How to prepare to visit a university

Attending an Open Day or Offer Holder Day can be a brilliant way to not only learn more about your subject, find out about student life and accommodation but, more importantly, to see if you like the university and could imagine yourself studying there. If you haven’t been to an Open Day before, you might not know where to start, so we’ve created this guide to help you.

Research

Planning your day will ensure you get the most out of it. Do you want to find out more about your subject and learn about student life, or do you just want to get a feel for the campus first?

Think about questions

There will be plenty of staff and students on hand to talk to, so we’ve included some example questions that you might want to ask to help get you started.

To ask academic staff:

• How many contact hours a week do I have for my course and how is this split i.e. lectures vs seminars vs lab work?
• How are the modules assessed?
• I’m really interested in X topic, is there a module for this?

To ask student services teams:

• For the accommodation team: How much does each type of accommodation cost? How many other people will live in the flat?
• Funding team: Do you have any bursaries or scholarships that I would be eligible for? What happens if I need additional financial support at university?
• Wellbeing support team: What support do I have access to at university? Who can I contact if I’m struggling?
• Students’ Union (known as the “SU”): What does the SU do for students? Do you have a club or society centred around a certain subject?

To ask current students:

• What’s your favourite thing about university?
• Do you have any tips to help me settle in?

A few weeks before

This is when you’ll want to start thinking about how you’ll get to the university. Are there any travel bursaries you can claim to help with the cost? Planning your route and pre-booking tickets can help make the day run as smoothly as possible and reduce expenses. It’s a good idea to check whether there’ll be any travel disruptions, such as engineering works on train lines. And if you have time after the open day, it might help to pop into the local town or city to get a feel for the area.

Also, don’t forget to let the university know if you or your guests have any special requirements in advance of the day. Universities will send you helpful email reminders and provide updates on their website and social media channels, so keep an eye out for useful information ahead of your visit. And finally… enjoy your day!