Which uni rose or fell furthest when you visited their open day?

Oh, man. I went to Teesside for an open day and it was just.... so utterly facelessly grey. A talk with one of the course leads where she spoke so quietly she was barely audible in a room of <30 people. Student rep that walked us round some buildings with visible mold and when we asked "What's there to do?" said "Um.... there's an Asda."
Really so bad lol. I'm sure they have good parts, i'm sure people do have a good experience there! and they did have good facilities in some of the buildings but as a first impression of the place it was pretty dire. I didn't end up applying in the end and used the UCAS slot for somewhere else 😅
By contrast, a place I didn't end up at but did interview for - Falmouth - hosted regional interviews up north for people that couldn't travel to campus. This was hosted inside a sixth form college in Manchester and they set up screens with virtual tours and flew out lecturers and student ambassadors to talk to prospective students. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly helpful and it was a really great thing for them to do - compared to doing an interview over a zoom call it was massively preferable. It was one of only two interviews/portfolio reviews where I received constructive feedback and practical things I could go away and do in order to prepare for the course. I don't know of any other unis that do a similar thing so it was a cool experience and something i'd absolutely credit them for. I'm sure it made a difference to other northern students who otherwise wouldn't have been able to consider Falmouth as an option too. They would've been my insurance pick if I didn't get an uncon for where ended up being my firm.
These were both late 2019- early 2020, for game art/adjacent courses. So very possible things have changed since!

That was an impressive effort by Falmouth. We're visiting there in a few weeks.
Birmingham – high on our list – dropped some distance based on how stressful the parking was and how surrounding areas looked. The student rep who route-marched everyone to a powered-down film and TV department, and who bounded up flights of stairs and only pointed out the lifts afterwards didn't exactly win our hearts. Mine nearly gave out.
Diamond-in-the-rough: People visiting Bath Spa’s main campus, outside the city, may not be aware of its second campus, Locksbrook, an outstanding art and design space much closer to the city centre. We've started judging other uni art spaces against BSU Locksbrook.
Some lecturers just ooze inspiration. Hello, Media Arts department at Royal Holloway – at the end of one sample lecture, I felt like we should have been paying. Last year, after a presentation by a Southampton professor, I was eager to study an undergrad degree in Literature... and I've already got one. However, we've also visited more than one Film department that didn't seem to know what moving pictures were, presenting a powerpoint full of stills. Zzz. Instant fail.

I never visited any of the unis I ended up going to on an open day, which in retrospect I probably should have done to avoid some of the negative experiences I had earlier in my uni career

Were they teaching-related disappointments or accommodation? Teaching can be a roll of the dice, but accommodation feels like an entire crapshoot, definitely 'looked nice in the brochure'. ("Chernobyl looked nice in the brochure" – Victoria Wood).

Neither - for one I hadn't realised part of my course would be taught off campus and the location it was taught at was not great. And if id realised that I may not have chosen it. The other was more to do with the student demographic (and later. Student support issues).

Ah, the 'other campus’ issue. That's probably worthy of a thread in its own right.

IMO, subjects taught away from the main campus – away from student support services, SU and social hub, library, etc – should be charged at a discount, and those geographically removed from all of the above charged at a rate closer to distance learning courses.