Making the Most of Open Days

For starters, use this opportunity to find out more about the programs you're interested in. Talk to staff teaching the course - and students, if possible - to get a better idea of how well it fits your own interests, and the kinds of options and experiences you can expect. This is a good time to ask about how the course is taught - for example, is it mainly through large lectures, or will you also be taught in smaller groups? Is there any group work involved, field trips and so on?

Then check out the other facilities on campus - student accommodation, cafes, shops, bars and so on – and speak to students to get a better idea of what life there is like. Are there any clubs you'd be interested in joining? How close is the campus to the local town, and what is there to do there?

It’s all very well researching universities online, but nothing beats talking to people in person. And that’s exactly what you can do at a university open day. Speak to university students, program directors, student recruitment officers, even the receptionists of different schools and offices on campus. They’ll be able to give you an insight into the university that you simply can’t get from their website.

By checking out the university’s website. They’ll want as many people to come to have a look around as possible so they’ll definitely be advertising it. Keep a watch on your list of university websites to see when they start advertising it. You can also phone the university and ask them when they’re planning on holding their open days, and your school’s careers advisor is likely to have a list of university open days as well.

Travelling around your own country to different universities may be time consuming, but it is relatively straightforward and not too expensive to organize. If some of the top universities that you’re considering studying at are overseas, then that’s rather more difficult!

One option is to visit the QS World University Tour or World Grad School Tour, which bring universities from around the world, to venues across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East. This means you can meet representatives of universities from different countries all in one day, and again, get all your questions answered.