The Importance of Open Days

I attended two different sixth form colleges, put myself through the UCAS system twice, and currently find myself looking at postgraduate courses in various locations across the country.

While many university websites now offer amazing 360-degree virtual tours of their campuses, halls of residences, and facilities, nothing actually beats visiting them yourself. There are only so many contrasting opinions you can read on forums and websites before you become utterly confused. So avoid the forums, do some light reading of what to expect, and go and visit. Then when you've made up your own mind, you can go back to the contrasting opinions and contrast them against your own, which is the most important.

Don't underestimate the advantage of taking along your parents or guardians either. If they've been to university then they might be able to answer certain questions or offer up their opinions, but they'll also boost your confidence and can be great at starting up conversation with students and staff that you'd otherwise be too nervous to talk to (thanks Mum!).

When you're on the open day, take note of where the university is located. Is it in the city centre, or miles away on the edge of town? Is it a campus university (where most facilities are on-site) or a civic university (where facilities may be spread out across a city)?
Don't just explore the university facilities - make sure you explore the town or city that it's located in as well. Get there early and go for lunch away from the university so you get a feel for the area. Chances are you'll be spending many a night there in the not-too-distant future! Don't worry about a seeming lack of shops - you'll be way too busy to think about shopping in the first few weeks and by the time things calm down a little you'll know exactly where the best places are.

Try and find out what the transport links to the area are like. If you're the sort of person that plans to take regular trips home, then studying in Scotland when you live in Cornwall may not be the best idea. Remember, you'll be there for three years. Although you might feel that you can't wait to leave the nest and get as far away as possible, when times are down and you're missing clean sheets and home-cooked vegetables (two of life's most underappreciated gifts), you'll regret relocating to the back-of-beyond.
Find out what the cost of living is. That doesn't just mean looking at the relative prices of a pint (although that is very important). You'll likely be moving into rented accommodation from your 2^nd year onwards - what's the average rent per week? How much can you expect to pay for utility bills? Are bus tickets expensive? Do most nightclubs charge for entry? Can you get a student discount in most shops?

As you've probably already gathered, perhaps the most important thing to do on an open day is to ask questions. Be warned though - you will be competing against shockingly ruthless mothers that take up most of the allotted time asking hundreds of thousands of questions on their progeny's behalf (all the more reason to take your own).
Important things to find out include:

• Whether the university has a good range of clubs and societies - I was amazed to find societies for ale lovers, Mac users, bell-ringers, Buddhist meditators, and picnic-aficionados, all on my first day.
• What the sports facilities are like - even if you don't play sport now you probably will at some point in your three years and you don't want to find out when it's too late that your university has a gladiatorial table tennis amphitheatre, but only one football pitch.
• How good the library is - by the end of your time at university, you'll know the library better than you know your own skin. You'll have spent many frantic nights wanting to kick the printers to bits when they won't print your dissertation masterpiece, and you'll degenerate into a pathetic caffeine-riddled addict dependent on every measly drop the coffee machine can offer you, collapsing into a sobbing heap of rage and despair when it's out of order.
• What support options there are. Three years is a long time, and while the majority of it will give you happy memories to take long into the future, there will be times when you wonder if you made the right choice. For whatever reason, most people will need someone to talk to at some point and when things get tough - whether emotionally or financially - a professional support network can offer you the reassurance you're looking for.
• Finally, it would be ludicrous to mention all of the above without actually mentioning the main reason you're heading to university - the course. Take along the prospectus to refresh yourself of what the course entails, and quiz lecturers on anything you're not sure of. Useful questions include whether the course favours theory or practical knowledge, how often you can be expected to be tested, if there are any field trips (and if you are required to fund them), and what the pass rates are.

Open days will offer you a world of information that you won't find on a website or in a prospectus, and if you can pluck up enough courage to ask people questions, you'll find that they are more than willing to help. Not only that, but if you do end up going to a university you've visited, you might just bump into someone on your first day that you previously met on the open day - an ice breaker that you will be extremely grateful for upon taking your first steps into adult life.

by Henry Taylor