,visits to jets work experience in the area

Gosh how un-inspired to plagerise even your opening sentence. But I suppose it was for chemistry! (apologies to any chemists out there)
How even would setting light to your PJ's make you interested in chemistry? Sounds to me like you were already a pyro-maniac at that point huh?
I'm sure dd has plenty of her own ideas on what to write. Question is whether she will accept editorial advice from her editor-in-chief before going to press.

We had a talk for parents & students at school & again the Cambridge admissions tutor said we don't care about anything apart from academics. The admissions people from Bristol & Edinburgh each told us that they did want to know what you had done - music, dofe, etc. DS will have a great PS for Cambridge just not the grades unless he changes dramatically.

We went to Durham last weekend as well. DS wasn't impressed with the talks either (like others have mentioned here). He said he was expecting Durham to be outstanding but felt it wasn't. The professors just didn't impress him. From my pov, Durham seemed disorganised. The car parks were almost completely full, even though we arrived over an hour early. We wound up at the last choice park and ride but then had to work out where to get off the park and ride bus (missed the stop like the other open day visitors on the bus). We all wound up getting off at the Belmont park and ride which seemed was the only one the uni had shuttle buses and student ambassadors in. Given that it had filled ages ago, why not move them to somewhere parents needed them? The open day map was fairly useless at helping you navigate so we missed our first talk. We did pick up a much better map from the student union. It was the self guided tour one and included the names of all of the buildings. It was still difficult to find the talks though and the student ambassadors didn't seem to know where a few places were. They definitely needed more ambassadors since they were hard to find. Perhaps it's just that the open day organisation bar was set very high by Bristol who had lots of well placed signs, student ambassadors, shuttle buses to get to the car park and accommodation areas and a good map. DS was very impressed with the college he's interested in though: Butler. He thought he would enjoy it there and would fit in.

Well, having been sceptical about Open Days, went yesterday with DS to Imperial and it bowled me over
Can't believe Cambridge could be any better (going there nxt week on Thirs) - would be delighted if DS was offered Imperial.
But as others have said - its the grades innit

Imperial ambassadors were everywhere (including roaming around the tube station , and very proactive.

Sammy3 Best not to focus too much on the college at Durham. It's not like the college system at Cambridge, they are basically just halls and only for the first year.
DS1 applied to Durham, got an offer back very quickly but they allocated colleges much later (around Feb if I remember) and he didn't get the one he applied to. He was also told that most students have little to do with their college after their first year anyway.

DS2 went to the Durham open day and was uninspired. He felt the talks were dull and there was little flexibility in the course, it was very prescriptive.

We are at Nottingham tomorrow, I'm pleased to be going with him for a change.

Dd did Dundee with my inlaws (God bless inlaws!), Sheffield with her friend and Newcastle today with me. It looked ok. Dundee is far and away her favourite though. I'm knackered - and poor - having paid for train and luch at Jamie's Italian. Mind you it was worth it. I was looking at her as we waited for the train and thinking I've known you since you were born (before you were born actually) and how lucky am I to be standing here with you talking about this big step in your life. It just hits you sometimes doesn't it - what a HUGE privilege it is to be somebody's parent.

What did your dd think of Sheffield Northernluker? We are going in September. We live in the south so it's a long way for us but is probably dd's favourite on paper.

We did Leeds today which DD really liked.
Durham tomorrow - although after reading the comments on this thread I could be wasting my money on a hotel tonight!

Just found this thread :)

DD having minor panic about her AS results for all subjects apart from the one she wants to study - English - where she is fairly confident of an A. She was predicted B's for everything else although did achieve some As in mocks but some of her papers didnt go as well as she had hoped so she wouldnt be surprised with ACCC.

As a result she now doesnt want to view her original choices which are offering AAA/AAB in case she is hugely disappointed and they are now out of her reach. So difficult as we have booked into Southampton and UEA next week and I think it would be good for her to take a look at least at one of them, but can understand her dilemma. Trying to be the voice of reason, and talking about gap years, plans B , C even D, and not worrying!

She knows what she wants in terms of subject content/campus etc so has compiled a list of unis that want BBB and BBC (shame no-one offers ACC!) and is going to review options on 13th August even if it means missing open days but doing self-guided tours and offer days although not how we had originally planned the whole thing!

MrsUltra DS was due to go to Imperial on Thursday but cancelled and reading your report I wonder if he should have gone. However although you're right, and for engineering it is clearly fantastic, I just can't see him in London so I think he was right to cancel. Also from the finance point of view . . . . . yikes.

Battered I think it's fair to say all the DC's are panicking about the AS results - and so are we! But I still think it's important to get a general feel for a few universities and courses, even ones you haven't a hope of getting into. It will help to crystallise thoughts about the kind of course/residence/campus v city/anything, and as you say you can resist, take a year out, approach it from a completely different angle.

UEA used to be, and I hope still are, great at thinking outside the box when it comes to offers. I say that as someone who got a place many many years ago with two As - English and History - and an F for economics. Should never have done economics, but guidance was limited at the time, even at my high-powered fee-paying all-girls school!

Hopefully see you at Southampton next week!

Was anyone at Birmingham today? We were impressed by the computer science department, though the campus itself wasn't that exciting (putting aside the rather lovely canal by the station).

MorvahRising
yy re financial...
I loved the place ( not expecting to - live in London, knew people there and who were-there, when knew it seemed a bit shabby etc.)
It was fantastic. I want to study there...
But...the halls of residence are £££ and most of them are miles away.
We live nearer than several of them - except DS would not want live at home and would not be a proper university experience if he did - we get that..
So.. if he goes he will be spending a fortune on accommodation more expensive, not as nice, and further away from where we live - madness...

Hi all, I am a current student at Durham (I did my undergraduate degree here and I am now doing a PhD), so if you have any questions about Durham feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them .

I'm not sure I agree with the earlier comment that the colleges are just halls and you don't have much to do with college after your first year. There are some people that don't do much with college, of course, but there are many clubs and societies based in colleges, and regular events going on such as formal dinners that a lot of livers out go to. The annual College Day and the termly balls are also popular, and a significant percentage of final year students choose to live in college again. I would agree though that it's best not to get too attached to one particular college when applying though as, unfortunately, you're not guaranteed to get your preference, but the vast majority of people end up loving whatever college they are allocated!

I have been surprised at the number of negative comments about Durham on here. Not been myself (apart from for interview in the early '80s!), but I always got the impression it was a place people raved about.

MrsUltra funnily enough we are in the same position as you in that one of the best universities for DS's type of engineering is four miles down the road. He has even done a summer internship there. But as you say, if he went there, he would need the away from home experience which is very important so we would be paying a fortune for accommodation he doesn't need . . . . .

batterednotbruised my DS is also in a slight panic between phases of thinking he's actually done ok! I think it will be easier to ascertain the likely targets once the actual results come out, although his school are big on resits so even then nothing is set in stone. We've been to one open day and due another next weekend to dip the toes in so to speak. We are going to current favourites in Seot/Oct. on a practical level I would say register for all the Sept/Oct open days to the AAB level institutions as well as the "lower" ones especially as she is going for a popular subject. It won't commit you but means you won't miss out. Then once the results are in you have options as to what to visit

Thank you Morvah and Home! She showed me her spreadsheet of uni options last night with lots of colours and filters by grades required, etc, so she has 3 categories top middle and bottom. So much effort! She now wants to go to uea on Saturday as it has always been her favourite on paper so I am happy she will have something as a comparison. Southampton cancelled and registered for September and we are going to try and get to Brighton in July - BBC. Then she will see what happens in August and go back to the spreadsheet.

She has a few friends in her year now who have just resat year 12 but I am really hoping this doesn't happen for her as she is a September birthday and she will still be at school approaching her 20th birthday. Would rather she worked her socks off in year 13 and then took a gap year and applied with grades.

This is only the beginning of the process so trying to keep her somewhat sane as its only going to get more stressful!

She showed me her spreadsheet of uni options last night with lots of colours and filters by grades required, etc, so she has 3 categories top middle and bottom.
Brill!!! ( She should offer to sell it )

Thanks, DecretSquirrels & OfHousSstark. I'll tell DS to keep in mind that he could wind up in a different college but wouldn't know till after the offer. Would that be after he needs to accept though? He's planning to be involved in music and sport at a recreational level so the college's facilities do matter to him. Also, he definitely doesn't want to be in catered halls which made it easy to narrow down the decision about which Durham college suits, as there are only 2 that have self-catered. Do you know if Durham usually stick to the type of halls that you want? I haven't been through this whole process before but I suppose it might be the same at any uni; hopefully most do give you the type you want if not the exact building. He's feeling confident about his AS exams but is waiting to see the results before deciding where else to visit.

On the dilemma about a uni being too close, are they still allocated housing? DS has the same problem, the one that he thinks offers the most interesting modules is close to home (20 min train ride away). He's planning to go to the autumn open day.

Sammy at Imperial they explicitly said that although some students opt to live at home, the proximity of their home has no relevance to their allocation - he said that the DC parents could live on the same street as the college (!) but they could still have a place in Hall in the first year if they wanted.

Sammy The system of college allocation has changed since I got my offer but I'm 99% sure he will know what college he has been allocated before he needs to decide which offer to accept . I think people tend to find out their college around March time? I don't think they do take into account what type of halls or anything you want though when allocating colleges- they try to balance subjects across the colleges so they will give students their preference college if there is space there in their subject, but if not then I'm afraid you just get placed at a college that does have space in the subject at random, so he could be placed at a college that has only catered accommodation . I don't know if you've already seen this but this link describes quite well how college allocations work: www.dur.ac.uk/collegiate.office/allocations/details/. Once you are allocated a college though and have accepted your offer you are sent a form which asks you to list how much you mind sharing a room on a scale of one to five and similar questions to try and place you in the best accommodation for you within the college. Personally I think it would be a much better system to do what the postgrad admissions do and give applicants a second choice college too so they could be allocated that if available if their first preference is full, so if your DS wants self catered he could have Butler as his first choice and Cuths as his second, but unfortunately at the moment it's just the one preference for undergrads.

All colleges will have sport and music clubs and societies though so that shouldn't be an issue wherever he is allocated . The college with the most sporty reputation is probably Collingwood- I think they have football teams going down to a J team!