Many universities have them and can be a great way to see if you'll fit in and enjoy your time there before you make a final decision.
We spoke with University of Hull's Director of Student Recruitment, Deborah Green, to find what to expect on a university clearing open day and how to get the most out of them.
Transcript:
So if you arrive on a Clearing open day, what can you expect? Well the first thing is it’s a really great thing to do because students and indeed their parents can get the reassurance they need about the choices that you’re being asked to make in a really quite short period of time and we all understand that. You’ll have the opportunity to meet staff, lecturing staff, but more importantly, student ambassadors and certainly for us it’s providing you with that reassurance and all the information that you need in the space of one day. That’s really important to us so we try as far as possible to tailor make your experience.
What that means is the students that you’ll meet, well many of them, have come into the university through the Clearing process themselves so they’ll really understand the worries and concerns that you may have at that stage. Or indeed you may be a student who’s done very much better than you expected and therefore are very optimistic about your choices and they’ll be able to talk to you about that as well.
To make the most of the day it’s really worth thinking about what it is you that you most need to know, particularly any worries or concerns you have. Write them down so that when you’re here you can talk to people about them and we can provide the reassurance that you need. If you had a first choice university that you’re no longer able to go to, it’s worth thinking about what really attracted you to that university and therefore the university you’re visiting will be able to show you what they have that’s either equivalent or maybe even better than your first-choice university offered you, so that'll give you reassurance.
It’s always worth going on the campus tour so you get a real feel for the place that you’re visiting and definitely visit the accommodation so you can begin to visualise what life will be like at that university, what it’s like to work, live and study there and that will help you too. One tip I always give people is to bring a few sheets of paper with your contact details on so that you can pass those to the various people that you meet and they’ll be able to give you any follow-up information that they promised quickly and easily.
And above all, there’s no such thing as a daft question. Everybody wants to welcome you, everybody wants to reassure you and there will be no question you could ask that they won’t have been asked at some stage previously and they will be able to give you all the help that you need to make the perfect choice for you.
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