If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
University Open Days
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
How many Open days did you attend before choosing which Uni to go to and how well organised were they?
I drove 160 miles to Wales to go to one open day and was kinda
.
I was expecting a tour of the Uni, maybe to see the Library, etc
Instead it was just medium sized room with a few staff members there answering some basic questions, really could have just done that on the phone and saved me a lot of petrol!!
I drove 160 miles to Wales to go to one open day and was kinda
.I was expecting a tour of the Uni, maybe to see the Library, etc
Instead it was just medium sized room with a few staff members there answering some basic questions, really could have just done that on the phone and saved me a lot of petrol!!
Post edited by JustV on
0
Comments
All the other three we where taken on tours of the cumpas and shown around the uni accomondation. In the end is was down to Bradford and Greenwich as I was made to feel welcome at both and I just had a good feeling that I would fit in to life at either.
In the end I went to Greenwich, as I felt I could be really happy there and it was near enough to home for me to travel in daily from home if I could not get a place in halls.
Finally ended up at Huddersfield.
I went to York as a 'friend/family member', and from what I remember there was a campus tour, bus tour of the city, question/answer session, looked at some of the accommodation, that kind of thing.
I went to Manchester, Liverpool, York (again) and Warwick with college, Liverpool was very much a case of subject talks being run throughout the day and just making your own day of it, Manchester the same, York and Warwick offered campus tours and the like. I remember Warwick also having talks on offer about student finance, the SU etc. Don't remember seeing any of the accommodation on any of these.
First time I applied to uni I visited Manchester again and it was pretty similar to the first visit, and went to Oxford Brookes (where I ended up) - there were subject talks, campus tours, talks on the SU and stuff. My mum and dad saw a video of the newest accommodation, but I didn't get to see inside any of them til I actually got there.
This time round I visited York (yet again!) where I had a subject introduction as well as a few 'mini seminars' as a taster session, campus tour (and a pretty good nosy round the accommodation), Hull (Scarborough campus) which was pretty crap I thought - they were running tours and stuff but I basically just turned up for an interview then went off and did my own thing, and I've been to Bishop Grosseteste (where I'm going in September) twice, where there were campus tours, bus tours of the city, good look round the accommodation, library tours, question and answer sessions with specific subjects, financial advisors, everything.
I think Sophia's right about an open day giving you an idea of what the uni is like - student support is a pretty big deal to me (after I dropped out last year and think I got a bit of a rough deal when it came to student support) and it really impressed me at Bishop Grot that there were all these people at the open day to reassure you, inform you, help you out, answer your questions - if they're willing to do that for potential students then it gives you a good impression for when you're actually gonna be there.
I honestly think you just get a gut feeling about a place for whatever reason - the only three I felt really drawn to out of that lot were Manchester, Brookes and Bishop Grot - even after I'd been to York I found myself saying 'well it's a really good course, and the staff all seemed nice enough, and I like the campus and the city, and it's got a good reputation, and I really like it, but...' - there was just something missing that I couldn't put my finger on.
Being where I lived at the time it was quite difficult to just pop on over for one. The school did do a trip to all the open days in Glasgow, mind. However, I didn't even apply to any of those unis so didn't go.
I got that in Leeds, which had the biggest department in the country for modern languages and I thought from that it should be good, lots of options for study, etc. But the open day was quite disorganised and I felt the people weren't very friendly - I'd come a long way and so had a reasonably big overnight bag with me which I didn't really want to drag round the campus all day, but they were very unhelpful about offering me somewhere to store it for the day. And on the campus tour they took us to see some accommodation, fine, but as the tour group was quite large and the room quite small we went inside in two groups... and when the second group came out, the tour had already moved on without them! I just got the impression that they knew they'd get lots of students coming because of the reputation, so they weren't that bothered about individuals who might or might not even decide to go there.
so it seems rather odd that you didnt get that!! i would have been pretty pissed off if i was you and travelled all that way to get there for.. nothing basically!
Glasgow Uni was just sitting in a hall being told about the process of first year - progression into second year. then we were just left to walk around and find our subject departments/ talk to the staff.
Glasgow Caledonian we all lined up, got a prospectus and a goodie bag and we were left to it. I chose Caley since i liked the course better and I liked the fact that they were building a new ICT centre
Some were just a big waste of petrol, but then i chose to go to Lancaster because of what i saw on the day of the campus... definetly worth going along to them in my opinion... the prospectuses can be misleading
I wanted to visit a Bristol open day back in June. I put in a request for some time off about two weeks in advance, so my boss couldn't accuse me of leaving them in the shit. A few days later, he gave me a reply. He wasn't giving me the time off. Therefore, I couldn't go.
Durham's was the best. The night before was spent in college, and they took us all out on the lash. They'd even booked a club out for us. Most fun;)
At Glasgow School of Art you were basically left to your own devices, Edinburgh College of Art had a guide but you were lucky to get any word out of her (?!). The only helpful open day was Dundee University, which I didn't get into. Oh well. These things happen for a reason.
I went to Leeds University and that was it. The course I want to do there looked good and I was impressed with the facilities the uni had to offer. In that case I didnt see it necessary to keep looking around at others.
That's a good idea who did the aster curse and for what course?
How did it work?