Article: Eight questions you must ask on a uni open day
You can view the page at http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=20101-Eight-questions-you-must-ask-about-the-course-on-a-uni-open-day
New article with some advice for those of you who are going to uni open days
Let me know if I've missed anything
New article with some advice for those of you who are going to uni open days
Let me know if I've missed anything
(edited 8 years ago)
I'm not sure who you are getting to write these 'articles' but this another example of misinformation and reinforced misconceptions about 'what it's like at Uni'. It does TSR no credit.
1) How you are assessed is NOT the first question you need to ask about or to think about at an Open Day!
2) NO University will permit visitors 'dropping in' for a lecture as though its some sort of public entertainment. If you want to get an idea of what University lectures are like then search for podcasts on the net.
3) First year students get obsessed with the idea of 'contact time' as though this is a guide to 'quality education'. THE WHOLE POINT of doing a degree is that you learn how to study on your own. This is not A levels or school. Read pages 19 & 20 of this doc - http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/history/migrated/documents/handbook.pdf
4) See above.
5) ALL courses can and do change in subtle ways. NO University can guarantee that it won't since any staff member could resign/go on leave during the 3 or 4 years of the course, leaving no-one to teach a highly specialised modules(s). What may be on offer to a 3rd year now may well not be when you get there. This is therefore an inane and naive question for any applicant to ask at an Open Day.
6) Ask about an academic's 'experience'! What an incredibly CHEEKY question for any applicant to ask someone twice their age. If you want to be remembered for entirely the wrong reasons this is probably it.
7) If its a Geography library and you are not studying Geography then its patently obvious you wont be using it. Ditto, research facilities for those doing PhD research in Physics. To expect that all a University's 'facilities' will be there for all undergraduates shows that this article was written by someone who has no real understanding of how a university functions - or how it is funded.
8) This a loopy question to ask. What a small bunch of strangers 'thought about a course' they started 3 years ago will tell you nothing about the course you will start in 12 months time. Satisfaction surveys are notoriously unreliable in terms of data gathering and by definition will always be out of date. Read this : https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/satisfaction-and-its-discontents/419238.article. Grilling a current student at an Open Day is also a mindless suggestion - these students have been handpicked because they are 'PR positive'.
Can I suggest you take this sort of poorly researched nonsense off TSR? For a more considered Guide to Open Days there already exists : http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/University_Open_Days, or this : http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/study/documents/open-days.pdf
1) How you are assessed is NOT the first question you need to ask about or to think about at an Open Day!
2) NO University will permit visitors 'dropping in' for a lecture as though its some sort of public entertainment. If you want to get an idea of what University lectures are like then search for podcasts on the net.
3) First year students get obsessed with the idea of 'contact time' as though this is a guide to 'quality education'. THE WHOLE POINT of doing a degree is that you learn how to study on your own. This is not A levels or school. Read pages 19 & 20 of this doc - http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/history/migrated/documents/handbook.pdf
4) See above.
5) ALL courses can and do change in subtle ways. NO University can guarantee that it won't since any staff member could resign/go on leave during the 3 or 4 years of the course, leaving no-one to teach a highly specialised modules(s). What may be on offer to a 3rd year now may well not be when you get there. This is therefore an inane and naive question for any applicant to ask at an Open Day.
6) Ask about an academic's 'experience'! What an incredibly CHEEKY question for any applicant to ask someone twice their age. If you want to be remembered for entirely the wrong reasons this is probably it.
7) If its a Geography library and you are not studying Geography then its patently obvious you wont be using it. Ditto, research facilities for those doing PhD research in Physics. To expect that all a University's 'facilities' will be there for all undergraduates shows that this article was written by someone who has no real understanding of how a university functions - or how it is funded.
8) This a loopy question to ask. What a small bunch of strangers 'thought about a course' they started 3 years ago will tell you nothing about the course you will start in 12 months time. Satisfaction surveys are notoriously unreliable in terms of data gathering and by definition will always be out of date. Read this : https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/satisfaction-and-its-discontents/419238.article. Grilling a current student at an Open Day is also a mindless suggestion - these students have been handpicked because they are 'PR positive'.
Can I suggest you take this sort of poorly researched nonsense off TSR? For a more considered Guide to Open Days there already exists : http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/University_Open_Days, or this : http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/study/documents/open-days.pdf
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