Open day - so much to do in so little time?!

So I'd like to study French and Contemporary Chinese Studies at Nottingham for 2011 and I've started planning which talks etc that I'm going to attend on the open day I'm going to this Friday. However, it seems like there's so much to do and see and I can't possibly fit it all in one day! I originally made a list of everything I'd like to do so I'll post it here:
-General Presentations (Student life, Accommodation, Money Matters, Studying Abroad, Welcome to Nottingham university)
-Accommodation: University Park Campus, Jubilee Campus, self-catered (Broadgate Park and St Peter's Court)
-Bus tour of Nottingham (I've never been there so I thought it would be a good thing to do?)
-Tour of campus - University Park and Jubilee
-Talks - 'French and Francophone Studies' and 'Contemporary Chinese Studies'.

So my question is, which of these things are really worth going to? I mean, will "Welcome to Nottingham University" be a useful talk to attend, for example?

I just have no idea what I need to prioritise etc and I'm definitely the sort of person who needs to plan things beforehand so if anyone has been before or has good experience of open days then any advice would be helpful! Thanks!

Reply 1

Wanischa

Well, I'd say it would be good to go and have a look at the campus and accomodation.
Personally I only had time to attend one talk, so choose which one you are more interested in.

I choose to look at the Chinese one because I knew for sure that I wanted to do Spanish.
Tbh there is nothing that they said on open day that you can't find on their website anyway.

You won't have time to look at all of them but the thing is when you get an offer. You get invited to another offer holders day anyway.

Anyway have fun :smile:

University of Nottingham

Nottingham

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Reply 2

DarkWhite

There are certain things from there which you could probably do yourself. The Welcome to Notts talk might seem impressive, but there won't be much in it that isn't on the web-site; all the Money Matters info is on the site, and you can look at the SU web-site for Student Life. There's not much in an Accommodation talk, especially if you're going to look at the accommodation separately.

The tour of campus I'm sure you could do yourself, but you wouldn't be able to get into the libraries because they're swipe card access - everything else you could get to in your spare time at the end of the day.

It's totally up to you; I didn't attend an open day before choosing Notts so can't really say what I did, but you can ask unrelated questions and probably still get an answer e.g. you could ask about studying abroad in the student life talk and probably find someone who's done it.

Reply 3

BrenLee

Not all accommodation will be open. The 3 main self-catered sites are (Broadgate, Raleigh and St Peters) and a few halls on University Park are open (Ancaster, Florence boot, Lenton & Wortley, Lincoln and Willoughby).

All other sites/halls are closed and will only be viewable from the exterior.

Reply 4

Antifazian

The money matters, student life and welcome talks tend to be the same at each uni so you could easily miss those out, plus most of that info is available in the prospectus anyway.

Reply 5

SerotoninAddict

When I went, I went to 2 subject talks, had a tour of the campus and checked out the catered accommodation and then went to look at broadgate :smile:

However, I did go with my friends so there was a bit of waiting around until their talks had finished.

I would go look at the catered accomm. even if you are certain about self-catered or vice versa. I didn't give the catered as much attention as I should have and then nearer the application date I was having my doubts. It was then that I realised I didn't really know anything about the separate halls or which ones I'd like best :smile:

Reply 6

haithere

To be fair, you'll probably be really bored after all these talks.

I'd recommend missing out some talks like the introduction etc, because a lot of that information will be in the prospectus etc.

Plus, don't forget, there are plenty more open days later in the year. What I'd suggest doing is going to the important bits which is obviously the academic talks, to find out whether you're interested in the course. You'll also get a general feel for the uni. If, after the day, you feel the course is what you want to do and the uni is a possibility for you, you can go back and look at the accomodation etc another time before making final decisions.

Don't get worked up though. I haven't even looked round the accomodation of my firm choice :P